Exhibited: Los Angeles, Freedman Fitzpatrick, Superpredators, September - October 2016.

Note: A sublime synthesis of Renaissance painting techniques, gaming aesthetics, and motifs drawn from contemporary life, I know why the caged bird sssings epitomizes the exceptional virtuosity and ethereal compositions that distinguish Julien Nguyen’s remarkable oeuvre. An altarpiece for modern life, the present work depicts a classical portico façade adorned with an ecclesiastical fresco, guarded by lithe young men in billowing red and blue attires. A major early work by the artist and an important corollary to his later portraits, I know why the caged bird sssings sees Julien Nguyen appropriate and queer established art historical motifs, recontextualizing the original sin and the fall of man within his fantastical setting to construct both an altarpiece and tomb for caged desire. Nguyen amalgamates historical iconography and portraits of his contemporary peers to create a captivatingly anachronistic tableau that employs the past as a lens to examine and reframe the present. I know why the caged bird sssings debuted in the highly acclaimed show Superpredators at Freedman Fitzpatrick in 2016, an exhibition that examined power dynamics and volatility in the midst of the 2016 presidential election cycle. Examining themes of power, desire and reverence, Nguyen adopts Old Master traditions by illustrating portraits of his lovers and friends, casting them within a paradisiacal mise-en-scène. Since Nguyen’s seminal inclusion in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the young Los Angeles-based painter has distinguished himself as one of the most exciting painters working today with his contemporary and queer renditions of Biblical and Renaissance aesthetics legacies; in recent years, he has debuted in critically acclaimed solo exhibitions at the Swiss Institute in New York, Kunstverein München in Munich and Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

The centerpiece of the painting depicts a trio of figures set in languid repose, encircled by an elegant serpent forming a seemingly endless swirl around them. In so doing, Nguyen recasts the sensual muses who flank the structure as untouchable objects of desire within the classical narrative of the Temptation of Adam and Eve. Two delicate hands beckon from behind the façade gesturing and seemingly offering the viewer a pair of orchids as they remain trapped behind the architecture. Clad in red and blue attire that conflate nineteenth-century dandy outfits with a decidedly manga style, two lithe young men flanking Nguyen’s prodigious façade take a classical contrapposto stance, akin to homoerotic heroes guarding the hedonistic dream-like setting. Nguyen examines the universal virtues of beauty and divinity, amalgamating prelapsarian classical themes of art history with Manga motifs and elements of the artist’s own biography to masterfully create a timeless dreamscape. As art critic Zack Hatfield has described in Artforum, “some declare the end of t)he world; others make new worlds. Julien Nguyen does a bit of both.” (Zack Hatfield, Openings: Julien Nguyen, March 2019 (online).

The poetic title I know why the caged bird sssings pays homage to Maya Angelou’s memoir by the same name, in which the caged bird symbolizes a desire to be free. Combining the compositions of Early Renaissance painting with the otherworldly quality of Japanese Manga and modern science fiction, I know why the caged bird sssings embodies the deeply personal and intuitive combination of art historical tendencies palpable in Nguyen’s unique artistic vernacular. The mesmerizing shades of ultramarine blue that compose the textured backdrop recall the connotations of the luscious hue employed by Renaissance artists as a symbol of purity, humility and wealth due to the expense of the rich shade. Nguyen adopts imprimatura underpainting techniques within the blue to build up ethereal layers of paint that seem to illuminate and dissolve around his distinctive figures.

“It’s important to me that these are bodies in a state of transformation, whether that’s a sort of suffering or ecstasy. It relates to the religious character of certain ideas that I’m working with, and the fact that it’s a tradition in flux. And the body, for me, communicates that physically and gesturally. I think I may be drawn to certain figures because they express that strange tension of representation.”

JULIEN NGUYEN IN CONVERSATION WITH GIANNA SAMMS, THEGUIDE.ART, 27 JUNE 2021 (ONLINE)

Within the fantastical dimensions and intimate niches of his painterly tableau, Julien Nguyen revisits foundational narratives of Western history and mythology, delicately negotiating omnipresent themes of power, desire, and spirituality in the subjectivity of his contemporary male muses. Made implicit in the present work, Nguyen’s artistic ethos finds deep resonance in the vernacular of Renaissance humanism, particularly as he elicits its latent erotic nuances. Nguyen marries fantastical and classical themes, toying with dichotomously futuristic and historical elements describing, “science fiction mirrors the Renaissance way of thinking about history, using the rubble of the present or the past. These were the things that led me into art.” (Julien Nguyen quoted in “Julien Nguyen on the Renaissance, conjury, and painting himself,” Artforum, 20 July 2021 (online))

I know why the caged bird sssings stands as a superlative embodiment of Julien Nguyen’s signature ability to chronicle modern life with a combination of academic technique, personal iconography and an incredible knowledge of art history. Entwining the personal and divine in an opulent worship of the figure and muse, Nguyen’s I know why the caged bird sssings is a consummate example of the primordial humanist motifs that preoccupy one of the most novel voices in contemporary art. Within the subtle erotic nuances of the present work, Nguyen recontextualizes with a contemporary and queer lens the Early Renaissance tradition in which artists commonly painted their young assistants and lovers. As Nguyen describes of his own art “Reality occurs only in the intimacy of understanding and being understood.” (Julien Nguyen quoted in: J. Shrine, “Julien Nguyen: “Pictures Of The Floating World” Art Observed, 10 August 2021 (online)) A magnificently intimate example, I know why the caged bird sssings embodies Nguyen’s divine painterly tableaus anchored in his contemporary reality and his most celebrated series.