Jay Isaac

Artist's Statement

I decided to give up painting while I was in Spain doing my first comedy routine. I realized that making a painting is very boring and that being a street performer or making something that looks like an antique from the future is a lot more fun. So I decided to try to become a successful street performer in Amsterdam with Jenny Bishop. We did not make much money but got a good art piece out of it. I also thought comedy is a pretty sure way to see if what you are doing is good or not, because it’s pretty immediate and you can’t fake a laugh or a cringe. I really like garbage bags at the moment and have made some costumes and a video out of their black shiny beauty. My parents are antique dealers and I always wanted to make my own antiques, so I made ten of them that will be worth some money some day, in the very, very distant future. I have a lot of paintings that haven’t sold, so I thought I would make signed limited edition prints out of them and put them in shops around town. Right now I have prints in a witches den, a new age / ghost busting shop and a classical Greek music emporium.

Thanks to Xandra Eden for curating this show, Michael Leblanc for editing the videos and Jenny Bishop for her collaboration.

Artist's Bio

Jay Isaac attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Vancouver, 1993-1997 and the Cardiff Institute of Art and Design, 1996, Cardiff, Wales. Recent exhibitions include The Cave and the Island, 2004, at Galerie Kunstbuero, Vienna and White Columns, New York; The Republic of Love, 2004, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto; Maritime Frazetta, 2004, Greener Pastures Contemporary Art, Toronto; New Age Philosophy, Acuna-Hansen Gallery project space, 2003, Los Angeles; The Matlock Juxtapose, 2002, Mercer Union, Toronto; Selling Out and Buying In, 2002, BizArt, Shanghai; Synthetic Psychosis, 2002, Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Toronto; Officina America, 2002, Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna.

Isaac currently lives and works in Toronto.