HARRISON, NY.- The Art Gallery of the Harrison Public Library opened solo exhibition featuring artist Dr. Alan M. Jacobson, M.D., on view April 2 – April 30, 2016, with an opening reception Saturday, April 9, 2:00 – 4:00pm. The work includes depictions of imagined people and landscapes.

Dr. Alan M. Jacobson’s artistic interest has been drawn to representations of imagined people, landscapes, and abstractions rendered in highly expressive ways with wood and paint. The images emerge spontaneously, often without plan, as a synthesis of emotional life, social concerns, and work as a professor, psychiatrist and neuroscientist studying the impact of diabetes on the structure and functioning of the brain.

Dr. Jacobson’s figurative paintings frequently depict isolated individuals, sometimes trying to make contact and/or comfort one another. The subjects are usually shaped and placed in awkward positions. Unusual color combinations are used to enhance the intensity of each situation. Often he paints only part of the human figure, with a focus on eyes and hands as the parts of bodies that most capture emotions. He may decrease the size of the figures or remove them completely to access the universe beyond and convey a dialogue between its strange beauty and the world we inhabit.

Dr. Jacobson’s typical medium is oil paint and plywood sheets, wood planks and MDF board. Sometimes the ideas develop for paintings at a lumberyard where he chooses wood based on the images that can be seen in the grain. He applies paint thickly and quickly, pushing himself to get the paint out in a torrent to escape conscious oversight. He also drips, pours, and applies pieces of encrusted paint and other substances to create depth and texture. His paintings are framed with construction grade lumber, metal strapping and other common building materials to provide a contrasting structural environment.