“Understood in its metaphysical sense, Beauty is one of the manifestations of the Absolute Being. Emanating from the harmonious rays of the Divine plan, it crosses the intellectual plane to shine once again across the natural plane, where it darkens into matter.” —Jean Delville

Jared Buckhiester’s fascinating drawings, sculptures and film of the forgotten and the unchosen, make up the artist’s second solo exhibition at envoy.

Keeping to the integrity and the texture of the paper, Buckhiester’s drawings come out of a visual tradition predating the advent of modern media, when the image carried a world of symbolism, allusions and narrative information.

Each drawing is a tableau vivant from the theater of Buckhiester’s imagination. Androgynous, effeminate youths inhabit an absurdly beautiful world of private emancipation, moral instruction and theological initiation. The house structure plays an important role in the new work, with the homes being as loaded with narrative as the boys are. In a style that seems to parody eighteenth-century French classicism, devoted to rural delights, his draughtsmanship and compositional mastery bring his fantasy-born scenarios to the foreground. The images are at once humorous, provocative, and odd and are reflected in the artist’s rebellion against all autocratic postures and conventionalities.

Buckhiester maintains a commitment to verisimilitude in the details of his works. He combines a nearly photographic realism with a polished idealism that transcends reality, suggesting the essential mystery behind the visible facts and facades.

The porcelain sculptures on display in the exhibition are three-dimensional renderings of groups of figures like the ones that populate his drawings. They are precious memorials of the unchosen that demonstrate a formal boldness.

The artist’s enigmatic film shows a woman on a swing, slowly swinging back and forth. The dark surrealistic imagery combined with atmospheric lighting, flickering lights and extreme close ups suggest transformation and ownership of a journey.

Buckhiester’s work continues to convey liberty and transcendence. It is mythic and tender and remains flawlessly captivating.