Jake Ford—
Unveiled

Living in an increasingly overwhelming digital age, we are bombarded with images and media that serve as reminders that someone is always watching. While social media and the access to a seemingly infinite amount of information has opened dialogues and created communities where people can share positivity and hope, these platforms also have a dark and divisive side. The separation from human contact and anonymity often make it easier to settle into our comfort bubble and attack that which is foreign and uncomfortable. Humans have been conditioned for thousands of years to sort ourselves into categorized parts that perform a specified function for our social machine. If a person breaks the assigned role expected of their form, they are often tossed out or forced into correction. In the past few decades our machine has become more fluid but the overarching rigid binary systems still reign in any person who might try to push the boundaries of their expected form or behavior.Unveiled is my rejection of these binary social systems which tend to control how we view ourselves and those around us. Using imagery and form inspired by nature and unconscious desire, this work encourages the viewer to confront their inner self, specifically the parts we repress and reject. Through confrontations between uncomfortable desire and playful intrigue, Unveiled hopes to inspire an openness where the viewer can release their inhibitions and remove the masks we wear to hide our true selves.

—Jake Ford

Jake Ford (b. 1991; lives in Clarksville, Indiana.) In 2015 Ford received his BFA from the University of Louisville. During his time at Louisville’s Hite Art Institute, Ford studied sculpture, psychology, and art history. Through these disciplines he became interested in gender studies and identity formation which he explored through performance and sculpture. In 2014 he was awarded the Nora Iasigi Bullitt Outstanding Award in Sculpture. In 2016 he was awarded his first solo show at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky titled Let Go, Dive In, Feel Up. Ford has also been invited to local and regional group shows in Louisville, Lexington, and Georgetown, KY along with a second solo exhibition at the Huff Gallery (Form Follows Function, 2017)) in Louisville, Kentucky. Notability, Ford collaborated with the Louisville Ballet’s dancer and choreographer Sanjay Saverimuttu for the 2019 Choreographer’s Showcase to create an interactive and sensorial experience for the dancers and audience. Currently Ford continues his art practice and works at Natalie O Design and O Art in Louisville, Kentucky.

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