I had seen the little creatures of Jon Pylypchuk in art fairs and catalogs in the past. I found them likeable enough, even more than that. This afternoon, i went to the Alison Jacques Gallery in London and here they were again. All together in a tender and brutish installation but also on paintings and collages. That’s it. I’m officially besotted.

The title of the exhibition is Just sit back and recount the violence of one year is intriguing. Pylypchuk’s sloppy little elephants, wild cats, snakes and other animals are spending a merry moment at the beach trashing their cans of beer on the sand and snorting voraciously cocaine from the belly of a big (and probably too drunk to notice) walrusy.

The press release says: Working across a range of media Pylypchuk populates his paintings, sculptures and films with a menagerie of dysfunctional furry creatures composed in various tableaux through which the artist examines the human condition. The mini dramas Pylypchuk stages always have wider philosophical implications for our ideas of love, rejection and pain. Typically humorous and cruel the titles of these works express the blackly ironic personal thoughts of Pylypchuk’s protagonists.

Image Alison Jacques Gallery

On view at Alison Jacques Gallery in London through February 21, 2009.

Upcoming: Jon Pylypchuk’s first European solo survey show at the Städtische Ausstellungshalle, Münster (February 6 – May 3, 2009) ahead of his USA solo show at the Blaffer Gallery, The Art Museum of the University of Houston in September 2009.