BM: You’ve had some exciting shows recently!
JC: Yes, there was a big group show about female surrealism. The older generation—Louise Bourgeois to Dorothea Tanning. The newest generation of surrealist painters was in it too—a little bit of me, Loie Hollowell, and Sascha Braunning. Thirty to Forty artists were in it, so it was a big show. I was so excited when I heard about it: “White Cube?! Am I reading this correctly?!” I couldn’t believe it. It was really exciting. I’m really excited. I’m also excited about my show at 106 Greene that ends November 5th.
BM: Amazing! I really like the food paintings that you’ve been doing. They’re really interesting. I love this tart.
JC: Yeah, I tend to do more anthropomorphized things. I objectify women and anthropomorphize objects—like the fish or the tart. I think it relates to what I’ve been working on, which is the body. I used to paint more internal landscapes. The paintings were imaginary worlds and included lots of guts. I really love them. I don’t know if you know my older work? But I felt like I had to transition and start to paint the outside world. I choose objects that give you a door to enter the inside world of the body. The paintings are still very stylized and imaginary, but more about the body now—inside and outside. Food for example, is what you put inside your body to process nourishments. The tart also sort of looks like a slice of vagina.
BM: Yes! That is totally where it went with the tart. The hair is very present in it too.
JC: Exactly. I’m trying to make it look strange. So shape-wise, I think I’m going to actually do a few paintings like the one of the tart. There are a few things I’m not happy about with this one. But that’s ok. From one painting to another, it will evolve. I'll try to improve on the concept in the next one.
BM: Yeah, perfect starts don’t usually happen.
JC: I have stopped wanting to make a piece that says it all. You know? Sometimes making mistakes is important. If you try to put everything into one painting, that’s when you get stuck. You can never remain at the same level. You have to evolve. The stakes are too high, so you can never achieve your ambitions otherwise. This painting is imperfect in its own way, but I’m going to try to say something new in the next one that I couldn’t with the first one.