OLIVER LEE JACKSON: Form Follows Feeling

Lisson is pleased to present Form Follows Feeling, a solo exhibition by Oliver Lee Jackson, in Los Angeles.

September 18 - November 7, 2026

A Bay Area resident based in Oakland, Jackson builds his compositions around the human figure, a recurring presence that underpins his work’s structure. This presentation brings together works spanning several decades of his practice from paintings to a group of marble and mixed media sculptures.

After initially carving marble in Carrara, Italy in the 1980s, Jackson took to sculpting sensuous figures from stone and wood, but often left the unfinished works aside as he ruminated over their final forms. The resulting sculptures are complex constructions of juxtaposed matter, including draped cloth and graphite marks – each medium seeking out the figure contained within.

Figures in flight, figures in shadow, figures in limbo and under duress also pervade Jackson’s new paintings.The fugitive nature of his figuration is mirrored by his non-hierarchical technique of drifting between the use of spraypaint, chalk, enamel and oil stick, as well as the drawn line. His paintings move from the classical to the modern, from sky to earth, all while exploring the emotions of certain poses and bodily contortions.

In both two and three dimensions, Jackson’s figures emerge and recede, generating a vivid sense of movement and depth. Sometimes clearly formed and sometimes fleeting, these collected forms shape a visual language that balances moments of clarity with ambiguity and mystery, inviting viewers into a fluid, evolving experience.