Jack Early
Unitled Art Fair, Solo Booth Presentation
December 2 – 7, 2025
Ocean Drive and 12th Street
We are pleased to present Jack Early at Untitled 2025. In this presentation we are carried back to his youth and a fantasy world he built to cope with his feelings of being different. He found grace in the tubular world of "entertainment"—figures from TV that gave a form of escape or even solace. One of the shows that captured Early was Hollywood Squares.
The familiarity and entertaining flamboyance showed an all-out, no-care-in-the-world bond that made you want to be part of this constellation of entertainers. As a look back on this memory, Early painted circular wood panels measuring 12 inches, depicting portraits of these stars. The depictions have a clear nod to the portraiture of Al Hirschfeld and emphasize their subjects' entertainment quality. Like Hollywood stars, these circular paintings become a testament of time.
Early expands this nostalgic world with three mock make-up mirrors all created in 2025, composed of wood and enamel paint, that have a Richard Artschwager tone of humor and each iteration has a brightly colored characteristic. The red, white and blue is titled Liberace Make-Up Mirror, recalling his patriotic Rolls Royce and the vaudevillian showmanship that made Las Vegas synonymous with glamorous excess. Judy Garland Make-Up Mirror celebrates a beloved icon within the LGBTQ world, its structure ringed with a rainbow array of lightbulbs—a visual momentum to her enduring status as an outsider force within the industry.
Of course, Lucille Ball appears in her own mirror, embodying the overdramatic humor that inspired countless performers in clubs and on stage. But it was her grounded authenticity when asked about her iconic status that gives the work its title and its heart: "Now can you knock it?"
The booth closes with a miniature mockup of the Hollywood sign, reimagined with Jack Early's name emblazoned in lights and positioned on a purple stand. It is the perfect wish of many artists—to just be seen, and a poignant way to look back on yourself and say, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." —Dr. Seuss
