FRIEZE LOS ANGELES: LENWORTH MCINTOSH

OCHI is pleased to participate in the fifth edition of Frieze Los Angeles, to take place at the Santa Monica Airport from February 20 through 23, 2025. The gallery will feature a solo presentation of new works by Jamaican American artist Lenworth McIntosh in Stand F 07 in the Focus Section, curated by Essence Harden, Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager of the California African American Museum and co-curator of the 2025 Made in L.A. Biennial at the Hammer Museum.

Lenworth McIntosh makes semi-autobiographical paintings that observe identity-forming moments in scenes painted at dawn and dusk. Located in verdant interior Jamaica, this series explores a retrospective visit to the sites of McIntosh’s childhood memories. Tall figures stand as the influential adults from McIntosh’s childhood, towering in memory of loyal, church-going grandparents dressed in their Sunday best. Casually dressed community members lean against the wall while lingering inside a local shop on a weeknight evening, greeting one another and exercising collective care. A young boy in the paintings moves through the world looking up at adults, not questioning the rules. Recalling the different elevations of his childhood–sea level, his inland home, and his uncle’s farm high in the hills–McIntosh remembers looking down on his home and the hillside foliage from above. Having lived in Dallas-Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Oakland, and now Los Angeles, McIntosh uses the concept of bird’s eye view to envision the multitude of forces that shaped his mind, body, and spirit and impacted his outlook on life.

Despite gaining independence in 1962, the impacts of colonialism on Jamaica appear in McIntosh’s memories and are represented in gestures and landmarks throughout his paintings. YorkCastle (2024), highlights recollections of religious spaces, a large outdoor clearing is enclosed by a weathered stone wall with a church on the far side of the field. The wall’s chalky paint has blued and chipped, signifying the passage of time and the lasting impact of missionaries. A long, winding, dirt road leads up to the family, dressed for church, and a young boy gazes out. Like this young boy, McIntosh often found himself an observer. Whether noting the decaying church gate, the mismatched paint patches on a storefront, the comfort provided by a dimly lit room, or the melancholy spurred by twilight hours, observation has become a central element of his practice.

McIntosh recognizes that his life has always existed in two worlds. In Jamaica, one was the local, native culture and one was heavily influenced by colonialism. Upon immigrating to the United States, his life was bifurcated again. Activities such as taking care of animals, eating off the land, and scheduling one’s day between sunrise and sunset stood in stark contrast to apartment complexes, concrete, streetlights, and the vast supermarkets of Texas. McIntosh carries this concept of dual worlds into his paintings, dissecting the layers of his identity. Days and nights contrast, but they overlap in mood, color, and form. Rusty reds emerge in recollection of iron-rich soil, freshly rain-soaked greens evoke the hills and forests, and blue mountains reveal the melancholic views associated with daybreak and twilight hours. Warmth in both spaces is found in the low light. As McIntosh comments, “Look long enough and your eyes will adjust.”