Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Jerkface, a new pop-up at our Maddox Street gallery, titled ‘Baker’s Dozen’, combines the artist’s signature motif, the donut, with inspiration from a variety of legendary TV shows, including The Simpsons, Sesame Street, Family Guy, Calvin and Hobbs, He-Man and Futurama.

Like flipping channels on a Saturday morning, Jerkface’s visuals move across the canvas like familiar figures from childhood cartoons. The origins of his iconic donut motif date back to 2015, when the artist first painted these sweet treats displayed on a truck and drove it around the streets of New York, where it was greeted with much fanfare. ‘Baker’s Dozen’ is the first time in eight years that Jerface has made a series of smaller artworks available to the public.

A New York-based artist who is famous for his playful reimaginings of pop culture iconography, Jerkface’s painting style leans into geometric abstraction, transparency and repetition to stir up feelings of intense nostalgia. Borrowing from cartoon characters, his playful brand of storytelling challenges preconceived notions of recognisable forms to create something new, and inspiring.

Inspired by The Simpsons’ snack of choice, and the history of donuts in New York, donuts are the theme of a series of colourful tondos - a gentle reminder to savour life’s sweetness and relish each moment. The artist’s sugary donuts are joined by four basketball donuts that reinvent this classic glazed treat. In the works, the ball itself becomes a symbol of basketball’s power to bring people together, facilitating human interactions through a shared love of the game.

In ‘Baker’s Dozen’, Jerkface employs his palette of bright pop colours to introduce a new cast of protagonists. In one painting, Cookie Monster appears unimpressed by the snacks laid out before him - a healthy spread of fruit - while another presents a mind-bending portrayal of being inebriated, seen through the eyes of Goofy. In this work, Jerkface’s use of repetition as an artistic device take on a new, surreal quality, with Goofy’s double vision brilliantly captured as multiple shapes and martinis spill out across the canvas.