Bad Painting Archive

 

Bad Painting is an ongoing series of faux-naïf style artworks addressing real human atrocities. Each piece features a short, matter-of-fact title drawn from headlines, news reports, official statements, or personal accounts - merging image and language to create a raw, uncomfortable record of contemporary life.

 

Concept

The project is driven by personal emotion: anger, sadness, dismay. These feelings are not ideological; they are human reactions to events I encounter daily. Painting allows me to process and understand them - both intellectually and emotionally.

These are not “political paintings” in the conventional sense. They do not take sides or instruct the viewer. Instead, they present a series of brutal, factual fragments - and ask the viewer to look.

 

Text as Image

Language is not an add-on. It is part of the work. The titles are built from media fragments - sometimes from tabloids, sometimes from formal reporting or personal testimony. The fusion of image and language invites a double reading: visual and linguistic.

 

Medium & Format

Paintings 1–357 were created using acrylic on canvas - chosen for its speed, plasticity, and surface tension. From 358 onward, I work with oil paint, which I now prefer for its richness and depth.

All paintings are the same size: 22.7cm x 30.5cm - roughly the dimensions of a laptop screen. The faux-naïf style is intentional: crude, ugly, and fast. It reflects the unease, chaos, and moral ambiguity embedded in the subject matter.

Contact / Catalogue

For an overview of the project in a more structured form, I’ve created a short flyer catalogue. If you would like to receive a copy, or if you're interested in exhibiting or discussing the work, please feel free to get in touch.

 

Quotes

"Jay Rechsteiner mines black gold – the seam of hate that runs through all of us that can manifest itself in public, if we don’t look out. And we have to look, and look out.  This is the real thing, art seeing human nature clearly as it is, not art imitating art, no conceptual illustrations of what we would like to be, no wishful thinking, no wokery.  His Bad Paintings are beautifully done – eyes turn into fangs and hate and fear stabs out of them, Dix with a dash of Ensor re-ignited now.  This is not art to hang in the home, nor invest in; it’s no comfort zone. Jay has re-invented public art in our times, art that warns as it sings, to be shown in galleries everywhere."
- Julian Spalding, former director of Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow Art Galleries, art historian and writer

more quotes available on request