Jonathan Brand: One for Another

Brooklyn-based artist Jonathan Brand’s five year rebuild of his 1969 Mustang from scrap metal to “like new” condition has provided the artist with more than just fodder for his latest show. Selling his pony car gave him the financial means to buy his fiancee her engagement ring. Dubbed “The Diamond Project” (or more formally, One for Another), this exhibition brings into question the relative value systems of the individual and his/her culture.

In Brand’s previous solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery New York, he painstakingly traced every nook and cranny of his childhood BMX bicycle with a pantograph-based drawing device that he lovingly called “Battle Axe” to create Fallen – a 1:1 scale MDF replica of the bike.

In this new show, Brand returns to the reproduction by replicating both his original car (from 1:24th scale hobby model parts) and the diamond from the engagement ring (in plywood, enlarged to 7.5 inches). There will also be photographs of the original Mustang – the mementos of his efforts. All these objects remind us that while both paint and memory fade with time, appreciation (in a financial and sentimental sense) provides an appropriate counterbalance to their decay.

Jonathan Brand was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. He completed his MFA at Yale in 2007. This is his first solo San Francisco exhibition.