Ryan Le is pleased to announce Dig It, an exhibition by artist, inventor and filmmaker Gabriel Lester (b. 1972). The multimedia installation assembles an interconnected series of works that pay tribute to the pioneering American jazz legend Thelonious Monk and his longtime friendship with jazz patron Pannonica “Nica” de Koenigswarter. This is Lester’s third exhibition at the gallery.

Approximately 20 minutes long, Dig it (2023) presents a fictionalized retelling of the relationship between Nica and Monk, as he lived with her in his final years. In the film, Nica leads us through a nostalgic collage of shared memories with the musician. Represented in the dazed state that overcame him later in life, the film chronicles Monk’s final “dream” (a state which recalls Monk’s Dream, one of his most famous albums; and the onset of his likely undiagnosed mental illness). Referring to the film as “sculptural cinema”, Lester engages elements from his broader art practice – for example utilizing animation and computer-generated images, or filming models to re-create larger-scale scenes – and incorporates multiple interpretations of Monk’s original jazz standard Pannonica.

In the series of three inkjet prints, Lester’s tightly cropped compositions depict a record player whose cartridge and stylus have been replaced by a Bucculatrix pannonica moth, from which Nica’s name was derived. By adding a layer of velvet through the process of silk screening with flocking (powdered felt), Lester embellishes the surface with a sensuous texture alluding to the tactile experience of petting a cat or pinning a moth.

A continuation of his earlier cucoloris works, Lester also presents a series of six images printed on aluminum. Lester was able to look through the family’s personal archives in Paris and source Nica’s original photographs of jazz pioneers from the 1950s through the 70s. Creating manipulated reproductions with overlaid shadows, Lester employs the cucoloris technique used in cinema, which projects light through cut-out cardboard, branches or fronds to simulate shadows. Reminiscent of leaves, Lester’s “shadows” evoke a sense of viewership from amongst vegetation, subtly conveying the presence of nature in each scene. Lester says, “There is an inherent jazz within actual nature – with insects, shadows and trees. In a way, I’m projecting the elements of the film back onto Pannonica’s photographs. It is as if nature has cast itself over her images and her life”.

Alongside the two-dimensional works is an illuminated installation of custom-made Edison bulbs, each communicating a message through the cursive twirls of its filament. The bulbs, presented in small clusters, depict various wishes from some of jazz’s most iconic musicians. Throughout her lifetime, Nica met nearly every acclaimed jazz artist and famously asked each of them the same question: what were the three wishes they had for life? These wishes are collected in her posthumous book Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats, a text which catalyzed Lester’s fascination with Nica and her deep engagement in the jazz scene. When reading the book, Lester was touched by the repetition of simple, human wishes such as those for health and happiness, and felt inspired to share this beauty and love with his viewers.

From an imaginative narration of Thelonious Monk’s final days, to cinematic imagery made tactile, to recreated vintage imagery and new-media light texts, Dig It coalesces shared dreams into evocative and diverse poetic forms. Lester’s overarching narrative captures not only the arc of a mythologized friendship, but also the energy of the familiar, nostalgic rhythms of jazz.

Gabriel Lester (b. 1972 Amsterdam, NL) is a multimedia artist and inventor, internationally recognized for his conceptual films, sculptures and installations. Drawing on music, experimental cinema, literature, and architecture, Lester produces immersive environments or experiences that reject categorization or narrative resolution. His work is concerned with challenging our preconceptions of who artists are and what art looks like.

Lester attended Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunst, Amsterdam. His work has been included in important international events such as the Momentum 10 Biennial, Norway; the Quebec City Biennial, QC; Busan Biennial, Korea; Sculpture in the City, UK; Groninger Museum, Netherlands; Marrakesh Biennale, Morocco; Sydney Biennial, Australia; Venice Biennale, Italy; documenta 13, Germany; and São Paulo International Art Biennial, Brazil, among many others. In 2024, Lester’s work was the focus of a major solo exhibition, Gabriel Lester: Odeon, at the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, TX. Recently, his work has also been featured in group and solo exhibitions at the Bonn Bundeskunsthalle, Germany (2024); National Holocaust Museum, the Netherlands (2024); Stedelijk Museum, Alkmaar, the Netherlands (2023); Graz Neue Galerie, Austria (2022); Electricity Factory, Netherlands (2021); and SCHIRN Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany (2020), among others. Lester’s work is held in the collections of 21CMuseum, KY; 798 Art Zone, China; Centraal Museum, Netherlands; CitizenM, Netherlands; MUDAM, Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Netherlands; Museum De Paviljoens, Netherlands; Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands; and the Rabobank Art Collection, Netherlands.