M. LeBlanc is proud to present the gallery’s second solo exhibition with Chicago-based artist Jonah Koppel. Titled ‘Little Egypt’, the exhibition will present works of Koppel’s that were completed over the past half decade. The title of the exhibition takes its name from celebrated Chicago artist H.C. Westermann’s 1969 sculpture of the same name. The work, which is in the collection of the Art Institute Of Chicago, features a miniature domestic door, stained and completed with hinges and brass lock - the most basic gateway. An inscription on its base reads ‘Little Egypt’ - the name Westermann frequently used in reference to Chicago.

The Ancient Egyptians had a word for where the setting sun goes, the Duat. The Duat is where the dead sun and all deceased people reside. The sun is born and dies every day. The day --life-- is as mysterious as night, when the dead sun transforms itself back into a rising newborn sun. If the Egyptians believed one thing, it was that the sun is life and its absence is death. In developing the exhibition, Koppel suggested that an alternative title might be - ‘You Are Here Now And Gone Forever

“In my paintings the maze is forever, it goes on infinitely, it is the Duat or time itself without the sun. Heidegger, the German philosopher, defined humans as daseins, beings that are capable of contemplating their own existence. In layman’s terms I believe that means some intrinsic part of being human is knowing you are going to die.”

Every culture contemplates where we go after death. In ancient Egypt the afterlife is depicted as a place with the most beautiful visual metaphor, anchoring you back to the most natural cycles of life, day into night, life into the Duat. Much of Koppel's works are simple representations of these season cycles, growths of verdure, undulating waves, and passing, swirling clouds. These are simple subjects that allow Koppel to shape abstract narratives that probe at larger metaphysical concepts and simultaneously contemplate how we understand what the passage of time means in our lives. 

"Little Egypt is Chicago for two reasons. The first is if you grow up in Chicago chances are you were exposed to ancient Egypt at a very early age. I remember my field trip to the Field Museum in 4th grade where I saw my first dead body, an unwrapped mummy, right there behind the glass. The other reason Chicago is Little Egypt is that the origins of the western image come from Ancient Egypt and in Chicago -- we are Imagists." 

Jonah Koppel (American, b. 1978 in Chicago) lives and works in Chicago. Past exhibitions of Koppel’s work include Jonah Koppel (2021) at M. LeBlanc in Chicago, Metaphysical Paintings (2021) at James Fuentes in New York, Jonah Koppel (2013) at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York, Towards a New Impending Idiot Utopia (2011) at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York, NeoCon (2005) at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, and Time and Ebb (2004) at Rivington Arms in New York. Koppel received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001.