Biography
A native New Yorker from Roosevelt Island, Jason formally trained in the theatre
and designed lighting for stage plays, musicals, dance, and jazz concerts in NYC venues, regional summer theaters as well
as national tours to performing arts centers.
Jason’s
main focus returned to capturing images on 35mm film where he abruptly abandoned his blossoming career path and picked up
from promising work begun in his teens. An avid explorer, subject matter fluctuated equally between urban and rural settings
then finishing off decades later with jazz and street portraiture. Jason composed photographs in both black & white
and color dictated by the seasonal changes of natural light fortified with a theatrical sensibility.
On the flip side, Jason’s painting skills were kept
sharp by regularly freelancing as a scenic artist Off Broadway in addition to keeping sketch books on hand while idle in
hotels and airports. In the early 2000’s Jason painted a small number of studies utilizing identical materials to his
current works but confined to linear and mosaic formations.
Always on the go, Jason
concurrently worked as a teaching-artist for public and private institutions. In 2007 he founded the photography program
at the Harlem Children's Zone / Promise Academy then on to A.H.R.C. to establish a studio art curriculum for adults with
developmental disabilities. His years spent in occupational ‘day-habs’ fortuitously lead to the creation of
his first cohesive series of mixed media paintings entitled SLABS: ten freely carved and thickly painted recycled plywood
panels.
Since their debut in 2013 as a solo
exhibition at Topaz Arts in western Queens, these large naturalistic abstract microcosms have shown regularly in commercial
and collective galleries throughout the city. In 2018 Jason was awarded a yearlong residency at Bliss on Bliss Studios which
begat a second solo exhibition through ChaShaMa in midtown Manhattan. Jason is also an active member of the Plaxall Gallery
in L.I.C. which functions as a nurturing arts organization.
Until recently, Jason
had a beautiful industrial sized art studio located just off the 59th Street Bridge, in Queens, which succumbed to a developer’s
wrecking ball; he now spends his days ensconced in his apartment finally producing over 30 years’ worth of photographic
images.
Artist
Statement:
As a painter Jason works unwittingly opposite against a crisp photographic viewpoint
resulting in reactionary arrays of color and reliance on rudimentary forms; elemental materials weathered and decayed outlined
with an artificial vibrancy. His method is improvisational resulting in expressionistic, vegetal and cellular-like formations
constructed with a complete lack of forethought to conclusion rather riding a wave of openness during each stage of fabrication;
random intent proves itself predictable and repetitive.
Surface preparation is somewhat ceremonial as he randomly gouges out trenches or divots replacing the removed
material with a plaster based amalgam. Once hardened, that too becomes eroded and painted. The remaining flat wooden planes
are painted or stained similarly then sequentially sealed, masked and painted over in floating repetitious layers of playful
dominant conglomerations of color.
Someone
described Jason's work as ‘epidermal landscapes’ for there certainly is liveliness to these seemingly microscopic
slices of larger biological or molecular structures. The series entitled SLABS consists of ten uniformed sized paintings plus
one larger prequel bridging the evolutionary gap. Numbers seven and eight morphed from pure abstraction into something floral
like whereas nine and ten became erratic post parenthood. Current paintings are refined: smaller, manageable with several
new pieces produced during long term residencies granted by Topaz Arts and Bliss on Bliss Studios, both located in western
Queens.
