Jason A. Maas creates drawings that find the core expression in human body language by carefully removing contextual information and leaving a structure that both illuminates and challenges the content of an image. Negative spaces provide focus, silence, and an openness to allow the viewer to finish the drawing. The new body of work confronts the current understanding of how we view journalistic images of social unrest that proliferate the media, from professional photographs to low resolution cell phone photos.
Born: 1979, Port Jefferson, NY
Currently taking up residence and making art in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, Jason lives and works in New York City.
Education:
MFA 2011 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
MAT 2003 Art Education, Certified k-12 Manhattanville College
BA 2001 Painting, University of Delaware
Florence Academy of Art, summer 2005
New York Academy of Art 2006, 2007
Private studies in the Studio of Alyssa Monks, 2008
Publications:
Certain Curcuits Magazine issue I 2011
Working Class Magazine issue IX, 2009
Grants and Awards:
Merit Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 2011
Merit Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 2010
Travel grant to attend New Orleans NAEA Conference 2008
Residencies: Falcon Community Arts Center July 2001—July 2002
Select Showings:
2013
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
2011
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Collage Arts Festival, Underground Theater for the Arts, collaboration with Lawrence-Herchenroether Dance Company, Philadelphia PA
Part Time Studios, Philadelphia, PA
2010
VWOFFKA sound/video collaboration: “Soundoffka Vol. 2” Philadelphia, PA
2009
Gallery 128 (Juried) Portrait show Philadelphia PA
Amilas Gallery (Juried) London
Amilas (online gallery representation) London (2007-2009)
Alphabeta, Brooklyn, NY
2008
717 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Trump National Golf Course, (Invitational BMEF) Charity Gala NY
Adhoc Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2007
Safe Horizons Charity Gala, NY, NY
2005
Edward Hopper House, (Juried) Focus on the figure, Nyack, NY