Have you met…Jason Karolak?

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and other I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Jason Karolak, and he was recommended to me by Matthew Neil Gehring.

Untitled (P-1301), 2013, oil on canvas, 85 x 75 inches

Jason Karolak was born in 1974 in Rochester, MI.

He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Pratt Institute in 1997 and a Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. Karolak has had solo exhibitions at McKenzie Fine Art (New York), Massimo Audiello (New York), and the Gahlberg Gallery (Chicago), and has participated in group exhibitions at Kavi Gupta (Chicago), TSA (Brooklyn), and Devening Projects (Chicago). He currently lives and works in Brooklyn and is a Lecturer in the Art Department at Drew University.

Artist Statement:

“I am invested in the fundamental materials and languages of painting, and take very seriously the process of building form and space. Largely my studio days are spent thinking about the formal elements of the paintings—line, geometry, space, and color. But this is a starting point, not a reductive location at which to arrive. I am more interested in abstraction as a porous language, one that has the ability to gather and absorb. I want to tweak or bend the geometric so that it feels organic. More malleable and relaxed. And I want the architectonic framework to feel more lightweight. I consider what I can bring into the work implicitly, such as light, heat, weight, even sound—elements from my experience. So the painting, and by extension the studio, becomes this place of filtering, or distilling.” JK

Untitled (P-0911), 2009, oil on canvas, 75 x 85 inches

Other material relating to Jason Karolak:

Studio Critical: Jason Karolak.

Painters’ Table: Jason Karolak @ McKenzie Fine Art.

Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Jason Karolak at McKenzie Fine Art.

Thoughts That Cure Radically: Jason Karolak at McKenzie Fine Art.

If you liked this introduction check out the Previous and Next.

Thursday evening studio photograph.

Long Series #1348.

#1348

Have you met…Melanie Parke?

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and other I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The artist I’d like to introduce is the Painter Melanie Parke, and she was recommended to me by Julia Swartz.

The Subway Musician
2011
oil on canvas
36″ x 36″

Artist Statement:

“I craft structures on the surface to reference a lush and gorgeous assemblage of time.
Painting is a pleasure seeking process for me, and abstraction a vehicle with which to think. My paintings are provoked by romantic notions of idyllic natural environments that sometimes scuffle with urban anxieties. The paintings are taken to abstraction, memory, and non objective imagery. I set up the space with gestural and heavily speckled marks that are lushly textural and intuitively applied to the surface. Then slowly build. I choose colors to depict concise temperate or extreme sensations. Specific interiors and landscapes are often implied; abrupt shifts in mark making can question if such a place exists. This is a way of establishing a perceivable memory while washing it away at the same time.”

Red Bowl
2012
oil on canvas
24×36

Other material relating to Melanie Parke.

Hyperallergic: Making an Artistic Life…

ArtSlant: Melanie Parke.

ArtMail milwaukee: Melanie Parke.

If you liked this introduction please check out the Previous and Next.

Long Series #1347.

#1347