Jason Garcia: Atlas

LOCATION: Alto Gallery - 1900 35th St, Suite B

CATEGORY: Art Events

PAST DATE AND TIME:

• Fri, Apr 7, 2023 - Sat, Apr 29, 2023  

Join us at Alto Gallery First Friday April 7, 6 - 10 PM for the opening reception of Atlas, a solo exhibition of works by Jason Garcia. Artist in attendance. On view April 7 - 29, 2023.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Everyone that has ever existed defines the world around them, a creative process that more often than not is taken for granted. Humanity assigns meaning to all objects and circumstances. Through observation and translation, meaning is founded in the interior stories of the autobiographical experience. Historically, wars are waged, religions are founded, and lovers embrace, all because of the power to create meaning. That fabricated understanding, a hermetic mythology created by a universe within, seeks affirmation through repetition. Patterns are forged. A story is told. For me, it’s tempting to tell one where “the other” dissolves, separation is an illusion, all is connected, and diversity is celebrated. After all, we are all storytellers. I am driven to navigate and address that manufactured and assembled terrain.

Atlas explores the human experience of assigning meaning to objects, the relationship of the viewer to my public work, and hermetic conversations within the work itself. Paintings reference my murals across Denver. Inspired by an indigenous motif found throughout the Americas, traditionally woven Ojo de Dios were installed at work, in a home, or along a path as a blessing to request guidance. While painting those murals, it has become clearer that the meaning of blessing and guidance are autonomously created through the omnipotent filter of the autobiographical experience. Potentially separate from fact, each transient viewer governs their own truth, a definitive uncertainty. As a result, the Ojo de Dios pattern distorts and transforms, becoming a tapestry of sorts. The paintings record an ideological landscape that’s collectively traversed. A warping topographical repetition of color gradation distorts. Similarly, Street View images of the murals are sampled and remixed. Pigment collages on silk document a singular moment within the experience of viewing a mural. Draping silk emphasizes a sentiment of the changing same, the meaning of an object transforming over the course of time. Atlas is a catalog of attempts to contribute to mapping a landscape we collectively navigate together.

BIO

Jason Garcia is a muralist and interdisciplinary artist making work about the construction of cultural symbols and patterns, object-oriented ontology, a dialogue between monuments as public art and the transient viewer, and the mapping and navigation of an ultimately fabricated narrative. Garcia has worked nationally and internationally with multiple organizations including the Social Public Art Resource Center (CA), Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center (CA), Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (CA), Playing For Change (South Africa), Ahimsa (India), The University of Colorado Art Museum (CO) and The Smithsonian Sikh Heritage Foundation (DC). Fundamental to his art process, Garcia champions a stalwart connection to community by being a devoted resource. His work has been featured in publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle (CA), Popeye Magazine (Japan) and The Oregonian (OR).

Opening Reception: First Friday, April 7, 2023, 6 - 10 PM
Closing Reception: Saturday, April 29, 2023, 6 - 10 PM

(Image: Elder, Oil on canvas, 24”x30”, 2023)