Jason Middlebrook
Biography
Jason Middlebrook (b. 1966 in Jackson, MI) is a painter, sculptor, and mixed-media artist whose artworks range from intricate paintings to site-specific installations. Middlebrook’s work is a meditation on nature’s power and man’s interaction with it. He pays deft and sensitive attention to the ways we use, overlook, desire, and adore the world around us.
He received his Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA. He completed an Independent Study Program at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
Select solo exhibitions include Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; David Smith Gallery, Denver, CO; Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA; Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA; LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, MA; Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY; Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy; Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX; and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY.
Middlebrook’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY; Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Parco Archeologico di Siponto, Siponto, Italy; Peters Projects, Santa Fe, NM; Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; and the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, among others.
His work can be found in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Marte Museum, San Salvador, El Salvador; Redmond, WA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; NASA Art Program, Washington, D.C.; New Museum, New York, NY; Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; US Embassy, Podgorica, Montenegro; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
Haystack Perspective
A mixed-media artist to an incredible extent, Jason Middlebrook works with steel, glass, ceramics, acrylic, wood, and paper to produce sculptures, paintings, and site-specific installations. Wood grain and graphic patterning are often the focus of Middlebrook’s work. Meandering lines and geometric shapes work their way across the smooth surfaces of paper or wooden planks, counteracting the raw and organic forms of nature he depicts. The work is an exercise in control and restraint. Straddling abstraction and landscape, Middlebrook acknowledges and pays homage to movements in art history as well as the environment from which his frequent canvases grow.