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Porter Contemporary presents Letters From Home, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Jason Bryant opening with an artist reception on Thursday, April 10, 2014 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.
With the gallery walls pitch black, Letters from Home reflects Jason Bryant's vision of war through his beautiful hyper-realistic black and white oil paintings of classic film imagery merged with iconic visceral skateboard graphics. These paintings capture a range of emotions by literally having the bold colorful painted graphics battle with the lavish classic film imagery on the canvas. The bright, explosive graphics wage war on the canvas with paintings of iconic images from such well-known films as "Suzy", "The Young Ones", and "Flesh and the Devil". Each painting becomes a metaphor for how vastly different pop cultures--film and skateboarding--work together creating these harmonious images that simultaneously show beauty, hope, loss, love, survival and hate ultimately creating a magnification of these emotions. The paintings in this exhibition use the lens of Hollywood and skateboarding culture as a foundation to explore our ideas of hope, longing, loss and how war magnifies these emotions and affects us for generations to come.
Letters From Home is Jason Bryant’s fifth solo exhibition created for Porter Contemporary. Later in 2014, Rocky Mount Arts Center near where Bryant grew up in North Carolina will host his first museum retrospective.
Letters From Home will be on view at Porter Contemporary April 10 through Saturday, May 24, 2014. An evening with Jason Bryant for an artist talk and closing reception will take place on Thursday, May 22, 2014 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.
Jason Bryant, originally from Wilson, NC, currently lives and works in New York City. Bryant graduated from East Carolina University with a BFA and went on to the Maryland Institute College of Art for his MFA in painting. Bryant moved to New York City soon after and began work with such notable artists as Kehinde Wiley and Bjarne Melgaard.
Heavily influenced by classic film, Bryant begins each painting by researching images from cinematic moments or magazine images of interest to fit various themes exploring loneliness, vulnerability and frailty. Bryant renders each image, at first as a pencil sketch on canvas without the use of projection and then by transforming the image through oil paint into a photorealistically and beautifully rendered film still. Bryant, a skateboarder himself, then incorporates signature skateboard graphics or paints in pixilated areas often cropping the eyes or other notable features of each character.
Bryant’s paintings have been exhibited across the United States, Europe, and Australia, are represented by galleries in New York, London, and the Gold Coast, and are collected worldwide. His work has been featured and covered in JuxtapozMagazine, Thrasher (U.S. and France), NY Arts Magazine, American Artist, Ocean Home Magazine, and Time Out New York.
Launched in 2006, Porter Contemporary is dedicated to showcasing emerging and established artists from around the world whose work embodies both skill and risk taking. The mission of Porter Contemporary continues to be based on founder Jessica L. Porter's vision of opening contemporary art collecting to a broader audience. Over the years, the gallery has earned a dedicated following of new and established collectors who value art that pushes boundaries.
In addition to presenting many distinctive exhibitions throughout the year, Porter Contemporary also provides art consultation services, collection management and artwork installation. Porter Contemporary is located in New York's Chelsea district at 548 West 28th Street, just steps away from the beautiful High Line Park -- like the gallery, a place to experience art and life from a new perspective.
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