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Jason Middlebrook

Джейсон Миддлбрук
Falling Water

Jason Middlebrook  Falling Water

source: artspace

Jason Middlebrook gathers his creative inspiration from both nature and technology, transferring their complex relationship into works of sculpture, installation, painting, and large-scale drawing. Despite these various mediums, Middlebrook’s work consistently references art-historical traditions, styles, and movements. For instance, his sculptures crafted from hardwood planks, which he began in 2008 after relocating from New York City to Hudson, New York, feature painted abstractions. They are collisions of nature, art-making, and history that exemplify the artist’s approach.

Born in 1966 in Jackson, Michigan, Middlebrook earned a BFA from the University of California at Santa Cruz before pursuing graduate work at the San Francisco Art Institute. From 1994 to 1995, he attended the prestigious Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. Middlebrook has exhibited his work extensively, including at institutions such as the New Museum in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, MASS MoCA in North Adams, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University in East Lansing, among others. A selection of collections housing Middlebrook’s work include the Denver Art Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Microsoft Corporate Art Collection, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His work will be included in the 2014 SITE Santa Fe biennial.
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source: artsynet

Jason Middlebrook imbues natural forms and found objects with references to the foremost abstractionists of the 20th century. He is best known for the carved and hewn tree trunks he uses as canvases for geometric composition, variously referencing works by Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, or Frank Stella—a jarring yet elegant juxtaposition of natural unpredictability with rigidly calculated forms. Middlebrook has also turned concrete-cast bottles into corner-spill assemblages, and crafted mobiles of wooden scraps that pay explicit homage to the seminal works of Alexander Calder.
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source: dodge-gallery

Jason Middlebrook was born in 1966 in Jackson, Michigan. He received his BFA from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1990 and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in California in 1994. Middlebrook participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York from 1994 to 1995. His work has been exhibited at the New Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; The Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX; Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX; Palazzo Delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Sienna, Italy; Santa Monica Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA; Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC; Wellcome Trust, London, United Kingdom; Museo de Arte de El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador; and the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO. He was the recipient of The Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. His MTA public commission, Brooklyn Seeds, was named one of the Best Public Artworks in the United States. Middlebrook’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, Modern Painters, The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Art Issues, Village Voice, Los Angles Times, LA Weekly, Time Out New York, Time Out London, and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. His work is included in the collections of Addison Gallery of American Art, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Denver Art Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Microsoft Corporate Art Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, Progressive Art Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 2013, Middlebrook unveiled a major outdoor commission at the Albright-Knox Museum. In 2014 his work will be exhibited at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, SITE Santa Fe biennial and Savannah College of Art and Design. Middlebrook lives and works in Hudson, New York.