Jason Middlebrook: The Small Spaces In Between

Jason Middlebrook The Small Spaces In Between

Jason Middlebrook // The Small Spaces In Between We use trees to measure our own lives, to anchor our notions of time. To most of us, trees represent constancy and continuity, living giants that persist through many human generations. We want them to achieve maturity; we want them to tower above us. –Helen Macdonald

G

allery 16 is pleased to announce our first exhibition with New York based artist Jason Middlebrook.

This is the first West Coast solo show by the California native in over a decade. His work has been the subject of major exhibitions and public projects around the world, most recently at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary art and Site Santa Fe. The Gallery 16 exhibition will include 20 of Middlebrooks’ signature towering “Plank” paintings. These are geometric abstractions painted directly onto cut trunks from the local mill in Hudson, New York. Middlebrook’s weds the geometry of modern abstraction with the lines of wood grain to, in his words, “create a tension between something organic and something man-made.”

Middlebrook has long been interested in man’s complex and often adversarial relationship with nature.

The straight lines and precise angles in his paintings might be found in math, architecture, and industry more readily than in grassy meadows or dense forests. But relying solely on this sort of dichotomy is limiting. A more nuanced read reveals some of Middlebrook’s geometric patterns are also inspired by nature. Crystals and geodes form important reference points. Chevrons are a recurring motif that simultaneously refer to decorative military insignia and V-shaped, large-scale rock formations. Even Middlebrook’s metallic paints find their referents in the earth, where gold and silver originate.

The distinctions between natural and artificial, order and randomness, and man and Mother Earth are not always clear. But perhaps cloudiness is the point: instead of striving to catalogue and categorize, Middlebrook gives precedence to the feel of grass between his toes and sun on his forehead.

Jason Middlebrook, born in 1966 in Michigan, lives and works in Hudson, New York. Middlebrook has mounted solo exhibitions at a number of institutions, including the New Museum (New York), the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Connecticut), and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. He has participated in group shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Last year he unveiled a major outdoor sculpture commission at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo). Middlebrook’s work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Princeton University Art Museum, among others.

gallery 16 / 501 Third st / san francisco, ca / 415 626 7495 / gallery16.com

Photo by Kerri Hurtado

The Many Nights, 2016 98.5” x 16” x 1” ink and acrylic on Maple

Above: The Small Spaces In Between, 2016 acrylic on Maple 29” x 32.5” x 2” Right: Untitled 1, 2016 acrylic on Walnut 17” x 8” x 1”

The Color of the Grain, 2016 acrylic on Walnut 99.5” x 15” x 1”

We All Want Something That Shines, 2016 acrylic on Walnut 109” x 21” x 1.5”

Rocks and Trees Playing Tag, 2016 spray paint on Maple 92” x 22” x 1”

Nature Doesn’t Stay in the Lines, 2016 acrylic on Walnut 105.5” x 17.25” x 1.5”

Strata Walls, 2015 acrylic on Walnut 30” x 26” x 2”

The Layer Between Us, 2015 acrylic on Walnut 27” x 29” x 1”

Light Way Down, 2015 acrylic on Curly Maple 26” x 21” x 1.5”

Untitled, 2015 acrylic on Walnut 30” x 26” x 2”

White Paintings, 2016 acrylic and spray paint on Butternut 98” x 18” x 1.5” (detail on right)

Blue Threaded Volume, 2016 acrylic on Walnut 104” x 20” x 1.5” (detail on right)

Number One, 2016 spray paint on Curly Maple 21” x 25.5” x 2” (detail on right)

40 Ways to Get Your Groove On, 2015 acrylic on Maple 30” x 29” x 1.5”

Inspired by the Patterns We Can Only See, 2015 acrylic on Walnut 23” x 15” x 1.5”

Growing Up In California, 2016 spray paint and wood stain on Maple 112” x 15” x 1.5” (detail on right)

Golden Divisions, 2015 acrylic on Walnut 22” x 50” x 2”

That’s Like a Bunch of Cliffs Lined Up, 2016 spray paint on Curly Maple 99.5” x 17” x 1” (detail on right)

Four Lines, 2015 acrylic on Walnut 25” x 35” x 2” detail on right

Above and Right: Taken from the Savana River, 2015 acrylic on Cyprus 86” x 10.5” x 1” (double sided)

Above One Big Inspired Mistake, 2015 acrylic on maple 22.5” x 16.5” x 1” Right The Small Spaces In Between No.1, 2016 Acrylic and watercolor on paper 22x30

Above The Small Spaces In Between No.2 2016 Acrylic and watercolor on paper, 22x30

Above The Small Spaces In Between No.3 2016 Acrylic and watercolor on paper, 22x30

Jason Middlebrook’s artwork is available through Gallery 16 Gallery 16 is located at 501 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 Inquiries may contact Griff Williams at 415-626-7495 All images Š Jason Middlebrook gallery16.com

Gallery 16 was founded by artist Griff Williams in 1994. Since then, Gallery 16 and its fine art imprint Gallery 16 Editions has produced exhibitions with over 250 artists and published over 800 prints, artist books, and multiples with artists including Michelle Grabner, Ari Marcopoulos, Jim Goldberg, Colter Jacobsen, Bill Berkson, Harrell Fletcher, Lynn Hershman, Amy Franceschini, William Kentridge, Tucker Nichols, Libby Black, Deborah Oropallo, Jim Isermann, Graham Gillmore, Mark Grotjahn, Rebeca Bollinger, Rex Ray, and Margaret Kilgallen.