Jason Engelund
1971
(USA)
USA
Jason Engelund (b. 1971, California) is a San Francisco-based artist who uniquely merges photography and painting to expand the boundaries of both mediums. His work explores the intersection of psychological and physical landscapes, creating what he terms "meta-landscapes" that investigate themes of perception, memory, and experience.
Education
Engelund holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California Davis and a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction from the California College of Arts and Crafts. His academic background, combined with his extensive experience in arts education and social justice programming, has informed his multifaceted approach to artistic practice.
Inspiration
Engelund's work is deeply rooted in his belief in art's capacity for social transformation. After witnessing both personal and social injustices in his early life, experiences that shaped his artistic vision, he initially channeled his creative energy into developing arts and social justice programs. His photographic work focuses notably on the sun as a conceptual and metaphorical basis of source of light, while his paintings explore the emotive power of color through loose, fluid marks that emphasize a positive, dance-like yet serious approach to human ideals.
"I use photography as a metaphor for the mind’s camera eye and my process is abstraction."
Technique
Engelund's distinctive process involves creating multiple exposures on single frames of film, combining elements from seascape and sun photography. His photographic works serve as metaphors for the mind's camera eye, while his paintings employ vibrant colors and fluid, gestural marks. In both mediums, he creates compositions that lead the eye inward toward rational picture spaces before dissolving into abstracted dreamscapes. His process involves working with both the psychological and physical landscapes to create what he calls the "meta-landscape."
Exhibitions
Engelund has exhibited extensively across major art centers in the United States and internationally. His work has been shown at prestigious venues in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with notable exhibitions at Van Der Plas Gallery in New York City and Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles. His international presence includes exhibitions in France and India, demonstrating the global appeal of his unique artistic vision.
Awards and Recognition
Engelund has received notable recognition for his work, including the Sustainable Arts Foundation Individual Artist grant (2012) and the Crayola grant for arts education (2017). His commitment to arts education and social justice has been acknowledged through various grants and awards throughout his career.
Collections
His work is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art, as well as numerous private collections.
Representation
IdeelArt has been promoting Engelund's innovative work since 2021.
