Jason Engelund
1971
(USA)
USA
Jason Engelund (b. 1971, California) is a San Francisco-based artist whose work in painting and photography explores the intersection of psychological and physical landscapes, creating what he terms "meta-landscapes" that investigate themes of perception, landscape and transformation.
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 and personal
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 are
inspired by his research in philosophy and explore the emotive power of color and symbol
to visually narrate humane ideals in abstract compositions.
"Photography means drawing with light, and I photograph the Sun, drawing its light with the light itself. In the land and seascape I saturate colors and create the tone of experience by performing the image capture not in traditional photography’s decisive moment, but instead in what I call a visual time signature."
Technique
Engelund's distinctive process involves creating multiple exposures on single frames of
film, combining elements from land, seascape and sun photography. His photographic
works serve as metaphors for the mind's camera eye seeing the transformative power of nature. His paintings employ vibrant colors and fluid, gestural marks. Influences from art history including orphic cubism, abstract expressionism and the postmodern can be seen in his color and composition. Engelund’s aesthetic sensibility ushers in a new style in art, Metamodernism.
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-landscapes".
“To paint so that the feeling is strong in the viewer is to guide pigment, binder and canvas to have the tactile material evoke visceral, organic metaphoric imagery. Painting is for me telling a symbolic story that is, with a moral compass, navigating the mystery of color and image. “
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.
