Summer Produce
Jason Willaford
October 12 - November 16, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 12, 5:30-8 p.m.
Following the success of this year’s After A Long Pause… exhibition, Jason Willaford returns to present
his most recent vinyl constructions. Summer Produce includes work completed in the artist’s Florida
studio this summer as well as pieces finished in the weeks leading up the exhibition. Taking the
momentum from his April show, Willaford has employed new techniques and materials to continue
pushing his approach to working with this unique medium.
Willaford’s spring exhibition presented many breakthroughs for the artist. Through a meticulouslyhoned
additive and subtractive process that involves cutting, sewing, and painting with markers, spray
paints, and latex paint, Willaford used vinyl to create intricate wall sculptures. Willaford showcased his
formal training as a painter, altering the vinyl surface with vibrant hues of color to transform one’s initial
reading of the material. The work in Summer Produce continue along this trajectory and, most notably,
introduce the use of Flashe paint which offers sections of intense, velvety matte color. Juxtaposed
against other finishes like metallic paint marker, the Flashe paints contribute to achieving a surface that
is rich with depth.
One of the biggest developments that the spring exhibition begot was the ability of each sculpture to
exist either alone as a single organism or as part of a larger conglomerate when joined with others.
Willaford has ran with this advancement to create the centerpiece for Summer Produce, presenting a
wall-sized installation of vinyl structures. Each individually created, the sections have been arranged on
site to create a unique work that has the potential to be rearranged and reconfigured any number of
ways. This approach is a macro version of Willaford’s studio practice in which he produces numerous
smaller components that get organically grouped and sewn together to form complete structures,
examples of which also accompany the installation. Constantly inspired by dynamic systems of growth
found in nature and science, this installation is a fitting progression for Willaford.
Summer Produce serves as a testament to the versatility of Willaford’s objects. From the small and
contained to the large and conjoined, each form is created from an inquisitive mindset that invites
limitless possibilities.
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Jason Willaford received his BFA from Florida State University where he studied under Jim Roche and
Color Field painter Trevor Bell. After years as an encaustic painter in Marfa, Texas, he shifted his focus to
vinyl-based constructions, which were exhibited in a solo exhibition at Oklahoma Contemporary in
2014. In the summer of 2015, Willaford participated in a residency at the former home and studio of
Elaine de Kooning in East Hampton, NY and presented the resulting body of work in a solo show at
Dallas Contemporary that fall. In 2019, Willaford was commissioned by Green Box Arts Festival in
Green Mountain Falls, Colorado to create an outdoor billboard installation, joining artists like Spencer
Finch who have also completed the project. His work can be found in over 200 private and the public
collections, including Bloomingdales, Toyota, and Neiman Marcus, among others. He lives and works in
Dallas, TX.
Price
- FREE!
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