Jason Karolak

Karolak works in painting and drawing, using bright colors and geometric patterns and structures that overlay one another and alter one’s sense of two-dimensional depth and space. Karolak’s process is layered and time consuming, as he works first from initial sketches on paper that then translate as blueprints for his painted canvases that are either very small or very large, further accentuating the viewer’s relationship to them within the white cube. Within Karolak’s drawn and painted forms is a kind of undulating movement that allows them to somehow appear to be both rigid and fluid at the same time in a way that allows them to have an oddly figurative undertone.

Karolak received his MFA in painting and Drawing from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006 and his BFA in painting from Pratt Institute in 1997. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and is represented by McKenzie Fine Art Inc in New York. He has had solo exhibitions at his gallery in addition to Massimo Audiello in New York and the gallery at Harper College in Chicago. His work has also been included in group exhibitions at Robischon Gallery in Miami, Florida, C2C Project Space in San Francisco and 16 Wilson in New York. In addition to his artistic practice he is currently a lecturer at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey and has also held teaching positions at Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan, and in Chicago at The Art Institute of Chicago, Harrington College of Design and the University of Illinois. Karolak received a 2014 Residency Fellowship from Saltonstall Arts Colony in Ithaca, New York, has worked as a visiting artist at Harper College in Chigago and Illinois State University, as well as at many other academic institutions.

Untitled (P-1317), 2013