EDUCATION AND ARTISTIC BACKGROUND — EXHIBITIONS, RECOGNITIONS

Jason Hallman is a self-made global artist who draws from personal history, nature, architecture and design. His work explores the inward journey of finding home in oneself, and the outward journey of experimenting with diverse forms, materials and methods to excavate deeper hidden meaning. Early in his career Jason launched Area 51, a mid-century modern furniture store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood that was featured in the New York Times, the Seattle Times and numerous magazines, nationally and internationally. In 2008 he sold the store, began painting, and quickly sold his first work.

In 2010, Jason was drawn to Hawaii on a six-month spiritual quest, near the active volcano on the Big Island, another source of inspiration. Fresh from this journey of heart and soul, he returned to Seattle and created his first bodies of work — “Finding Home” and “Excavations” — featured in a solo show at Square Room Gallery, Seattle, 2011. Soon after, he joined with creative partner Stephen Stum to launch Stallman Studio in 2012 and begin their prolific collaboration. Canvas on Edge, their body of work created on Whidbey Island, near Seattle, has been featured in many publications, both nationally and internationally, and is now showing around the world, including in AO Fine Art Galerie, Galerie Bartoux and Galerie Got. While Jason continues creating Canvas on Edge pieces, he simultaneously has his attention focused on his solo body of work: Excavations.

TECHNIQUE AND APPROACH

What you see in Excavations is both painting and sculpture. Each excavated art piece is made by layering twelve individual paintings, with motivation, intention, patience, joy, freedom and love, then carving into the layers to reveal a new work of art. Each layer is a unique ecstatic act, sealed in time by its successor. Carving through the painted sediment and archaeology reveals fragments of history and ancestry. Drawing inspiration from the earth and its layers of life beneath us, and from the sky overhead holding stars, super novas, the ‘big bang’, we feel the motions in time and space that have created us. From this intense energy of moving tectonic plates and exploding stars a new story is birthed. We are the layers of our past, and a continuously new waking form.

ARTISTIC INFLUENCES AND INSPIRATION

Jason’s father was a professional gambler who loved horses and the thrill of risk, with blind faith in what was possible if you do what you love and love what you do. His mother possessed a passion for design. From these early influences, Jason forged the life of an artist who is boldly curious and exploratory, who experiments with the materials at hand – strips of canvas, a broom, a screwdriver, palette knives, chisels – challenging himself to compose then peel away layers of paint as he excavates story, his and ours. Jason is inspired by the work of Andy Warhol, for his big colorful expression of simple objects that people connect with and find familiar and playful; and Gerhard Richter, who uses unexpected objects and techniques, like a squeegee or broom, to make spectacular paintings.

“Curiosity and play lead the way.” — Jason Hallman