Bio
Jason Garcia is an American interdisciplinary artist based in Detroit making work about the construction of cultural symbols and patterns. Paintings, sculptures and tattoo contemplate moments of perpetually defining our environment and choosing what it means to be alive in it. Concerned with the human behavior of declarative ideation, Garcia’s work attempts to serve as a type of observational reference for potentially mapping a part of our communally manufactured narrative. Simply put, the work is just a visual outcome of his foundational inquiries of what it can mean to be human and what that can potentially look like. He has created work for national and international partnerships with multiple organizations including the Social Public Art Resource Center, Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, Rainforest Action Network, Playing For Change, Project Ahimsa, University of Colorado Art Museum, Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, Conscious Alliance, Color Outside The Lines, Smithsonian Sikh Heritage Foundation, the NFL and Fox. Fundamental to his character and his process, Garcia continues to champion advocacy and authentic connection to community. Tattoo is a way for Garcia to hold a space to further that connection with individuals that support his practice and work.
Artist Statement
Everyone that has ever existed defines the space around them, a developmental creative process that more often than not is taken for granted. Humanity assigns meaning to all objects and circumstances. Through the actions of observation and translation that meaning is initially founded and, ultimately, filtered through each individuals autobiographical experience. Confident of our empire over this world, historically, wars are waged, religions are founded, lovers embrace, civilizations are created and ecosystems destroyed all because of that given meaning. That fabricated understanding creates universes within that habitually seek affirmation through repetition. Generational patterns appear. Relational connections are forged. A story is told.
Although, I will be the first to admit to experiencing a rush of dopamine during the art making process that, at times, can result in a temptation for me to tell a story that suggests my work can hold some overarching transformative space where “the other” dissolves, separation becomes an illusion, distances between multiple points are erased and all becomes clearly connected in omnipotent union, there is no romanticized self-proclamation of mysticism or universal alchemy presented here. The paintings. sculptures and tattoos are merely objects, layered paint on a surface, ink in skin, gradations of materials organized and assembled in a space, attempting to explore, document and record moments within the process of storytelling. Pragmatically speaking, the work is only the result of my endeavor to try to make some sort of sense of what it means to be human in our world, reflections of a story. Our story.
Contact
For inquiries into tattoo, original, commission or special project acquisitions please email j@jasonalbertgarcia.com
