JASON SAAGER

Life

Jason Saager was born in 1982 in Arizona, USA. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007 and an MFA from Hunter College, New York in 2012. Saager has participated in residency programmes at the Sharpe-Walentas Studios, New York; Pioneer Works, New York; and International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture, Umbria, Italy.

Jason Saager Artworks

**__**Jason Saager creates sprawling landscapes with winding roads, the rendering of which is reminiscent of the baroque or renaissance traditions of painting. His images oscillate between surrealism and illustration, providing the viewer with flat portrayals of scenes of nature through one-point perspectives.

Saager’s painting Pathways to Nowhere (2021) feels like an amalgamation of several landscapes into one, each with a seemingly endless snaking path. The sky abruptly reveals itself in several parts of the painting, evoking a surreal and nightmarish quality within these otherwise idyllic, fragmentary scenes. In the past, Saager has talked of his work as ‘littered with scientific falsehoods, nonsense, and roads leading to nowhere,’ where ‘absurd perspectives multiply, immutable natural laws become optional, and artificial habitats drift into alien territory.’

In another painting titled Expulsion to Holographic Simulation (undated) Saager illustrates a glacial landscape, decorated with what seems to be portals to other worlds, one the Garden of Eden and the other the barren Arctic.

Saager’s landscapes are inspired by religious works that depict meditative and fantastical scenery coupled with the tradition of American folk painting. He has previously referenced Giovanni de Paolo’s The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise (1445) in his work, through the use of portals or visions. His compositions and use of visual elements such as framing portions of his work within a larger painting also references John Rasmussen’s work, particularly Berks County Almshouse (1880).

This amalgamation of compositions and elements is an approach to the field of landscape painting as integrating elements of the past, present, and future, evoking the sensibilities of science fiction and surrealism while also reflecting on the state of humankind’s relationship with nature.

Exhibitions

Jason Saager has held solo exhibitions in New York at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle (2015); and Ross+Kramer Gallery (2021). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Mars Gallery, New York; Washington Project for the Art, Washington DC; and the SPRING+BREAK Art Show, New York.

Awards

Jason Saager has received awards and participated in residency programmes including: Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Brooklyn, NY USA (2019—2021); Artist in Residence, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY USA (2014); Richard Marnin Kaye award, Hunter College, New York, NY USA (2012); and Artist in Residence, The International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture, Montecastello di Vibio, Italy (2006).

Instagram

Jason Saager’s Instagram account can be found here.

Arianna Mercado | Ocula | 2022