Jason Varone is an artist + designer based in the Berkshires and New York City. He is known for his installations that explore the interaction of data and the physical world through traditional painting and digital projections. He's been exhibiting these 'videoapaintings' since 2000.
“My experiences with technology have informed my relationship to the natural landscape, and by extension to painting. I’m interested in the information ecosystem we have created for ourselves, and how extensively it has infiltrated and degraded our habitat. Today, to even catch a glimpse of the real world one must look past clouds of misinformation. An unsettled reality exists behind the noise.”
“I don’t consider landscape as something to passively observe, and then, depict in a painting, but rather as a force that can only be defined by the data flowing through it.”
A graduate of New York University, Varone's artwork has been exhibited in many venues including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, The Boston Center for the Arts, The British Film Institute, The International Center of Photography and Art in General in New York City.
His work is available for sale through Artfare.
He also designs digital things: websites + apps in the digital humanities space. Recent projects include: Amerasia: An Inquiry Into Early Modern Imagniative Geography [lead designer]; The Artist Archive Initiative: Joan Jonas [website concept and design consultant]; Artists in Paris: Mapping the 18th Century Art World [design consultant]; Journal 18: a journal of eighteenth-century art and culture [design consultant], and various data visualizations for The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, where he has been managing their online content since 2010.
Born 1976, Brooklyn, NY.
Selected Exhibitions
2020. Uchronia [solo exhibition]. Installation Space, North Adams, MA.
2017. A Mesh is Also a Snare, EKG Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.
2016. Creative Code Showcase. Gray Area Foundation. San Francisco, CA.
2016. R.E.M.X., National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania. Curated by Calin Man and Ileana Selejan.
2015. Lee Mingwei and His Relations, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.
2015. Lee Mingwei and His Relations, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
2014. Tibi Flagship Store, New York, NY.
2014. Brooklyn Utopias, The Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY.
2013. It Isn’t Always Going To Be This Great [solo exhibition], Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA.
2013. Another Landscape Show [two-person exhibition], 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2012. Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM.
2012. Momenta Art Spring benefit, Brooklyn, NY.
2012. Make it Break it Rebuild it, Philly Fringe Festival, Philadelphia, PA.
2011. Portal: The Process of Performance, ICAN, Sydney, Australia.
2011. Smoke Signals, Kianga Ellis Projects, Santa Fe, NM.
2011. By Chance, A Video Show, 80WSE Galleries, New York, NY.
2011. Alterations, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.
2011. 12th Annual Art Papers Auction, Atlanta, GA.
2010. A.I.R. Studio at the Grand Central Art Center [solo exhibition], Santa Ana, California.
2010. MetaDataPhile, California State University at Fullerton.
2010. Architecturally../, Hendershot Gallery, 547 West 27th, New York, NY.
2010. Opticks, Curated by Peter Campus at the British Film Institute, London, UK.
2009. Project Room at Hendershot Gallery [solo exhibition], 547 West 27th, New York, NY.
2009. New York Vision, curated by Maurizio Pellegrin, Columbia University.
2009. You are Here, Hewitt Gallery, Marymount Manhattan College, NY.
2008. A Wrinkle in Time, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Baseera Khan.
2008. ArteAmerica Festival, Fundacion Cisneros, Miami, FL.
2007. Dromospheric Pollution [solo exhibition], Visual Arts Gallery, UAB, Birmingham, AL.
2006. 20 Years In, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
2006. Radiant, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2006. Film and Video, the Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA.
2005. Random Occurrences: Deconstructing Images, Icons, and Identity, Red Clay Arts, Brooklyn, NY.
2005. Video Series, Goliath Visual Space, Brooklyn, NY.
2005. Stealth Arts, Birmingham, AL.
2004. Drawing Lines, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY.
2004. Through Master’s Eyes, Los Angeles Museum of Art, CA.
2003. MEDIA (LESS) MEDIUM, The Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA.
2002. 25th Small Works Exhibition, Juror: Barbara Millstein of Brooklyn Museum. 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York, NY.
2001. Art in General – Video Marathon, Art in General, New York, NY.
2001. International Works on Paper, Juried by Krishna Reddy. Soho20 Gallery, 545 Broadway, New York, NY.
2001. The College Art Association: Screening of Recipes for Desire – for the lectures on Slavoj Zizek & Obscene Enjoyment. Chicago, Illinois.
2001. Jack Goodman Award for Art and Technology, Rosenberg Gallery, New York.
1997. Alem del Agua Copiacabana, Museo Extremeno e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, Badajoz, Spain. (catalogue)
Projects & Awards
2014. GIF it up award winner. Digital Public Library of America.
2010. Artist in Residence, California State University, Fullerton
2007-08. Director – The Geometry of Hope, a documentary on geometric art in the Coleccion Cinseros, 2008.
2006-2009. Producer – Untitled TV, monthly program Brooklyn Cable Access Television.
2006. Residency and Fellowship, the Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA.
2006. Rotunda Gallery/BCAT Artist in Residence, Brooklyn, NY.
2005. Fellowship, the Experimental Television Center, NY.
2001-02. Two time recipient of the Jack Goodman Award for Art and Technology, NY.
Public Lectures
2014. Visiting artist lecture , Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
2013. “Zooming In, Digital Humanities for the Fine Arts,” Southeastern College Art Conference, Greensboro, NC.
2010. Artist in Residence lecture. Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, California.
2007. Artist talk, “Dromospheric Pollution,” Visual Arts Gallery, UAB, Birmingham, AL.
Bibliography
Jason Varone, “Five Old School Video Artists You Should Know (and Follow).” Hyperallergic [2014]
Hrag Vartanian, Jillian Steinhauer, et al., “10 Artists to Watch from the 2013 Bushwick Open Studios.” Hyperallergic [2013]
Edward Esptein, “Not So Friendly Skies – Jason Varone at Grizzly Grizzly.” The Art Blog [2013]
Andrew Zawacki, “Videotape.” cover [2013]
An Xiao, “Santa Fe Grows its New Media Festival.” Hyperallergic [2012]
Jillian Steinhauer, “A Forgotten Piece of the Santa Fe Sky.” Hyperallergic [2012]
Roberta Fallon, “Lotsa Video at Locks.” The Art Blog [2011]
Kate Britton, “Social Media and Contemporary Art.” Das Super Paper, [2011]
Kyle Chayka, “Video Art as a Multivalent Medium.” Hyperallergic [2011]
Kathleen MacQueen, “Subtle Intensities of the Unexpected.” [2011]
Hrag Vartanian, “Living in a State of Permanent Recession?” NYFA Current, [2010]
Brett Levine, “The Power of the Impossible.” ART PAPERS [2009]
Jason Varone, “The Decline of the West.” NYArts Magazine [2009]
Brett Levine, “The Electronic Morgue.” Pocket Art Editions, UAB, [2007]
Thomas B. Harrison, “High Concept: Space 301 Opens High-Tech Multimedia Show Friday.” Birmingham News, [2006]
Caroline Shepard, “video:series,” NY Press [2005]
Jason Varone, “Tactical Information Bomb.” Pinque Magazine [2005]
Danielle McClure, “At the Galleries.” Black and White City Paper [2005]
Hellen A. Harrison, “ART: REVIEWS; The Big Brushes From the East End.” The New York Times [2004]
Scarlet Cheng, “A Master Revisited.” L.A. Times [2004]
Kirby Gookin, “Morality of Materials.” New York University [1998]
“Copia Cabana.” Alem del Agua, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Badajoz, Spain [1998]
“Puente…de pasaje: Isla del Copyright.” Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Badajoz, Spain [1998]
Education
B.A., 1998; M.A., 2002. New York University.
