Jason Eisner is a Brooklyn, NY based artist. He will be flying to Grand Haven to give a gallery talk about his work on opening night (Feb 9th).He will also be giving a talk about his work on the evening prior to the opening at the Richard App Gallery(910 Cherry Street, Grand Rapids) on Wednesday, Feb.8th. There will be a brief reception at 6:30 and he will speak at 7pm.

In an era of quick, fast and fractured imagery we mostly find ourselves on the losing end of a steady stream of commercials, billboards and printed advertisements. Jason Eisner seems to have found a way to rewrite the rules of engagement when dealing with this endless battle of fine art versus art that is motivated solely to make a profit.In my opinion this is a heroic feat considering advertisement in the 21st century is the white elephant in any room as far as art-making in places other than major cities, the point being that many peoples relationship to art is through the graphic qualities found in advertising. Eisner seems to be one of the few people who willingly acknowledges this; not only acknowledges but accepts that it has influenced him. By accepting this he has come up with a positive and new attitude that elevates these graphic qualities that are associated with advertising to a high art.

There even seems to be a billboard quality in some of these works, while fluidly referencing art history. Some artists that come to mind are Andy Warhol (1928-1987), one of the fathers of pop art and one of the very first to start the conversation of where is advertisement in relationship to the art in the museums; Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993), an American Abstract Expressionist, and Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), an American figurative artist; also the mastery of draftstmenship and composition in the early dutch Renaissance, exemplified by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. Eisner also is a multi-media artist in the vein of Yves Klein and Judy Chicago, interacting with the streets of New York City, using public spaces as his medium and venue.He has an on-going exhibit of street art that he selflessly places on view for the general public to enjoy. There's a performance that accompanies the installation of many of these pieces: he dawns special outfits and uses hand-made decorative tools as part of his performance. There's a charge and a purpose to his subject matter that is not just about the paintings or the performance - it's about an aesthetic, one that seamlessly emerges throughout all of Jason's art.