Jason Middlebrook, Vein

Sara Meltzer Gallery is pleased to present Vein, an exhibition of new works by Jason Middlebrook, marking the artist’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. Typical to Middlebrook's practice, the exhibition is comprised of a variety of media including sculpture, painting and works on paper. For the first time, Middlebrook brings his recycled architectural materials directly into the gallery’s interior space to further investigate themes of ecology, entropy and environmental concerns, emphasizing the tense relationship between humans and nature. For Vein, Middlebrook has cast hundreds of various recycled plastic containers -- including plastic bottles of water consumed in the gallery -- in multi-colored concrete, creating forms that suggest geological strata. Arranged in groups throughout the gallery, they offer a glimpse of our participation in consumption and waste and serve as preserved records of human life. Inspired by Alexander Calder, Wood from All over the World Mobile is constructed from driftwood the artist collected from a beach in Hawaii. A cluster of the suspended driftwood suggests the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a floating island of trash in the North Pacific twice the size of Texas. Middlebrook has painted images of wood veins onto planks of wood in varying heights that lean against the wall, letting the wood’s grain dictate the direction of his markings. Steel stands display wooden slabs painted with images referring to the natural environment of the materials’ own origin. In two-dimensional works, Middlebrook juxtaposes the natural and man-made environments with images of birds placed into geometrically abstract environments and the urban grid. Drawing from the history of art, including Minimalism, Land Art and Pop Art, Middlebrook continues to investigate the complex relationships between nature and culture, order and chaos, and decay and regeneration. Embodying folk art’s craft tradition and social purpose, Vein is a cond