Jacob Kassay

Background

Jacob Kassay was born in 1984 in Lewiston, New York, United States.

Education

Kassay received a BFA from the University of Buffalo in 2006.

Career

Jacob moved to New York City in 2006, later moving to Los Angeles in 2011. While at Buffalo, he co-founded and directed a performance and exhibition space titled Kitchen Distribution. Kassay has had solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1 in New York, NY; ICA in London, UK; 303 Gallery in New York, NY; Off-Vendome in Dusseldorf, Germany; Art: Concept in Paris, France; The Kitchen in New York, NY; L&M Arts in Los Angeles, CA; and Eleven Rivington in New York, NY; among others.

Kassay's work concerns the placement and objectivity of paintings. Adhering to a set of strict reductive strategies employed by modern artists and minimalist artists, Kassay's work focuses on situating objects according to their spatial limits while foregrounding the experience of the provisional duration of their exhibition.

In Kassay's main body of work, the surface and support of painting merge into a cohesive object through the inherent transformation process of electroplating. As achromatic objects, their qualities and tonalities are dependent upon not only the canvases themselves but the reflection of their ambient surroundings.

Achievements

• The work of mix-media artist Jacob Kassay hovers between painting, sculpture and interactive installation, and takes inspiration from the surrounding space—reflecting, distorting and relating to both the architectural environment and the movement of its viewers. Kassay is perhaps most well known for his silver paintings, made using an electroplating technique that references early photography, which warp the reflection of their viewers as well as depicting subtle changes in light throughout the day. Form, surface and physicality are key in Kassay’s work, which is conceived as both softly gestural and ambiguous in its complexity.

Works

More photos

• artwork

  • Airlock

    2013

  • Then by Necessity

    2013

  • Untitled 11-7-11

    2011

  • Untitled

    2009

  • Untitled

    2009

  • Untitled

    2009

  • Untitled

    2009

  • Untitled

    2010

  • Untitled

    2010

  • Untitled

    2011