NYAB Event - Jason Stopa “The Brooklyn Zoo”

Jason Stopa “The Brooklyn Zoo”

Novella Gallery

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“The Brooklyn Zoo” is Stopa’s first solo show in Manhattan. For this exhibit, the artist will be showing new paintings that reference childhood games, music and the urban culture of Brooklyn.

Stopa uses iconic imagery like basketball nets, diamonds, watermelons, and even the Rastafarian flag as abstract platforms for the possibilities of paint. His surfaces alternate between thinly brushed oil paint, to dripping enamel to flickering fields of glitter. Many of the pieces in this show explore deep blacks punctuated by bright color alongside works of emanating, creamy pastels.

One of his record paintings, “Jahhh Love,” playfully uses the hot colors of the Rastafarian flag around the border. In the center, a glossy enamel field of black drips to the bottom edge. He uses a thickly impastoed, black circle with brushed “grooves” to render his record. A bright, neon ring forms the outer edge of the record to create a vibrating pulse between the edge and the center colors.

Stopa states, “I like when my work toes the line between abstraction and representation. With these recent works, I’m interested in the field in relation to the edge. I use marks like X’s, dots and dashes in a decorative manner to create patterns around the periphery. This also creates a window-like field, which draws attention to the center.”

For “Loie’s Diamond,” Stopa uses the generic logo from Brooklyn jewelry stores to create an otherworldly image. Using creamy pastels and glitter, he depicts his diamond as a linear, translucent form radiating in the center. Other works like “Watermelon with KB” comically takes on a summer fruit. Here, Stopa uses sweeping gestures of hot pink against a white background. A vivid, neon green impasto creates a sludgy ring around the perimeter. Black seed-like shapes scatter around the surface in varied directions creating a disorienting view.

Jason Stopa lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA from Pratt Institute in 2010. Recent solo exhibitions include Kent Place Gallery (New Jersey) and John Davis Gallery, (New York). Recent group exhibitions include Denny Gallery (New York), Janet Kurnatowski Gallery (New York) and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (New York). Stopa’s work has been reviewed in ArtInfo and Interview Magazine.