Contact: (e) info@patrickpainter.com (t) 310.264.5988
About
Jason Lahr was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania. He received his M.F.A. in drawing and painting from Penn State University and his B.F.A. in painting from Clarion University. His work is located in private and public collections across the U.S. and Europe.
He is represented by Patrick Painter Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.
Lahr’s paintings combine darkly comic texts with appropriated images, creating shifting narratives of working class male identity. The work draws from feminism, narrative theory, contemporary and postmodern fiction, semiotics, and film theory to explore the formation and shaping of masculinity through mass culture. The images are pulled from a wide range of popular and sub-cultural ephemera while the texts are fragments that suggest their excision from a larger story and give the reader/viewer flashbulb glimpses at moments of narrative action. Centering on female characters that occupy positions of authority and male characters who are injured, inept, defeated, or perplexed by their dealings with women, the texts and images form narratives which question the wash of expectations and assumptions we experience and create through popular culture.
Lahr's book Words for Paintings (Stepsister Press, 2010) collects twelve years of texts alongside reproductions of his work and in-progress views from his studio.
His work has been written about by Art F City, NewCity, Beautiful Decay, Nashville Scene, Chicago Magazine, and Bad At Sports among others.
Lahr currently lives and works in South Bend, IN where he holds an Associate Professor of Painting position at the University of Notre Dame.
Selected Exhibitions include: Walk this Way: Jason Lahr, Robert Peterson, Glenn Brown, Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles, CA; Microfictions (solo), A|AH|D Gallery, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN; Head Glitch (solo), Aron Packer Projects, Chicago, IL; Electric Funeral (solo), The Painting Center, New York, NY; Level Up: Art Inspired by Gaming Culture, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN; Digital Culture, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Gimpo, South Korea; It Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time (solo), The Art Galleries at TCU, Ft Worth, TX; 8-Bit Fictions (solo), Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA; Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly For LA (solo), Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL; DEATHMETALHIPPIEKILLER (solo), Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL; Tectonic/Tapola/Lahr, SELLOUT Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; Open Source Deathmatch(solo), Soma Gallery, Fort Wayne, IN; Arrested Development, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN; White Male, Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL; Beastyfeast, Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, MA; A Knock at the Door, Cooper Union, New York, NY; Narrative, Cartoon, Zine, Strip Show; Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI; As Small as Possible, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL; Riding With Pike (solo), Fugitive Art Center, Nashville, TN; American Eyes, Gallery Eleven50, Atlanta, GA; Culture of Class, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD.