JASON REVOK: THE ARTIST'S INSTRUMENTS

JASON REVOK: THE ARTIST’S INSTRUMENTS

mocad

August 25, 2022

The Artist’s Instruments is an expansive exhibition of boundary-pushing artist Jason REVOK. A self-taught artist with roots in graffiti, REVOK’s career has expanded over several decades to illuminate new possibilities in dialogue between design, fine, and street art. His latest body of work reflects the impact of the artist’s transition from the West Coast to the Midwest, blending inspiration from various cultural and artist-driven movements. Specifically, this exhibition addresses the effect of automation and factory-based labor across the United States, including these machines’ phenomenal impact on artistic practice.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

JASON REVOK:
THE ARTIST’S INSTRUMENTS

NOVEMBER 5, 2022 – MARCH 26, 2023

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is pleased to present The Artist’s Instruments, an expansive exhibition of boundary-pushing artist Jason REVOK. A self-taught artist with roots in graffiti, REVOK’s career has expanded over several decades to illuminate new possibilities in dialogue between process-driven art forms. His latest body of work reflects the impact of the artist’s transition from the West Coast to the Midwest, blending inspiration from various cultural and artist-driven movements. Specifically, this exhibition addresses the effect of automation and factory-based labor across the United States, including these machines’ phenomenal impact on artistic practice.

Considering the relationship between humans and technology, REVOK has created a series of instruments that act as an extension of his body. Utilizing these apparatuses and complex tools in concert with his hands, REVOK will present new and never before seen paintings, videos, and sculptural installations for his first solo museum exhibition hosted by MOCAD. The Artist’s Instruments calls into question the current value system of traditional painting and creates a new frontier for how an artist might practice in the age of machines. In this exhibition, we encourage viewers to consider how the implicit convergence of labor and imagination has shaped our understanding of arts-based technologies.

ARTIST BIO

Jason REVOK is known for pushing creative boundaries that began in the street. Although his story starts with graffiti, the artist has spent the last decade focussing on his studio practice and the evolution of process and concept. Refusing to be limited by his early recognition, REVOK allows only certain elements from graffiti culture to transition to his contemporary work—modest materials and industrial tools, ingenuity, his name—but his proclivity towards minimalism and post-painterly abstraction has become the driving force behind his practice. Examining the question of authorship from start to finish, REVOK has developed systematic yet imperfect tools to carry out his vision and has created several unmistakable bodies of work. His bold, balanced geometry is heightened by the personal and imperfect slight of the human hand.

REVOK has exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and the Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art; in galleries and special projects in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Dubai; and important private collections worldwide.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

TALK: JASON REVOK WITH LEE QUIÑONES
Saturday, January 28, 1PM

The Artist’s Instruments is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit with curatorial and exhibition support from Library Street Collective. This exhibition is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Image: Jason REVOK, InstrumentEx/FrameDrag_3_Blu/Ochre/Vio_6/22, 2022. Photo by Tim Johnson. Image courtesy of the artist and Library Street Collective.