Bio
Jason Contangelo (b. 1992, Buffalo, NY) makes photographs. His work looks beyond normative depiction, implementing unorthodox photographic processes in order to find new modes of seeing. He has exhibited at the University at Buffalo Galleries; CEPA Gallery, in Buffalo, NY; the De Pree Gallery in Holland, MI; and BOX Gallery, in Buffalo, NY. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the North American Lutheran Seminary, Jason completed his MFA in studio art from the University at Buffalo in 2021, followed by a two year stint on the arts faculty at Hope College in Holland, MI. Jason is currently based in his hometown of Tonawanda, NY.
Artist Statement
I make strange photographs using various esoteric processes, at this point almost entirely via analog methods; silver gelatin, chromogenic prints, lumen prints, etc. My fixations range from the psychedelic and the spiritual to the psychological, from natural forms and landscapes to unorthodox portrait compositions. My core interest has been the multifaceted alienation of mankind from the natural world and from itself; my work always seeks, but implicitly cannot find, a return to an Edenic existence. Ultimately, I have little interest in normative depiction, finding much more significance in photographs that challenge their very ties to reality. Entropy, chaos, unpredictability, and the visual artifacts that result from them, are hallmarks of my processes and my final works. This evokes the pattern of thoughts within the mind—scattered, chaotic, obscuring themselves, only the most important points remembered.
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