Meet the Artist: Jason Kriegler

When does art beget design and design beget art? When you place both in the hands of Jason Kriegler. An award-winning visual artist who hails from Chicago via Miami, Jason moved to Merida in 2014 to, as he puts it, “…shift the status quo”. If his work is any indication, the status quo has been left behind in the Windy City.

You’ve worked successfully in design and advertising for many years. How long have you been making fine art?

Practically my whole adult life. I was born and raised in Miami and went to college in Fort Lauderdale where I graduated with a Major in Fine Art and a Minor in Visual Communications. I started painting and drawing all through college and after graduating, had shows in small galleries in both Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

How has your work as an artist impacted your work as a designer, and vice versa?

For me, the influences for both are the same—the Bauhaus movement, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Luis Baragan and later, Stefan Sagmeister. Their collective ideas of shape and line, form and function, abstraction and minimalism, informed my work as both designer and artist, and still do.

Did you grow up in a minimalist, design-oriented environment?

My mom is a painter now but was an interior designer who loved mid-century modern. My home in Chicago is entirely mid century modern. That said, I’m also a collector of textiles and have travelled all over the world accompanied by my fascination for colour and texture and pattern.

Mexico is a very vibrant culture yet your work is noticeably void of colour…

What I love about colour is in the singular moment I engage with it, like experiencing a blue Barragan wall in an atmosphere of perfect serenity. Although I appreciate colour, I personally like to create dimension without colour—at least the traditional interpretation of colour. I’m using henequen and thread in shades of blacks and grey, as well as Sumi inks from China, which are some of the richest inks ever made. So although the work may be subtle, there is a lot of depth to the pieces.

As an abstract artist, do you plan out what you’re doing or just wing it?

I work intuitively and often throw away what I’m working on. I did that the other day, throwing a piece on the floor after hours of work. As I stepped over it the next morning I thought, “Wow, this is starting to look like something interesting”. I cut it up and began collaging it with other pieces, and now I love it!

How do you hope people will respond to your work?

Art is very subjective and my work is abstract and non-traditional. Some will love what I do and some just won’t get it, and that’s fine with me. I’m essentially embroidering on paper, creating shape with thread which isn’t easy because of the fragility of the paper. I think there’s an element of the ‘reveal’ in my work, in that you have to get up close and personal to see how the pieces are created. I’m working with materials I’ve never used before, and that’s what excites me. In surprising myself, I hope that others will be surprised as well.

Jason is one of 26 artists featured on the 2016 Merida Artist Studio Tour on Saturday, February 20th. Tickets are available at the Merida English Library.