Jason Rohlf
Watch Jason Rohlf's interview with Milwaukee Public TV’s The Arts Page, hosted by Sandy Maxx.
Jason Rohlf
Making navigational decisions is subjective to the individual and the inputs are sometimes contradictory. Through a combination of deliberate action and intuition the works hope to reflect back the myriad choices we all are confronted with on a daily basis.
-Jason Rohlf
Jason Rohlf continues to document visual sensibilities in his multifaceted paintings. Vibrant and beautifully textured, his paintings are an exploration of surface, texture, and color. Rohlf employs elements of collage and drawings and embeds them in thick layers of varnish to obscure the lines and shapes underneath. The end results are visual reminders or clues telling how important certain influences have been, including city streets, digital media, and maps.
Originally from Milwaukee, Rohlf studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and moved to Brooklyn in 1999. He has exhibited his work across the country, created a public installation for the MTA, lectured for the Pratt Institute, Bowling Green University and Lawrence University among others. He was recently awarded Sam and Adelle Golden Foundation for the Arts Artist in Residency and interviewed by MPTV’s The Arts Page.
Artist News
Jason Rohlf’s paintings are abstract, yet conjure ideas of maps or stories. In the exhibition “Kismet,” on view at Tory Folliard Gallery, endless rings of circles, rows of arches, hanging diamonds and more play out in bright acrylic colors, sometimes painted on the relatively modest materials of shop rags or tarps.
New sculptures by Jeremy Popelka in his exhibition “Gravity” are also on view, and it is a good pairing as his figurative pieces share this type of synthesis. Inspired by his recent time in Thailand, Popelka fashions masks out of glass, incorporating textured surfaces that reference symbolic concepts.
Meet Jason Rohlf: an innovative and talented artist of NYC, who continues to document visual sensibilities in his acrylic and collage paintings. Vibrant and beautifully textured, Jason Rohlf’s paintings are a continued exploration of surface and color, like an altered manuscript where traces of earlier layers are noticeable. Elements of collage and drawing are embedded in layers of varnish, obscuring lines and shapes that whisper secrets of their past lives.
"For a middle-of-winter rush of color, this show will feature seven abstract artists who use color with abandon and conceptual subtlety. The artists include Tom Berenz, Derrick Buisch, Ben Grant, Mark Ottens, Jeremy Popelka, Jason Rohlf and Richard Taylor."

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