Jason Bryant (b. 1976) grew up in rural North Carolina. Art was always around Jason, encouraged by his mother, who would often draw comic book figures for him as a kid. At around age six, Jason would observe with anticipation the joy his uncle derived from creating drawings for him and from watching Jason create images. These memories serve as seminal moments for Jason’s development as an artist at an early age.
As Jason grew older, movies and drawing became a way for him to escape the realities of a broken home. Jason’s fascination with drawing was replaced by a love for painting, which was encouraged in him by his mentor Paul Hartley during his years at East Carolina University, where Jason received his BFA in 1999. While painting, Jason would listen to the soundtrack of different films, letting himself be completely absorbed in the emotions and images the music evoked and translating the energy into images on his canvas. The flux of the world is based upon dialogue, how we interact, and the change from these interactions.
The one thing that has remained a constant tool in bringing about, as well as informing people of, change is art. Art is the vehicle that we use to educate ourselves. It is the consummate mirror of our world, reflected back at us. Jason believes in trying to build that mirror, to illuminate people’s understanding of the world. After receiving his BFA, Jason moved to Baltimore, where has lived for the past three years. In the beginning of his career in Baltimore, Jason did an internship for the Mayors Advisory Committee on Art and Culture, where he began to be introduced to many of the contemporaries in which he works with today.
His relationship with the community of artists was furthered when he was accepted to the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he will be receiving his MFA in 2004 from the Mount Royal School of Art graduate program. While living in Baltimore Jason has exhibited at such institutions as, The Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, North Carolina, The Period Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska, Transport Gallery in Los Angeles, California, Maryland Art Place, in Baltimore, Maryland, The James E. Lewis Fine Arts Museum in Baltimore Maryland, and The Contemporary Museum located in Baltimore, Maryland.
In the past four years, Bryant’s paintings have been published in such publications as, Baltimore City Paper, Link Magazine, Direct art Magazine volumes 5 and 7, and New Art International.
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