(American, b. 1966) Born in Jackson, MI, Jason Middlebrook received his Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA. He completed an Independent Study Program at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and currently lives and works in Hudson, NY. Middlebrook imbues natural forms and found objects with references to the foremost abstractionists of the 20th century. He is best known for the carved and hewn tree trunks he uses as canvases for geometric composition, variously referencing works by Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, or Frank Stella—a jarring yet elegant juxtaposition of natural unpredictability with rigidly calculated forms.
