Jason Gringler

Jason Gringler was born in Toronto, Canada and spent a decade living and working in New York. He relocated to Berlin in September 2017. His work has been included in recent exhibi- tions at König Galerie (Berlin) Steve Turner (Los Angeles), Brand New Gallery (Milan), Pa- risian Laundry (Montreal), Galerie Stefan Röpke (Cologne) and Ashes/Ashes (New York). “The resin sculptures are excavated workshop relics; meandering archeological objects intrinsically tied to my artistic practice yet overlooked as the main protagonists driving my recent body of work. The term sweat equity is an ingredient recently added to my studio’s vocabulary. Sweat equity refers to a person’s contribution toward a business venture or other project. Sweat equity is generally not monetary and, in most cases, comes in the form of physical labor, mental effort, and time. The broken tools, used sneakers, and sweat-soaked work-shirts embalmed in epoxy are a conscious effort to reinvest labor (and material) back into my studio practice and essen- tially back into myself as a person. I have come to realize over the years an unintentional theme has emerged from my efforts as an artist: At times, the detritus surrounding my art production excites my brain more than the intended outcome. I use waste as a drunken stimulus, a trigger and diving board. It’s a method to distract myself enough to allow for errors and self-discovery. This applies to all bodies of work, from the wall-based glass ‘paintings’, through the eBay sculptures, the ‘tools’ (that appear as weapons) and the most recent body of epoxy resin sculptures embalming the used, wasted, and leftover material from my workshop. My work is not political however I have always considered the act of being an artist politi- cal within a society I feel leaves little room for an artist’s position. I purchase materials, I produce what I consider to be artworks from those materials. Waste is produced in tandem. I use the waste to reinvest into my studio practice simultaneously generating valuable ideas as well as the potential for commercially viable products. The cycle does not end here, it merely begins again until at some point my body is ex- tinguished from illness, age, or accident, or I choose to become someone that no longer identifies as an artist.” Jason Gringler