Artist Talk | Jason Pollen

About this event

ARTIST TALK | JASON POLLEN

Join us Saturday, December 12, at 2 PM for an artist talk with Jason Pollen at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center! Discover the inspiration and creative process behind Signals from Venus: New Works by Jason Pollen and explore how color, rhythm, pattern, and music come together in his work.

Free and open to the public.

Signals from Venus- New Works by Jason Pollen

December 4 - February 26, 2027

Front Gallery

Music, dance, and the visual arts are nonverbal languages. They inspire us through an essential need for self-expression. What they have in common is color, rhythm, pattern, and the imagination that underlies a multitude of evolving approaches to the artistic impulse.]

My recent works are intimately linked to a profound love of the cadences, sounds and soul of classical music. In particular, the Harp series incorporates color chords, harmonies and dissonances, silently echoing musical attributes. The spacial interval between shapes amplify their resonance.

My daily practice starts with a white or black 9”x12” sheet of white or black Bristol board. Before I add marks and colors, I wait for a signal from Venus, Goddess of creativity. In the past year, I have created approximately 1500 of these works on paper.

Artist Statement:

It began with building sand castles on the beach, and evolved into a lifelong practice of artistic experimentation. My work seeks a visual language that feels discovered as much as created, breathing life into what emerges at my hands.

Artist Bio:

Jason Pollen is an internationally acclaimed artist, designer and educator. He has been on the faculty at the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons and Pratt in New York City and Professor and Fiber Chair at the Kansas City Art Institute. He is Professor emeritus at KCAI, President emeritus of the Surface Design Association and is an American Craft Council Fellow. His work is in numerous prominent private national and international collections, including the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Pollen had designed numerous collections of textile designs for Channel, Dior, Yves. St. Laurent, and Jack Lenor Larsen. He also created sets for the Kansas City Ballet.