Jason Villegas
August 4, 2022 thru
September 18, 2022
Featured image: Good puss
About the exhibition
Who I was & want to be
Jason Villegas’ work celebrates queer culture and explores gender fluidity, identity, and body positivity by using repurposed materials, fabric, ceramics to create sculpture, painting, drawing, performance, photography, video and installation. Jason shares, “I am interested in how we represent ourselves and the ability to change and have a variety of expressive skins.” The motif of clothing piles and playing with actual clothing as material allows us to think of skin as costume. Often revealing economic and social hierarchy, it also speaks about gender identity. Jason uses masks and helmets to create a layer of representation or chosen representation. Shifting beyond previous work about globalism and consumer culture, in his newest body of work Jason explores aspects of living as a queer person.
The reclining figures, beach beauties, are gestural and slightly abstract to be genderless in depiction. She Ready may appear as a painting of a sunburnt girl, but in Jason’s queer world, the phrase is a way to play with each other even as male identifying. While also the painting can be seen as a trans woman Jason says, “they could be anyone in the vast spectrum of gender and sexual identity.”
Jasons’ exhibition is on view from August 4th – September 18, 2022
About the artist
Jason Villegas is a visual artist recently relocated to San Francisco after over a decade in NYC exhibiting at Exit Art, El Museo del Barrio, Kathleen Cullen Gallery, Swing Space, Art in Odd Places, Socrates Sculpture Park, and The Leslie Lohman Museum of Queer Art where he is also a fellow. He has participated in residencies at The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Vermont Studio Center. Villegas has exhibited across the states & internationally including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, Phoenix Art Museum, and in Mexico City at El Museo de Ruffino Tamayo.
To learn more about Jason’s work please visit his website
A Ramp Gallery interview
Freedom of being who you are:
a Ramp Gallery interview with Jason Villegas
By the grace of a low iphone battery and an Oakland cloudy sky, Jason Villegas talked with us on his latest exhibition in The Ramp Gallery—Who I Was & Want To Be. He shares his process, remixing fabric, and shares with us his ideas that sprout from cartoon influence.
Artwork in the show
Small case
I got my eyes on you
13” x 14”
Fabric on paper
2022
$800
Large wall
Dragon Brand Spirit Banner
36” x 48”
Fabric
2013
$5,000
Big case
Clockwise
She ready
14” x 11”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
Good puss
11” x 14”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
Nip slip
14” x 11”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
Reclining on red
11” x 14”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
Big case
Clockwise
Neon head
12” x 9”
Fabric
2021
$750
Reclining on blue
11” x 14”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
Gold hoops
14” x 11”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
Reclining on pink
11” x 14”
Acrylic on paper
2022
$750
For sale inquires please contact [email protected]
The Ramp Gallery is an artist-driven exhibition space at SOMArts that is currently accepting applications for four-week long solo and group shows. An opportunity for entrepreneurial artists to ramp up their careers by exhibiting at one of San Francisco’s most dynamic hubs for art and community, the high-visibility location of The Ramp Gallery is adjacent to the main entrance of SOMArts and open to all local artists in the Bay Area. To learn more about the space please visit, The Ramp Gallery.