Vue d’exposition / Installation views Jacob Kassay : Khiropractik, 2024, Art : Concept, Paris. Courtesy the Artist and Art : Concept, Paris. Photo Romain DarnaudVue d’exposition / Installation views Jacob Kassay : Khiropractik, 2024, Art : Concept, Paris. Courtesy the Artist and Art : Concept, Paris. Photo Romain DarnaudVue d’exposition / Installation views Jacob Kassay : Khiropractik, 2024, Art : Concept, Paris. Courtesy the Artist and Art : Concept, Paris. Photo Romain Darnaud Jacob Kassay, Untitled, 2024. Verre / Glass. 59,4 × 39,7 × 7,2 cm (23 ⅜ × 15 ⅝ × 2 ⅞ inches) Courtesy the Artist and Art : Concept, Paris. Photo Romain DarnaudJacob Kassay, Vue d’exposition / Installation view Nobody’s Home, 2022, 1413 5th Avenue New York/USJacob Kassay, Vue d’exposition / Installation view Nobody’s Home, 2022, 1413 5th Avenue New York/USLap Dissolve, 2020. UV print on OSB on aluminium, 75,72 x 56,36 cm (29 13/16 x 22 3/16 in.). Private CollectionAxial Cut, 2020, detail. UV print on OSB on aluminium, 151,29 x 78,26 cm (59 9/16 x 30 13/16 in.) Axial Cut, 2020, detail. UV print on OSB on aluminium, 151,29 x 78,26 cm (59 9/16 x 30 13/16 in.) installation view, X, von ammon co, Washington/US, 2019Installation view, Rehang, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, 2019. Photo courtesy of Collezione Maramotti. Credits: Dario LasagniInstallation view, Mechanisms, Wattis Institute, San Francisco, 2018Untitled, 2016. Immiscible acrylic, oil stick on canvas, 26,7 x 17,7 cm (10 1/2 x 7 in.) Untitled, 2016. Immiscible acrylic, oil stick on canvas, 42 x 28 cm (16 1/2 x 11 in.) Installation view, Jacob Kassay, Fitzpatrick-Leland House, Los Angeles/US, 2015Installation view, Jacob Kassay, Fitzpatrick-Leland House, Los Angeles/US, 2015Untitled, 2015. Poplar, 30,3 x 39,5 cm (11 7/8 x 15 1/2 in.) Untitled, 2015. Poplar, 57,1 x 69,7 cm (22 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.) Untitled, 2015. Poplar, 197,4 x 99,9 cm (77 3/4 x 39 3/8 in.) Untitled, 2015, poplar, 57 1/2 x 8 in. Installation view, Love Story, Sammlung Anne & Wolfgang Titze, Belvedere, Vienna/AT, 2014End User, 2014. Acrylic on canvas, 165,1 x 96,52 cm (65 x 38 in.) Ensamble, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 25 1/2 x 60 1/4 in. Private collection USInstallation view, Untitled (disambiguation)!, The Kitchen, New York/US, 2013Installation view, Untitled (disambiguation)!, The Kitchen, New York/US, 2013Installation view, EXPO 1: New York, MoMA PS1, New York, 2013Untitled, 2013. Glass, library book, variable dimensionsUntitled, 2012, glass, library book, variable dimensions, internal no.12. Private collection USInstallation view, Jacob Kassay, Protocinema, Istanbul/TR, 2013Untitled, 2013, acrylic on linen, curved wood stretcher with oak frame, triptych, 50 x 220 x 0 3/4 in. Private collectionInstallation view, IJK, 303 Gallery, New York/US, 2013Installation view, No Goal, Dallas Power Station, Dallas/US, 2012Untitled, 2012. Acrylic and silver deposit on canvas, 84 x 60 in. Private collection USUntitled, 2011. 16mm film installation, 27 min, projector, looper, 5-channel mixer, 2 speakers, contact microphoneUntitled, 2011, acrylic and silver deposit on canvas, polyptych of 8, 48 x 48 in. Installation view, Art Unlimited / Art Basel 42, 2011. Private collectionUntitled, 2011, acrylic and silver deposit on canvas, polyptych of 8, 48 x 48 in. Installation view, Art Unlimited / Art Basel 42, 2011. Private collectionInstallation view, solo show, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London/UK, 2011Installation view, solo show, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London/UK, 2011Untitled, 2011, acrylic on linen, silver deposit on canvas, diptych, 10 x 14 in. Private collection FRInstallation view, solo show, Art: Concept, Paris/FR, 2012Installation view, solo show, Art: Concept, Paris/FR, 2010
Biography
Born in 1984 in Lewiston, NY, Jacob Kassay lives and works in New York.
The artist challenges the traditional parameters of artmaking in conceptually driven installations that respond to and occupy their environment in unexpected ways. The arrangement of an exhibition and how his pieces interact with the surrounding architecture – and ultimately their audience – is key to understanding the essence of his work. Kassay’s paintings interrelate and form multiple dialogues: with each other, with the space around them and with the viewer.
The language of materials is important to Kassay, who pays great attention to form, surface and physicality. Although lacking marks that could be conceived as gestural, a close inspection of his seemingly blank or monotone paintings reveals traces of their making – small incidental marks, or burnt edges, for example. Jacob Kassay’s practice also encompasses film and sculpture.
Critic Alex Bacon has written that his work “actively poses the question—what does it mean to be represented?…This kind of aesthetic activity is suspended somewhere between the “real” world that is reflected, and the particular aesthetic world a painting inhabits as an…autonomous thing.”
His work is present, among others, in the following collections: Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angoulême, France; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA; Museo Di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rovereto, Italy.
Recent solo exhibitions: Project Room: Gallery Greta Meert, Brussels/BE (2023); Nobody’s home, 1413 5th Ave, New York/US (2022); Nude descending Staircase and Jacob Kassay, 303 Gallery, New York/US (2021); FOOTAGE, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo/US (2019); X, von ammon co, Washington/US (2019); Jacob Kassay, Leeahn Gallery, Seoul/KR (2018); Alarmer 2, team gallery, inc., Los Angeles/US (2017); Curated library, Reserve Ames, Los Angeles/US (2017); OTNY, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo/US (2017); Fitzpatrick-Leland House, Los Angeles/US (2015); HIJK, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels/BE (2015). Group exhibitions: Expo 1, MOMA/PS1, New York (2013) ; The Surface of the East Coast from Nice to New York, Le 109 – Les Abattoirs, Nice (2017) et Other Mechanisms à Secession, Austria, Vienne (2018).
Jacob Kassay: Standards, Surnames, Mousse Publishing, 2015, 180 pagesJacob Kassay, The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2011Diacono Mario, Jacob Kassay, ed. Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, 2010
