Jason McLean: Walkie Talkie

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Jason McLean, "Save it For a Rainy Day," 2019

(detail) ink on paper, 30" x 22"

JASON MCLEAN: WALKIE TALKIE 

 Opening: Thursday, September 12, 6-8 pm With Artist In Attendance

Mónica Reyes Gallery is delighted to present Jason McLean's work once again in Vancouver. McLean, who back in 2005, painted the ceiling in the foyer of the Vancouver Art Gallery and has received much attention and success after moving to Brooklyn, NY where he currently lives and works.

Jason McLean’s practice covers a range of media from drawing, to sculpture to collage. It also includes collaborative work and participation in the underground ‘zine scene, and mail art projects.  

McLean graduated from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997. 

Using pencils, felt markers, acrylics and pastels McLean records his daily experiences, observations and personal stories. Working on a range of surfaces from paper, and papier maché to found objects such as baseball gloves and shoes, his drawings are often described as mental maps. Rubber Game for the Working Class, 2010, is one of McLean’s largest drawings to date.  The piece began as a walking tour of the path he and his son would take from school each day.  Also included in the drawing are references to mental health issues, sports trivia and Canadian art history.  

In 2004 McLean was chosen by MacLean’s Magazine as one of the top 10 artists to watch in Canada.

Since then McLean has partaken in various international and national projects and residencies. Some of his most prominent projects include the Mural at the Drake Hotel (2013) and a charitable T-shirt collection in collaboration with Jeremy Laing. Apart from that, Jason McLean formed the ‘Felix and Henry’s Canadian Pez Museum’ in 2014 and the ‘Henry and Jay’s Collection Agency’, an ongoing project together with his son. In the latter, he is curating the changing displays of Pez dispensers and collected ephemera at the Brooklyn Public Library in Caroll Gardens, recently featured in the New York Post. 

Beside these projects McLean was presented in numerous solo and group shows throughout Canada, America, Mexico and Europe, such as at the Fondazione Bevilaqua La Masa, Italy (2007), as part of the exhibition project ‘Even My Mum Can Make a Book’ in Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany (2014), or at the Kaviar Factory in Norway (2018). On top of that, McLean was featured in the 2012 Canadian Biennial titled “Builders”, dedicated to highlighting Canadian artists who are crucial to the art community, and part of the monumental group exhibition “Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present” at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2017-2018); placing him amongst some of the most significant contemporary Canadian artists.