“Despite its abstract nature, DeMeo creates a dynamic and refreshingly self-conscious art that is meant to make viewers feel something and that appeals across aesthetic and cultural divides.
Conceptual and reflective thinking undergirds all DeMeo does, a continued process toward growth and innovation, and making art that motivates his viewers to aspire collectively for a better tomorrow.”
Artist Statement:
Jason DeMeo (JASE) is a contemporary artist based in Franklin, Tennessee, whose work explores the relationship between nature, the human soul, and the excavation of meaning. DeMeo's relationship with art is deeply personal, shaped by navigating his mental health and finding healing through creativity. His name, Jason, means healer, informing his belief in the healing potential of art. Drawing inspiration from the natural world and the cosmos, DeMeo uses abstraction to explore the interconnectedness of life and the complexities of being human. His practice is rooted in a central conviction: Matter is Miraculous.
His Italian heritage and Pittsburgh childhood shape his visual language, from Italy's warm colors and organic landscapes to his hometown's industrial grit. DeMeo considers nature the ultimate readymade, where beauty unfolds in endless compositions. Its patterns of growth, decay, and renewal inform his approach to the creative process. His background as an athlete also shapes the physicality and spontaneity of his artistic practice.
Through his signature Reverse Abstraction™ process, DeMeo approaches painting as a somatic exchange, where the energy of the artist meets the unpredictable nature of the materials. Wet canvases are flipped face down onto the studio floor and pulled up once dry, uncovering textures and fragments of earlier works. Working iteratively with water, pressure, heat, and time, he adds, removes, and reuses materials, carrying traces of the past into the present.
Expansive fields of color and richly layered surfaces create space for reflection and contemplation. Each painting is designed as a meditation, allowing new emotions and memories to emerge with each encounter. This reflects his belief that what we repeatedly see shapes our reality. Original spoken word, paired with music, often extends the experience beyond the visual. 24K gold leaf symbolizes the miraculous within ordinary matter.
In dialogue with the constructive ambition of modernism and the deconstructive questioning of postmodernism, his evolving philosophy, Synthesism™, explores how seemingly opposing forces can coexist, interact, and ultimately give rise to something new. Each painting develops its own gestalt, uniting form, material, and fragments into a distinct whole.x
Drawing on his background in theology, philosophy, and human-centered design, DeMeo explores beauty, mystery, and the divine through the material world. Painting anchors his multidisciplinary studio, where concepts take form as artifacts, immersive environments, and fashion, often through creative collaboration.
His work ultimately invites us to look again, discovering the extra/ordinary beauty and meaning woven into everyday life.