JIMI GLEASON
Jimi Gleason was born in 1961, in Newport Beach, California, with frequent trips to Hawaii growing up. The bright colors and special, mercurial qualities of light of both environs profoundly influenced Gleason and would become a wellspring of inspiration as his artistic vision evolved.
Along with a growing number of Southern California artists, Gleason sought dynamic materials, like silver nitrate and pearlescent paints, to express a new way of looking at art, not as objects of creation to be viewed passively, but as active catalysts that heightened our perception. This shift in purpose, with regard to a certain genre of Southern California art, has become known as Light and Space.
Jimi Gleason received his BA from UC Berkeley in 1985. He studied printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute before relocating to New York City, where he worked as a photo assistant and photo technician. Returning to California, Gleason was employed in the studio of Ed Moses for five years. Combining the disparate technical and compositional skills developed during his exposure to printmaking, photography and mixed-media painting, Gleason is now the subject of considerable curatorial and critical applause.
Gleason’s work has been widely exhibited and collected by major institutions including: the Hammer Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, the Laguna Beach Art Museum, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Tucson Museum of Art. Additionally, the artist’s paintings are held in a number of significant public and private collections around the world.
