1. Jason Douglas Griffin

1. Chris Baily

Lining the gallery walls with rusted doorknobs and deadbolts still attached, Jason Douglas Griffin’s doors dominated the room at his recent show in New York city’s “Meatpacking District.” His work is fundamentally personal, but Griffin’s use of cultural references, religious imagery, and humor successfully communicate his unique personality and perspective. The physicality of the doors themselves, along with Griffin’s use of graffiti, dripping brushstrokes, and sketched images lends a coarse reality to the paintings. The balance that these elements create speaks to the dichotomies that pervade the urban experience. In a way, Griffin’s paintings recall the feeling of discovery when one catches a glimpse of a vibrant pane of stained glass in an otherwise decrepit city building. Ultimately, Griffin’s skills with color and composition enable him to accomplish the often elusive goal of producing a painting that is creatively challenging, relevant, and aesthetically beautiful.

The series began when Jason Douglas Griffin and Dutch Graffiti artist, Stephen Delout were combing the dimly lit streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, for any surface that would enable them to paint through the night. They found a set of antique doors discarded by one of the countless renovation crews currently invading the neighborhood, and promptly set to work. For Griffin and Delout, the doors were the perfect way to bring the graffiti aesthetic into a livingroom setting, while maintaining the grittiness of a cement wall or subway train. Bereft of the traditional canvas, they had a better medium to explore unconventional imagery, and after collaborating with Delout, Griffin returned to the doors as a preferred format.

One of the most absorbing characteristics of Griffin’s work is the layering of different visual elements to create compositions with genuine depth. In Interpretation, a naked angel is standing on what appears to be a land mass floating in a cobalt sky. Above the angel, a crimson apple bleeds paint in streaky drips. The land mass is three dimensional, made up of texture paint heaped onto the door and spray painted. Underneath it all, bits of poetry are scratched into the surface. Even with this combination of disparate styles and imagery, Griffin is able to create the believable visual space often missing in works heavily influenced by the collage aesthetic.

With an eye for detail, a skill for brushstroke, and a child-like courage, it would be easy for Griffin to obsessively crowd his paintings. However, he shows remarkable restraint when the composition calls for it. One painting, Tribute to Hungry Stomachs, features a pigeon victoriously bestride a spilled carton of chow mein. The entrée and the bird are delicately drawn on rice paper pasted to the surface, while the majority of the painting has been divided into simple color fields on white. This painting was particularly effective alongside Griffin’s other work in the New York show, and was indicative of his remarkable sense for the appropriate.

With a successful New York debut now firmly under his belt, it will be interesting to see how Jason Douglas Griffin’s work evolves. I, for one, think he is already a welcome addition.