Jason Stopa: DIY Paradise

November 17, 2023 - February 24, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, November 17, 6-8pm
Assembly, 4411 Montrose Blvd, Suite F

Assembly is thrilled to present DIY Paradise, the first solo exhibition of New York-based artist Jason Stopa in Houston. This exhibition acts as a site-specific installation of brand new work, bringing together Stopa’s large-scale paintings with a unique wall painting, works on paper, and the artist’s first-ever sculptural works. Throughout his practice, Stopa has used the language of color and abstraction to mine and undermine the concept of utopia—a physical impossibility, yet historically a recurring, imaginary place that emerges in times of cultural struggle and disillusionment.

Stopa’s geometric and architectural compositions reference a sense of space and place that is idealistic. His paintings use structural shapes and arabesque composed of thin washes of oil paint, alongside ornamentation such as lattice, to create works that hint at a physical existence, yet remain flat, dimensional forms on canvas. The sculptural objects in the exhibition break free into three dimensions and root the work in both cultural critique and personal exploration, with flagpoles wrapped in US state flags alongside a book from his parents’ personal collection, The New World, a religious text about a future paradise after an apocalypse. Stopa’s work enhances the tension between the material forms and the immaterial concepts and beliefs that structure our world, opening new spaces for questioning idealism.  

Stopa has a sustained interest in color as content. The artist writes:

I think a lot about color “families.” My color isn’t arbitrary; it’s color that’s rooted in early Henri Matisse, Bob Thompson, Stanley Whitney, and Mary Heilmann. It’s graphic, optimistic color loaded with content about mythologies, Arcadia, and joy. To use that palette is to reference that content.

DIY Paradise is critical of societal structures while also presenting a genuine space for hope and potential futures. In a moment where hope may seem distant or impractical, these works tether the radical to the personal by suggesting an ambiguous place where we might find our own paradise.

Jason Stopa (b. 1983, United States) is a painter and writer living in Brooklyn. He received his BFA from Indiana University Bloomington and his MFA from Pratt Institute in NYC. Recent solo shows include Garden of Music at Diane Rosenstein in LA (2023), Joy Labyrinth at Morgan Lehman in NYC (2021), and Hanging Gardens at Atelier W Pantin in France (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Intuitive Nature: Geometric Roots & Organic Foundations at the Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland OR (2023), Wayne Thiebaud Influencer: A New Generation, at Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis, CA (2021), Light (curated by Rico Gatson) at Miles McEnery Gallery in NYC (2021), and What's It All About at Jenkins Johnson Projects in Brooklyn (2021). Stopa teaches at Pratt Institute and is a contributing writer to Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Momus, and artcritical, among other art journals.