JARED WEISS
PORTRAITS
ICONIK LUPE
OPENING APRIL 19TH 4-6 PM
314 S GUADALUPE
ON VIEW APRIL 19-JUNE 10 2025
​
Artist Statement
Jared Weiss began working on a body of portrait paintings and drawings during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. As a teacher, Weiss turned towards this subject matter as a practical type of demonstration material while teaching online. He soon realized that it was a way of connecting to his community during a time when isolation was necessary. Prior to this shift, Weiss’s work utilized the figure in ways that were more anonymous by painting models that were turned away from the viewer or where the face was obstructed. This created a sense of anonymity and allowed the figures to occupy a position of a generic “anybody,” which an audience can interpret in an open-ended way. Over the past five years, Weiss’s subjects have turned directly toward the viewer, letting their specific personality become an integral part of the narrative. Weiss thinks of this as a way to intrinsically celebrate the individuals in his life and community.
​Bio
Jared Weiss is an artist and educator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His figurative works explore ideas of psychological narrative, ambiguity, and the complex relationship between one’s internal world and environment. Weiss’s applications of exaggerated color in deliberately gestural, layered brush strokes mimic the imperfections of sensory recall as memories mingle with layered fragments of the human psyche. Emerging from these layers are dream-like depictions of figures engaged in their own abstracted worlds, blurring with their surroundings in scenes somehow strangely familiar. Weiss received his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Currently, he serves as an Associate Professor at the Santa Fe Community College where he heads the Drawing and Painting Program.