The UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art will open “PLAY” featuring the work of Jason Chase and Sean O’Meallie with a public reception and artist lectures beginning at 5 p.m. Oct. 24 at the campus gallery, GOCA1420.
The exhibit will continue through Dec. 13. The public reception and admission to the gallery are free.
Chase, a 2003 UCCS graduate, paints at larger-than-life scale rendering hyper-realistic and brightly colored works that reference Americana and pop culture sources. O’Meallie is known for creating eye-catching, thought-provoking beautifully crafted wood and multi-media sculptures with multi-layered content. The exhibit is part of the Gerry Riggs Memorial Fund Exhibition Series and funded in part by UCCS Visual and Performing Art Department. Riggs served as director of the Gallery of Contemporary Art for 15 years before retiring in 2006. He died in 2009.
About the Artists
Jason Chase received his bachelor’s degree from UCCS in 2000 and a master’s in fine arts from Boston University in 2003 where he studied with artist John Walker. Chase has exhibited in Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. He is currently represented in Boston by the Gold (Au) Gallery on Tremont Street. He teaches college-level drawing and painting in Boston and the surrounding area.
“I was raised by a television in suburban America — tuned in to all the big, bold, shiny things being sold in big, bold, shiny commercials,” Chase said. “One of my first memories is the colors of the cereal aisle flashing by as I rode in my mom’s grocery cart. I still see things this way. I’m more likely to notice an ad on the side of the highway than the forest behind it. We all try to isolate ourselves from the unfamiliar. I’m exploring it with these works.”
O’Meallie is from New Orleans. He studied art at the University of New Orleans and served as assistant to noted artist Ida Kohlmeyer. For 10 years he worked in New York City as a toy inventor for the international marketplace. O’Meallie moved to Colorado in 1977 and taught studio art at UCCS for nine years.
“In my work I usually draw on intellectual, visual and spatial opportunities presented by circumstance to communicate possibility,” O’Meallie said. “In this, I employ the semiotics of popular culture, human perception and habituation in self-conscious ways.”
O’Meallie’s sculptures have been exhibited and toured in the U.S. and Europe. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Art & Design in New York City, The Decorative Arts Museum in Little Rock, Ark., The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and The Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo. His monumental sculpture “Cowboy Pajamas,” a 20-foot painted bronze sculpture of an abstract cowboy with his guns drawn, is permanently installed in downtown Denver. In 2011, O’Meallie created The Manitou Chair Project, a half-mile long outdoor installation utilizing the people, townscape and possessions of the residents of Manitou Springs.
GOCA is a regional hub of contemporary art, culture, and conversation. By featuring world-class artists, hosting artist and expert talks, and offering meaningful events, GOCA engages UCCS students, faculty, staff and Pikes Peak Region community members in contemporary culture and life. GOCA is a contemporary arts organization with two galleries. The first was founded in 1981 on the UCCS campus and a satellite downtown location opened in 2010 in the Plaza of the Rockies building.
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