Superfluid was a 3-person Contemporary art summer exhibition at the James Oliver Gallery in Philadelphia, which rans June 18th through August 13th 2022. The exhibition features works by Philadelphia-based artists Maija Miettinen, Jason Andrew Turner, and Jason Chen. Across their distinct methods, the artists coincide in this grouping amidst the gestalt of patterned repetition and resulting fluidity of movement.
Jason Chen is an artist and gallery owner originally from Guangzhou, China. He is a Photographer specializing in Fashion, Editorial, and Alternative Process Photography. In 2012, Chen shifted his dry-plate tintypes practice to photo weaving. He began using two images taken within seconds of each other, then cut and wove them together. Because of his background in film and animation, Chen explores ways to incorporate the “Fourth Dimension” - Time - into his work. Photo weaving allows him to do this by exploring movement and mutation.
Pictured: Jason Chen, A Mortal Diety, 28x38", Hand-woven archival pigment print, 2022
Hailing from Birmingham, AL, Jason Andrew Turner uses repetitive mark making in concert with coded color theory to engage in themes of mental health, cause and effect, psychic connection, and play. Working mostly in water based materials, almost always with an element of sumi ink, Turner’s abstract works dance between the mechanical and spiritual. The work focuses on the concrete and the ethereal questions that determine our existence and connectivity, thus contrasting memory and experience through the lens of meditation and the unconscious.
Jason Andrew Turner, Codependent, Sumi Ink and Acrylic on MDF
Jason Andrew Turner, Until It's Over, 16x20", Sumi Ink and Acryilic on Canvas
Maija Miettinen is a visual artist born and raised in Finland but has lived and worked in the US for most of her adult life. With inspiration drawn from traditional Finno-Ugric folk art and patterns, Miettinen uses abstract, simple shapes such as circles, squares and lines in different configurations-while painting them free hand and without any templates or aids. With an effort to make each shape and layer as “perfect” as possible, Miettinen allows the imperfections of the hand to show.
Maija Miettinen, Resonance, 48x60", Acrylic and Enamel on Canvas, 2022