Jeff Colson (born 1957) is an American artist. Colson was born in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

in 1957. He uses diverse materials in painted and sculpted works that reflect both pop and

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

. His work often employs ''trompe l’oeil'' effects, in which one material creates the effect of a very different material. His work has been exhibited in private and public spaces, and belongs to collections in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. In 2012 he was awarded a

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

fellowship. His brother is artist

Greg Colson Greg Colson (born April 23, 1956) is an American artist best known for works that straddle the line between painting and sculpture that address concepts of efficiency and order. Using scavenged materials, Colson allows the physicality of his ma ...

Solo exhibitions

Colson had solo exhibitions at Maloney Fine Art, Los Angeles in 2015 and 2014. In a ''Los Angeles Times'' review of former show, Leah Ollman called Colson a "wizard at trompe l’oeil illusion" and "canny subversion," describing his sculpture in wood, resin, paint and urethane, ''Stacks'' (2015), as "an absurdist ode to paper";Leah Ollman
"Review: Jeff Colson, wizard of illusion, at Maloney Fine Art"
''Los Angeles Times'', November 21, 2015. Accessed April 13, 2020. Catherine Wagley of ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'' described his near-life-size wood sculpture of an overflowing garage, ''Roll Up'' (2014), as "arresting," "familiar and believable … with flourishes that are just slightly off."Catherine Wagley
"5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week, Including a Dog With a Pink Leg"
''LA Weekly'', November 25, 2014. Accessed April 10, 2020. In 2010, 2009, 2004 and 2002, he had solo exhibitions at Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA.
Ace Gallery artist bio. Accessed Oct 23, 2015. Prior to those exhibitions, Colson had three shows at Griffin Contemporary in Venice, California and four shows at Angles Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, among others.

Group exhibitions

Colson's work has been represented in numerous group exhibitions including those at the Pasadena Museum of California Art in 2017, Los Angeles Municipal Gallery (2013), Frederick R. Weisman Collection, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California (2011), Sammlung Rosenkranz, University Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany (2002), Leo Castelli, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, New York (2000),

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

(1999),

The Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a Manhattan, New York, museum and a nonprofit exhibition space that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at ...

, New York and

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, Los Angeles, California (1999), Museum of Modern Art, Rijeka, Yugoslavia (1990),

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

/Parson School of Design, Los Angeles, California (1990), Wonzimer Gallery, Los Angeles, California (2020).

Selected collections

Colson’s art belongs to the collections of the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Collection of Count

Giuseppe Panza Giuseppe Panza di Biumo (23 March 1923 – 24 April 2010) was a collector of modern art. He lived in Milan and Varese, Italy. Life and work Giuseppe Panza was born on March 23, 1923, in Milan. His father, Ernesto, was a wine distributor who i ...

di Buomo, the Rosenkranz Foundation (Berlin), and the

Laguna Art Museum The Laguna Art Museum (LAM) is a museum located in Laguna Beach, California, on Pacific Coast Highway. LAM exclusively features California art and is the oldest cultural institution in the area. It has been known as the Laguna Beach Art Associati ...

Awards

Colson was awarded a John Simon

Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

in 2012 and a City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Fellowship in 2015.
Maloney Fine Art. Los Angeles, California. Accessed, Oct 23, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colson, Jeff Living people American artists 1957 births