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Janay Butts
Biography on Jason Salavon
December 2, 2016
I was given a choice between many artists to learn about, connect with, and experience
their techniques to use and compile into my own artwork. I decided to pick Jason Salavon, an
artist I thought fit well with my style, theme, and perspective.
Jason Salavon was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in the year of 1970 and was later raised
in Texas. He received his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Texas in Austin where he also
received a Merit Scholarship in Transmedia. Four years later, Salavon completed his Master of
Fine Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago. After earning his degrees, he also designed and taught
courses as an instructor at The Art Institute of Chicago. Salavon currently is an associate
professor in Visual Arts and Computation Departments at the Art Institute of Chicago.
As of right now he is currently based in Chicago where it all began for Jason Salavon. He
has had many exhibitions in many places including; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles,
Columbus, Washington D.C., Huston, Seattle, Cologne, Seoul, London, Geneva, Basel, and
Paris, among many others. He has also been featured in many world renowned venues such as
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, and the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art. His art work consist of a different concept than other artist of his time period. Jason Salavon
is an American contemporary artist that uses communal material to present new perspectives on
art work with common references. In his work, it gives an unexpected but interesting pattern that
makes the viewer stand in awe. For the most part, his work consists of photographs but he puts a
twist on things for his viewers. He also has few works of art that are videos but he still manages
to do it in his sense of style.

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With Salavons different art techniques, many of his pieces are rather famous to the world
today. His most famous artwork known today is Every Playboy Centerfold, The decades finished
in 2002. This specific photograph was from a broader series that had began n 1997. The
photograph consist of photographs of mean averaging from every Playboy centerfold folded out
for the the four decades beginning in January 1960 through December 1999. To do make this
photo happen, he used many computer imaging skills and layers photo after photo on top of each
other to make such an abstract piece. Jason has had many awards given to him for his art work
and his hard work since his first one in 1997.
Another famous work of Jason Salavons is The Class of 1988 and The Class of 1967,
finished in 1998. The series began in 1997 when he decided to take graduation yearbook photos,
his and his mothers class, and apply the same process he used in the Playboy Centerfold to this
specific idea. The Class of 1967 is composed of all the members of his mothers graduation class.
One panel is all the mens photographs overlapping to give an abstract photo of all graduation
photos. Another panel is all the womens photographs overlapping as well. He did this same
process with his graduating class which was in the same hometown as his mothers graduating
class.
The last famous but unique work of art of Salavons is The Color Wheel which was
finished in 2012. This certain project builds almost an illusion to the viewers eye. The color
wheel is a combination of many photos from Google and also Bing collaborated in a wheel
formation organized like the colors on the color wheel.
Even though Jason Salavon is not a world known name, he has received several awards.
In 1997, he accepted the James Nelson Raymond fellowship award from The Art Institute of
Chicago. Just three years later, he received a Creative Capital Foundation Grant. In 2001, he

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received the Creative Capital Foundation Grant for the second time and also the Competitive
Funding award as well. From every year between 20002 and 2004, Jason Salavon had collected
three awards; Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, Veterans Monument for Soldier Field Commission Finalist, Digital Gallery Commission from The Museum of Contemporary Art in
Los Angeles, California. Just three years later, Jason also collected the Commission, McCormick
Place expansion in Chicago, Illinois. Finally, his last known award was given was The Franke
Faculty Fellowship, University of Chicago, IL. Commission, US Census Bureau headquarters,
Phase II, Suitland, MD.
The artworks I had done for my final project has similarities, as well as differences to
Jason Salavons artwork. In Salavons work, it has abstract a long with a sense of wildness and
vibe. For my two photos, I decided to give that same sense because I feel it keeps the viewer
interested, questioning, and on their toes. The specific one of the photos that I feel relates to
Jason Salavons artwork, is my photo of the eight ears. In many of his art pieces, I notice a lot of
color, repetition, and texture. It is almost like you can feel like vibes of his artwork. I got this
idea of doing repetition from one of his art pieces The Top 25 Grossing Films of All Time. It may
seem unclear on why this art pieces are similar. I had first gotten the idea of doing boxes but
wanting to add a little twist to it. I then decided that inside the different colored boxes, would be
an ear which is my theme. To incorporate my other theme, abstraction, I decided to add a backin-time, neon, wild vibe to the photo just like Salavon does in many of his photos. Also, having
the eight ears shows repetition of how he layers his photos, overlapping them to make an abstract
form. What makes my photo different from his is the fact that instead of layers the photo
intensively to the point of the abstraction not being able to understand what the object was, I

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decided to just place them side by side and adding many textures, colors, effects, a long with the
hue saturation being intense to bring abstract in a different form than he had done.
In my second photo, also has resemblance to his artwork as well. Again, I did a little
similar techniques but different enough that I was not completely copying his style. I decided to
try what Salavon did and overlap photos to make a different composition. Instead of overlapping
different photos, I had decided to use the same photo and just move the photo more and more a
different direction to give the feel of vibrating when looking at the photo. When looking at some
of Salavons work, sometimes he can give you a different illusion, in a sense. While making this
photos, I decided I wanted to also give an illusion. Adding the lines to the photograph, helped the
vibrating effect be more prevalently. The difference with this photo is that it is very close up,
compared with Salavons work. While research his artwork, I have noticed that he steps back and
embraces the object as a whole. Also, what I did different was that fact that instead of doing
different photos and overlapping them to form a different abstract composition, I decided to copy
the photograph and just move little by little in different directions.
After learning about Jason Salavon and his artwork, I have understood many effects in
Photoshop and learned how to use them in a way I never imagined. I have learned effects like the
overlapping concept and repetition, giving the thought of illusion, using designs and photoshop
effects to add abstraction in a different form, and making people feel just through a photo.