Math Bass

Math Bass is an artist recognized for integrating performance into paintings and sculptures, employing formal elements such as solid colors, geometric imagery, raw materials, and visual symbols.

Biography of Math Bass

Math Bass was born in 1981 in New York, USA. Bass earned a Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College in 2003 and later pursued a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, completing the program in 2011.

The artist has exhibited at esteemed galleries such as Overduin & Kite, Human Resources, and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include "Math Bass: Full Body Parenthesis" at Lumber Room in Portland (2024), "Math Bass: Roses Are Red" at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York (2023), "clown alley" at Tanya Leighton Gallery in Berlin (2022), "Math Bass" at Henry Art Gallery in Seattle (2021), and many more. 

Math Bass has also participated in group showcases, including "Next Door" at Yuz Project Space of Art, Panlong, Shanghai (2023), "A Maze Zanine, Amaze Zaning, A-Mezzaning, Meza-9" at David Zwirner and Performance Space New York in New York (2022), "Plants Now!" at Vielmetter Los Angeles in Los Angeles (2022), among others.

Currently, the artist lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. 

Math Bass's Art Style

In Math Bass's work, recognizable forms emerge only to morph into abstraction, transforming into shapes devoid of specific meaning, akin to shadows manipulated by sunlight. Repetition serves as a tool to emphasize these forms, integral to a visual language Bass has been refining over the past several years in the Newz! series. Here, forms and symbols exist from various perspectives and interpretations, suggesting the fluidity of meaning.

Despite the graphic nature of the flat forms, Bass's geometric abstraction possesses a crispness and airiness. Thin layers of opaque paint are delicately applied to the raw canvas. Through their artistic practice, the artist explores the dissolution of conventional boundaries within the medium(s) and modes of presentation, actively involving the viewer in surreal and everyday experiences.