Adventures Through the Anthropocene by Jason Sobottka

Painter Jason Sobottka expresses wildly imaginative and surrealist visions, on display at the Kirkland Public Library. View open hours.

Featured Artist

• Jason Sobottka, Painter

More Information about Adventures Through the Anthropocene

Artist’s Statement

Jason Sobottka’s current work, Adventures Through the Anthropocene depicts multiple organisms in a mutually beneficial relationship. Symbiotic mutualism rather than parasitism. Flora and fauna work so closely in tandem that they nourish or protect each other. The Nobel Prize winning meteorologist, Paul Crutzen, first mentioned the Anthropocene in 2000. This proposed geological period marks the conclusion of the Holocene epoch and begins when humankind dramatically shapes the natural systems of the planet.
Sobottka’s work asks how could nature evolve in that environment? What if the flora and fauna flourished? What could that look like?
This illustrative and ornamental work focuses detailed figural renderings, often shifting in between different dimensions. Often the drawings gradate from detailed naturalism towards abstraction. While there is great whimsy there is also dark humor.
Sobottka draws from the pictorial history within the medieval Christian Bestiary: Beasts from nature were depicted in grandiose style to showcase early zoological knowledge, often in conjunction with biblical allegory. The beasts in this body of work are created from a similar passion and while their forms may not be as naïve, the element of fantasy remains.

About the Artist

Jason Sobottka is a professional artist and arts educator. He is Lake Washington Institute of Technology’s first tenured visual art instructor. He exhibits his paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures around the nation. Jason was awarded the Winter 2012 Faculty Excellence Award.

Jason earned his Masters of Fine Art degree in visual art (with a minor in related fields-art history) from the University of Minnesota and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the University of Montana. He also holds an Associates Degree from Grays Harbor College.

All artwork displayed at the Kirkland Public Library Satellite Exhibition is for sale as marked by the Kirkland Arts Center.