Jason Shawn Alexander is an artist living and working in Los Angeles.  His intimate works penetrate to the core of human integrity, often depicting images of figures wrenched in that critical space where the strained coordination of mind, body, and spirit hangs in the balance of existential woe.  Abstract elements now and again emerge by way of exaggerated gestures, elongated limbs, the doubling or tripling of images, hints of apparitions, or the intrusion of foreign materials and text into the paint, which satisfy the rich psychological nature of Alexander's work.  Suggesting an intense personal narrative, his paintings are imbued with an essential human drama that is his signature quality. He cites major influences in Francis Bacon, Anselm Kiefer, Kathe Kollwitz, Cy Twombly, and Patrick Graham. 

Jason Shawn Alexander’s work prompts the human connection. Writers, critics, and casual observers have brought up the “emotive” qualities of his figures on numerous occasions. This is agreeable to the extent that a certain brand of emotion is present. Psychoanalytically, Alexander’s content causes one to think of Jacques Lacan and the manner in which the philosopher beautifully distinguished desire from need and demand. What is left after the requisite demand for needs is satisfied? Simply put, unsatisfied desire and hence the yearning, writhing, and counter-posed nature of the figures in his paintings.

Alexander has participated in American and international solo and group exhibitions at numerous galleries, museums, and art fairs including Art From the New World at the Bristol City Museum, Bristol, England, Outwin Boochever Portrait Painting and Sculpture Exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, Art Miami, Miami Project, Scope Miami, Strychnin Gallery in Berlin, Germany, and Merry Karnowski Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

He has also worked over 20 years as an illustrator. Primarily working in Comic books, he has earned two Eisner award nominations and the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators. He’s created, written and illustrated his own critically acclaimed title, EMPTY ZONE, through Image comics.  He has also co-created titles like FROSTBITE for Vertigo/DC comics and worked with publishers like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Oni Press.  He has also supplied art and storyboards for independent and short films, as well as motion comics for films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Predators.

Jason Shawn Alexander was born in Tennessee in 1975. At 41 years of age, he is painting and drawing from Sherman Oaks, CA where he lives with his wife and daughter.