Jacob Kassay’s new works are made up of oriented strand board (OSB), an engineered wood similar to particle board. Here, flakes closest to the surface are photographed and printed atop the subject/substrate, and stand in for pixelated image data;  the actual and the depicted are collapsed onto a single stratum that compresses source and secondary information into a kind of schism. The effect of this attenuated rendering mimics the way we process virtual spaces where frames per second and point of view are simultaneously explored by both gamers and characters in the game itself.

This peripheral building material thus becomes a bridge that points toward a digital space, and removes the physical and spatially relative associations of the term "footage." To watch these works is to constantly strain the focal mechanism of the eye; they push us to understand not only the digital as it relates to the object, but what it means to stare at a subject through its picture.

Jacob Kassay was born in 1984 in Lewiston, New York. Past solo presentations have been held at the Albright Knox Art Gallery (curated by Cathleen Chaffee), The Kitchen, New York; and The Power Station, Dallas; and the ICA in London. He has been included in group exhibitions at The CCA Wattis Center for Contemporary Arts; Secession, Vienna; and MoMA PS1, New York.

A selection of these works are currently on display in the Project Room at 303 Gallery

For more information on Jacob Kassay please visit his artist page here or contact Kathryn Erdman at kathryn@303gallery.com