January 3 – March 5, 2023

CENTER FOR VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS - ATRIUM

Artist Reception: Thursday, January 26, from 5-8pm

Geometry Forward brings together two bodies of work: One series emphasizes symmetry and a striving for the balance of a central core, while the other advances a new model of uneven synthesis, strictly constraining such order and having dissolved any center.

Jon Merritt has a playful desire to make art with geometric shapes, once fostered in the local scene of Northwest Indiana, grew into an obsession and was rigorously formed into a technical discipline. After over a decade of countless experiments, the artist intends to present a point of resolution in a continuous creative process.

About The Artist:

Jon Merritt lives and works in Rockport, Maine, and on Plum Island in Massachusetts. He completed his MFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015 and his BFA at the California Institute of the Arts in 2012. Originally from Munster, Indiana, his passion for painting and geometric abstract art was born while working with artist Tom Torluemke at Uncle Freddy’s Gallery during high school. His influences include science fiction, 20th-century modern art, furniture design, voxel-based video games, and pre-modern examples of geometric design and furniture construction. Assisted by refined woodworking and computer graphics skills, his current work is divided between populating ongoing painting series and realizing his vision in new media.