Artist Spotlight: Jason Boyd Kinsella

This week we take a look at the captivating work of Jason Boyd Kinsella.

Originally from Toronto, Jason Boyd Kinsella has rapidly gained international recognition after a 30-year painting hiatus that ended in 2019. Kinsella’s art is characterised by a mastery of perspective, portraiture, and contemporary themes, delving deep into the intricate realm of the human psyche to unveil humanity's multifaceted psychological makeup. He is currently based in Oslo, Norway.

While Kinsella’s canvases evoke the clean and precise surfaces of Old Master’s works, his aesthetics and techniques are undeniably contemporary. He begins by drawing, a traditional pencil-and-paper process that reflects his appreciation for line and form. He then transfers his sketches to a computer software, which allows him to play around with different shapes and colours. These digital renderings become the basis for his oil paintings. The sculptural qualities of his two-dimensional paintings have — to no surprise — manifested in bronze and mixed media sculptures.

At first glance, Kinsella’s work reveals the familiar human form, but these geometric fragments, used by the artist like building blocks, symbolise the complexity of the human condition and the endless combinations of character traits that define us. Inspired by personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Kinsella comments on our digital age, shaped by social media, where people easily switch between and adopt multiple identities simultaneously. His art provokes thought and reflection, allowing viewers to contemplate the dualities of technology and humanity in defining our contemporary existence.

Jason Boyd Kinsella: “My visual language telegraphs this impermanence by illustrating our existence as a delicate assemblage of shapes unbound by flesh.”

Kinsella is releasing his second print, Carlos, with Unit London today to accompany his solo exhibition, Anatomy of the Radiant Mind, on view at the gallery (3 October - 4 November 2023).

Photos courtesy of Unit London.