Artist Registry
The White Columns Curated Artist Registry is an online platform for emerging and under-recognized artists to share images and information about their respective practices. The Registry seeks to create a context for artists who have yet to benefit from wider critical, curatorial or commercial support. To be eligible, artists cannot be affiliated with a commercial gallery in New York City.
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RESUME
Based in rural, west-central Illinois, Jason Ackman (b.1975) is an artist and educator best known for his sculptures and installations made from used construction lumber, brick, and other discarded building materials. Over the past decade, Ackman has been creating contemplative works that, while composed of evocative and familiar forms, elude specific or singular interpretations. These works, with their clearly visible construction methods, are based on concepts of transition and discernment and are often painted in shades of black, white, and gray, or left in their natural, unadorned state.
The repetition and combination of forms and materials are salient features of Ackman’s sculptures and installations. By continually recycling, modifying, and creating new arrangements of favored configurations and objects—columns, gantries, chairs, and architectural elements —Ackman expands the limits of this decade-long search to understand our place in a global society constructed of man-made boundaries.
During the summer months, when he is not in the studio, he and his wife, Christy, co-direct the Farwell House Artist-in-Residency program, which works with artists from across the country.
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Education
BA 1997 Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL
Grants/Awards
2008 TICA School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2012 Best in Sculpture – 64 Arts – America: Now and Here (Eric Fischl, juror)
2012 Award of Excellence – Art Saint Louis XXVIII: The Exhibition (Richard V. West, juror)
2012 Finalist in Kalos Foundation Art Prize
2014 Cash Award Winner - Evanston Biennial (Sergio Gomez, juror)
2017 Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant
2024 2nd Place Award - 43rd Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition
Group Exhibitions
2011 Re-duced, Re-mused, Re-cycled, West Central Illinois Arts Center, Macomb, IL
2011 College Arts Invitational, Figge Arts Center, Davenport, IA
2012 64 Arts – America: Now and Here, Buchanan Center for the Arts, Monmouth, IL
2012 Art St. Louis XXVIII: The Exhibition, Art Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO
2013 St. Charles Community College Printmaking and Sculpture Invitational, SCC St. Charles, MO
2013 Funtemporary, West Central Illinois Arts Center, Macomb, IL
2013 Honors Awards Exhibition, Art Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO
2013 Play – ArtPrize 2013, UICA, Grand Rapids, MI
2014 Galex48, Galesburg Civic Arts Center, Galesburg, IL
2014 Evanston Biennial, Evanston Arts Center, Evanston, IL
2014 (Dis)Comfort Zones, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
2014 Reclaim, Remember, Repeat, Peoria Art Guild, Peoria, IL
2017 Midwest Artists’ Studios Group Show, Walker's Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee, WI
2018 At The Surface, Foundry Arts Center, St. Charles, MO
2019 WIU Alumni Exhibition, Western Illinois University Art Gallery, Macomb, IL
2020 Social Distance, The Hub Arts and Cultural Center, Rushville, IL
2023 Anniversary Exhibit, The Hub Arts and Cultural Center, Rushville, IL
2023 Ann Metzger Memorial National Biennial Exhibition, St. Louis Artist's Guild, St. Louis, MO
2024 43rd Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA
Solo Exhibitions
2016 Transition, Applebee Gallery, MacMurray College, Jacksonville, IL
2021 Navigating Borders, Western Illinois University Art Gallery, Macomb, IL
2022 Tension/Suspension, Sheldon Hall Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2023 Undertow, solo installation, Kemper Atrium, Sheldon Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2025 The Border Is The Entrance, St. Louis Artist's Guild, St. Louis, MO
Commissions
Behind Closed Doors, Angad Arts Hotel, St. Louis, MO. Permanent installation.
Forthcoming outdoor installation, Sheldon Hall Galleries, St. Louis, MO (2025)
Press/Publications
Becherers, Joseph. “Joseph Becherer's ArtPrize 2013 Top 10: Focus on poetry of works.” MLive. MLive Media Group, 26 September 2013.
Kaczmarczyks, Jeffrey. “Art Prize 2013: Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk's top ten favorites represent works that stay with you.” MLive. MLive Media Group, 26 September 2013.
Wongpakdee, Patty. Art Without Waste:500 Upcycled and Earth-Friendly Designs. Beverly: Rockport Publishing, 2013. Print
Greymatter Gallery, “Jason Ackman – Rushville, Illinois”. Web blog post. 365Artists365Days. Frank Juarez Gallery and Greymatter Gallery, 14 Jan. 2014.
Juarez, Frank. 2015 Midwest Artist Studios Catalog and Workbook. Midwest Artist Studios Project, 2016. Print
Carey, Brainard, https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/jason-ackman/