Lives and works in New York, NY
Jake Still is an artist based in New York City. He holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA from Syracuse University. Still has exhibited internationally in Athens, Milan, Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles. Recent residencies include the NARS Foundation and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
Still’s paintings begin with writing, using fragments of poetic text to process lived experience before expanding them into broader reflections. Rather than illustrating the text directly, he uses it to establish a cadence that guides each work. Through layered washes, pours, stains, and restrained gestures, he builds atmospheric surfaces that seek to hold the emotional resonance of a fleeting moment.
As each painting develops, rhythm and metaphor move through the material itself. Layers shift, overlap, and gather depth, creating surfaces that feel suspended between memory and presence. The movement, density, and interaction of paint become extensions of the writing, translating its emotional weight into color, atmosphere, and form.
Still’s paintings evolve from an earlier sculptural practice centered on carved aluminum reliefs embedded with cast materials. Existing between painting and sculpture, these wall works use familiar yet elusive patterns, like speculative glyphs, to explore how material can embody metaphor. That sensibility continues in his paintings, where the surface is not simply an image, but a physical space where feeling, memory, and meaning take shape.
EDUCATION
2018 Master of Fine Arts, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2011 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
EXHIBITIONS
2026 Bending the Arc, Perry Lawson Fine Art, Nyack, NY
2024 Prospectors, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR
2024 A Precarious Night at Plumb Point, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR
2024 Body Objects, Room57 Gallery, New York, NY
2024 A Stone’s Throw, Storefront Media Gallery, 4Culture, Seattle, WA
2023 Mirror, Portal, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
2023 Shadow-work, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
2023 A Precarious Night at Plumb Point, VRAL, Milan Machinima Festival, Milan, IT
2023 Digital Rorschach, Green Kill, Kingston, NY
2021 CHEAPSHOT, Storefront Media Gallery, 4Culture, Seattle, WA
2021 Find Your Ritual, Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
2020 CHEAPSHOT, Darkest Before Dawn: Art in a Time of Uncertainty, Ethan Cohen KuBe, Beacon, NY
2020 0rphan Drift, Public Records TV Public Access, Brooklyn, NY
2019 The Glitch, Superposition Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Boiling Point, Superposition Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Material Matters, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2018 Commencement Exhibition, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2018 Thesis Exhibition, Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco, CA
2017 All College Honors Exhibition, Hubbell Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016 The Immediate Archive, Oakland, CA
2016 Shiro Oni Residency Exhibition, Onishi, JP
DISTINCTIONS
2023 NARS Foundation Residency, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Anderson Ranch Residency, Snowmass Village, CO
2018 Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship Award Finalist, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2016-2018 Graduate Merit Scholarship Award, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2016-2018 Fine Arts Scholarship Award, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2017 All College Honors Graduate Scholarship Award, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2016 Shiro Oni Residency, Onishi, JP