Morris Graves Museum of Art
Eureka, CA
Unreliable Narrator: Jason Lahr
March 29–May 18, 2025
Reception: Saturday April 5, 6–9pm
In his solo exhibition Unreliable Narrator, Associate Professor of Painting and Director of Graduate Studies Jason Lahr presents a compelling body of work that explores painting as a contemporary narrative form, blending text that he writes, appropriated imagery, and diverse visual languages to investigate the complexities of working-class American masculinity. Drawing from narrative theory, contemporary and postmodern fiction, semiotics, feminism, and film theory, Lahr’s paintings challenge conventional perceptions of gender, class, and identity.
At the heart of Lahr’s practice is a dynamic interplay between digital and analog methodologies. Traditional oil and acrylic techniques converge with digital tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and computer cut vinyl stencils, to create a layered, intertextual network of meaning. The visual language of digital culture—ranging from video games and early computer graphics to .jpg glitches—merges with references to illustration, print media, and graphic design to explore generational shifts in masculinity from Generation X and beyond. Integrating digital aesthetics and processes that are realized through traditional painting methods, Lahr’s work examines the narratives and assumptions that shape contemporary masculinity through a diverse and evolving visual vocabulary.
Unreliable Narrator invites viewers to consider the ways in which cultural narratives influence identity formation. This innovative approach not only bridges the gap between painting traditions and digital culture but also sparks critical conversations about gender, class, and the visual lexicon of modern society.
Unreliable Narrator is accompanied by a full-color catalog with an essay by Dominic Molon, the Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art and Interim Chief Curator at the RISD Museum.
This exhibition is made possible in part by support from the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, and the Department of Art, Art History & Design at the University of Notre Dame.
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