Jason Yates

[http://www.fastfriendsinc.com l] Jason Yates (born July 11, 1972) is a visual artist who is based in Los Angeles, CA. Yates began exhibiting his art in 1991 and in 1992 collaborated with George Clinton (Parliament/ Funkadelic) on a series of drawings and paintings.

He was raised in Beverly Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Northwest Detroit. He attended Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Michigan. He later attended and was expelled from Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. He was affiliated with Detroit artists John Bell and Matt Blake, former members of Propellar Studio. He attended The University of Michigan's School of Fine Arts and received his BFA in 1995. Yates moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and attended Art Center's Master of Fine Arts Program and received his MFA in 2000. Yates studied with artists Mike Kelley, Mayo Thompson, Larry Johnson, Liz Larner, and Bruce Hainley.

Yates is best known for the decidedly influential Fast Friends Inc. project, a body of work that synthesizes various cultural histories in the form of highly obsessive, large format xerographed drawings that are hand colored. Within the context of concert posters- the highly regressive and tension filled works on paper are covered in novelty stickers, googly eyes, reflective mylar, yarn, and glitter. These extremely labored, one-of-a-kind posters were exhibited, free for the taking, in public spaces around Hollywood and proliferate on internet social networks such as MySpace. The art decadently promoted assorted Los Angeles bands such as Ariel Pink (aka Ariel Rosenberg), Holy Shit, and The Bubonic Plague. Yates has also made sculptural environments, mixed media paintings, and various projects for Animal Collective, Black Dice, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Don Bolles, Portland Oregon's Dead Moon, and created the covers for the Los Angeles art and literary journal - "penny-ante"'.

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