Jon Setter is an Australian–American photomedia artist who currently resides in New York City. He received his MFA from the National Art School in 2018. His work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally. He is preparing for a solo exhibition of new work in Sydney in October. Two books have been published about his work - The Urban Text and The Ballarat Text - and he is currently working on his next publication.
Setter’s photographs explore memory and the emotional sense of home within the places he documents. He aims to evoke familiarity by organising repeated patterns and forms from the urban landscape into concentrated image sections. This orderly presentation creates what he describes as an 'alternative portrait' of place - one that makes visible what might otherwise go unnoticed.
Jon Setter’s work is produced as part of an ongoing exploration that attempts to reveal the unseen aspects that shape how we experience urban spaces and architecture.
Often working with subjects discovered by chance on unprescribed walks, he documents from peculiar viewpoints the details people walk past but may not consciously observe. He methodically organises the repeated colours, patterns, materials and textures of the urban vernacular to develop an abstracted expression of space.
His hope is that by cutting through the chaos of our urban surroundings and instead presenting them as simple and clean compositions can help expand our reading and understanding of the spaces we interact with most. Jon was born in Detroit, Michigan and currently lives in New York City.