In 2019 JRM took part of the Baustein Building’s inaugural artist residency program, featuring Pasqualina Azzarello, and Zoe Sasson. The artists have each created individual bodies of work that are generative in nature and also informed by their experiences in a shared studio space. Their respective practices culminated in an exhibition titled “Coalescence”, which took place at Readywipe Gallery on Saturday January 25, 2020 from 5-8pm. Azzarello, Montgomery, and Sasson each explored materials and process with an approach that is active, physical, and engaging. Each of the artists’ inquiries and investigations are actualized through a variety of media, methodologies, and subject matter - and when shown together, coalesce to create a space that reveals the diverse complexities of each artist’s work as well as the distinct value of creating work in a shared studio environment.

Jason R. Montgomery, or JRM, is a Chicano/Indigenous Californian writer, painter, and playwright from El Centro, California. In 2016, along with Poet Alexandra Woolner, and illustrator Jen Wagner, JRM founded Attack Bear Press in Easthampton, MA. In 2019, JRM’s art was featured at CreativeArts Workshop in New Haven, CT, and his solo show Aqui Y Alla at the MapSpace Gallery in Easthampton. JRM completed graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Department of Theatre and Dance with an emphasis in Playwriting and Chicano Studies in 2006. JRM’s work for the Coalescence show at Readywipe Gallery is an exploration of the cultural synthesis intrinsic to decolonization. Using found collage and construction materials, he merges Kumeyaay, Chumash, and Chicano designs and aesthetics to explore the history of US colonization, while synthesizing a decolonized motif that honors the complicated heritage of the postcolonial subject.