Tim Hussey will exhibit works from his latest series, “Bathos” which the artist began in response to his past work’s tendency toward vague narratives, metaphors, memories and dreams.  Bo Joseph will exhibit works from “A Lexicon of Persistent Absence” series.  From myriad sources Joseph scavenges images of object that transcend cultural boundaries without losing their intrinsic charge.

20 QUESTIONS WITH BO JOSEPH

1. What project are you currently working on?

I am working on several projects at the same time: my ongoing series “A Lexicon of Persistent Absence,” a series of large drawings just shown in New York, and I am also preparing materials for a new series of photograms.

2. Where are you finding your inspiration these days?

I have been co-opting imagery and visual references from so many sources for years, ranging from auction catalogues and encyclopedias to museum catalogues and photographs I shoot. Most recently I have been scavenging forms from German children’s scrap-booking clip art, which I started using during a three month stay in Berlin in 2009. I had three dozen of them scanned, enlarged and then laser cut out of acrylic sheets so I can use them like templates in the transfer of imagery to the surfaces of my work. The photogram series will start with x-rays of objects from a museum collection.

3. How do you see your work evolving in your most current stage? 

I see a wider range of imagery entering the work. For a long time I was sourcing imagery almost exclusively from tribal ritual objects. More recently and going forward, my sources have expanded to include so-called “Western” historical and contemporary cultural sources.

4. What is your favorite place to see art?

One of my favorite museums is the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. I appreciate looking at the very progressive contemporary art they show in a modernized yet historical setting, the juxtaposition of old and new. I also like the Menil in Houston, TX, it’s naturally lit galleries and glass divisions create spacial superimposition of objects.

5. You have said that your time in Berlin influenced your latest body of work. How does the feel of Berlin translate into your art?

I think of Berlin as a very new old city: it is a city with a long history that has been reinvented every 50 years or so politically, socially, ideological and architecturally. They have also managed to document the traces of these eras so you can virtually be in many periods at once, wherever you are in the city. This layering of information along with the symbolic preservation of ideological icons relates to many aspects of my work.

6. What are the deciding factors in choosing the media for your pieces? 

For a long time the deciding factors were intuitively based, involving lots of experimentation with materials, until I started to see devices emerge as a kind of personal vocabulary. As my work has become more contextual, branching out into non-painting media, the choices have more to do with how I might investigate and test my ideas. For example, I have been co-opting cultural icons in paintings and drawings, but soon will see how my methodologies stand up to the process of photogramography.

7. Confluence, your upcoming show with Tim features acrylic and transfer on paper. How does this process work? 

I lay down a layer of non-objective gestural painting using ink-like acrylics, layering invented imagery as quasi-landscapes, simultaneously evoking depth and flatness. Onto this background, I transcribe outlines from various sources using transfer paper similar to carbon paper, often with the original ground covered up so I can’t always see what parts of the background I am drawing over. Using semi-opaque white acrylic, I ink in the negative shapes between the forms I transcribed. The result is a kind of stenciled or masked layer of negative shapes, through which portions of the abstract background are revealed.

8. We are seeing more vibrant colors in Confluence. What inspires this draw to color? 

Part of the reason I work with cultural icons or archetypes is in order to investigate how their resonance declines, intensifies or morphs when subjected to contextual shifts. I am interested in color’s shifting resonance in the same way. These sourced objects become imbued with particular intrinsic energy through their making and through the proliferation of images. I see colors in terms of their energy as well.

9. What is the idea behind the title, A Lexicon of Persistent Absence?

This series began during a three month stay in Berlin in the Fall of 2009. Within Berlin’s famously cyclical layering of destruction and reinvention, the “absences” are persistently and inexorably woven with everything physically “present,” a condition of inversion that mirrors many aspects of the working process in this series. The symbols of people, places and ideas that no longer exist, in which societies invest meaning—whether carved ancestor figures in an extinct African culture, or paving stones set in streets across Berlin where the Wall once stood—provide many of the visual references, which are scavenged from field photos and various printed sources.

10. You attended RISD with Tim Hussey. How has your time together influenced your work?

Whatever influences we have had on each have been indirect or tangental to our friendship. I don’t know that we have influenced each other so much interns of imagery, material or process, but more in endorsing the other’s efforts and providing a supportive audience for each other.

11. What differences do you find comparing the New York art world with the one of Berlin?

In Berlin, the art world seems less preoccupied with status and more interested in discourse than in New York.

12. What is the most indispensable item in your studio?

A 5-by-6-foot slop sink in which I hose down many of my works.

13. Do you collect anything?

Tribal Rugs, African art, 20th century furniture, contemporary drawings

14. What is your favorite after-work watering hole or restaurant in NYC?

Still looking. I just had a great meal at the Fat Radish on the Lower East Side. That could rank up there.

15. Are art historical references recognizable to you in your work?

For anyone who looks at African art, European Decorative Art, or Antiquities, the references are there to find in abundance.

16. What under-appreciated artists do you think people should know about?

James Scott, Alfred DeCredico, Michael Oatman, Todd Bartel

17. Who is your favorite living artist? 

Anselm Kiefer

18. What type of visual conversation can we expect to see in your joint show with Tim, Confluence? 

A dark sense of humor and an appetite for the absurd. Energetic mark-making. Abstraction and referential imagery mingled in the same arena.

19. You talk about deconstructing images in your work as part of abstraction. What is revealed through deconstruction?

Opportunities for reevaluation. For me abstraction is an un-defining process. Deconstructive and chancy techniques provide some of the methods for intensifying this.

20. What are your aspirations for the future?

Collaboration with various museums in the execution a body of photograms, capturing the shadows of art objects “en situ,” as they are lit in the museum galleries. A series of large scale canvases as well as a giant tarp scroll in the “A Lexicon of Persistent Absence” series. I am also interested in site specific wall paintings incorporating gestural grounds through which silhouetted forms are carved into the sheetrock or plaster.

View more work by Bo Joseph here

The Rebekah Jacob Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina—with an in-depth focus on modern art and photography of the American South—has moved to 502 King Street. The new location triples the space and places the gallery in the forefront of Charleston’s renaissance… Paul Amador has closed his gallery on 57th Street and is dealing privately… A number of Chelsea galleries are on the move: look for new locations for the Sasha Wolf Gallery, Daniel Cooney Fine Art and Foley Gallery. Read more…

On or near Upper King Street are several arts groups and venues: Pure Theatre, the Charleston Music Hall, Redux Contemporary Art Center, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and Rebekah Jacob Gallery. The move made sense, Jacob says. “We’ve always been called a pioneer in the arts scene in Charleston. We’ve always done our own thing; we’ve never really run with the pack.”
Besides, she needed a bigger space, liked the energy of Upper King and wanted to attract a different demographic — “younger, more hip, more progressive.”
Jacob says foot traffic during the day is about twice what it was farther down the street. Sales are up, and visitors linger longer in the gallery. “We see our friends more,” she says. “There are a lot of creatives around us,” such as web designers, innovative foodies and artists. “It’s just a much more creative environment.” Read more…

Mavis Staples’ career is one of the most remarkable in all of music, not only for its relentless spirit and longevity, but also for the period of history it spans. The gospel music of The Staples Singers in the 1950s blossomed into the 1960s popular mainstream on the strength of Staples’ voice, into the epicenter of the civil rights movement, then on to collaborations with such major artists as Bob Dylan, Prince, and Ry Cooder. Her newest collaborator is Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who produced her 2011 Grammy-winning You Are Not Alone. From the National Endowment for the Arts to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recognition and awards have finally caught up with one of the great voices of our time. Read more about the event…

April 27, 2012 |  Charleston Grit Blog

Rory Johnson, Ayoka Lucas, Vail Duggan, and Rebekah Jacob enjoy the launch party of CHALRESTON GRIT, a blog about the smart..bold…local…and now!  View more …

Taken in 1959, this photograph by Cuban photographer Osvaldo Salas captures a moment of conversation between Fidel Castro and Ernest Hemingway. While living in Havana, Hemingway had sponsored a fishing tournament in which the two icons participated and bonded. The photograph renders the individual personalities of the two and simultaneously narrates their relationship.

The Salas photographers have been recognized as some of the most important figures working with revolutionary subject matter. Osvaldo was born in Havana in 1914 and immigrated to New York at a young age where he worked and eventually began his career as a publicity photographer, working his way up photographing important social and political subjects. Once established as a revolutionary photographer, Osvaldo photographed Fidel Castro in New York City as well as in Havana upon invitation by Castro himself. Osvaldo and his son Roberto became semi-official photographers for Fidel and were strong supporters of the Revolution in Cuba. Roberto followed closely in his father’s footsteps, becoming one of the most successful Cuban photographers, catching the eye of Castro and documenting the Revolution.

The subject of the image itself is iconic to Cuba as to this day the tie between Hemingway and the country remains a legacy. Castro had been supportive of Hemingway living in Havana and Hemingway supported Castro’s Revolution, even when he returned to the United States. The relationship that would breed mutual influence and leave behind a legacy is affectively captured in the Salas photograph.

For inquiries regarding this piece contact info@rebekahjacobgallery.com

Briana Jacobs: Wikipedia says you’re a Dark Comic, is your stand up any good?

Kevin Taylor: No, but I also hold the world record for most consecutive cinder blocks broken.

BJ: Kevin Earl Taylor dot com highlights your time based art. What color are time warps anyway?

KT: Fuchsia, of course.

BJ: What IS the perfect way to paint an oyster?

KT: Just lay down some turkey umber and let the turpentine eat at it. You can use a rag and q-tips here and there, additionally.

BJ: What do you plan on doing for the impending Apocalypse: Party or Panic?

KT: Party like it’s 1999.

BJ: What was the story behind flying cats?

KT: It’s pretty boring. In fact, I can hardly remember it. To paraphrase Kenny Powers, “Sometimes in life, you gotta dump some of the smaller memories to make room for the bigger ones.” Besides, I’ve got much better stories to tell, if you seek entertainment.

Read more and view works by Kevin Taylor…