“Hurricane Waters” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 30×24 inches
TERRAIN / JOSHUA NISSEN KING
JUNE 15 – JULY 9, 2016
OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 7-10 PM
Campfire Gallery is pleased to present TERRAIN, our second solo exhibition with San Francisco artist Joshua Nissen King. The show will consist of a series of new paintings that continue to explore his interest in the junction of the artificial and the natural, and a process that combines both vision and improvisation in his vivid, imaginary landscapes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is an accumulation of referenced object, color, shape, and space. There is no sketch, or blueprint for what the piece ‘should’ look like. Centering on the idea of artificiality encroaching upon the natural world, my process allows me to actively feel the tension of foreign objects appearing in what might have been a pristine landscape. I begin with a reference image but very rarely end with the same one. My work demands organic growth, every mark is dependent on its predecessor, each color a response to nearby colors. Marks of varying weights, gather in the imaginary space, similar to the effect of the ebbs and flows that occur in the natural world. If I had sketched an image, formulated an idea for where each piece would go, I would have already pre-planned the composition and the space, therefore inhibiting the organic process that plays out on the canvas – where is the fun? What excites and interests me are the endless possibilities with each piece.
Joshua Nissen King is a painter and colorist whose vivid landscapes commingle the natural and the man-made in a way that often feels dream-like and takes on a surreal quality. His work stems from an underlying investigation in the world he lives in through a love of nature and imagination. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi and raised in Northern California, he currently lives and works in San Francisco as a professional artist and is the co-founder and director of Merchants of Reality, an artist-driven non-profit organization. After graduating from the Oxbow School of the Arts in Napa where he studied under Raymond Saunders, he received his B.F.A. from California State University, San Francisco in 2010. King has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows in the Bay Area and throughout California.
“Traverse” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 48×24 inches
“Impasse” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 36×24 inches
“Gateway” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 30×24 inches
“Nature vs. Nurture” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 48×36 inches
“Tunnel Vision” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 24×24 inches
“Too Little, Too Late” 2016, oil, acrylic, aerosol, mixed-technique on wood panel, 24×24 inches