April Art Walk with Joshua Thompson
Every second Thursday of the month, the few Capitol Hill galleries crawl out of hiding and gather together to celebrate local artists. Chophouse Row is no exception. Although not an official gallery, our Concept Shop along with other retail spaces in Chophouse Row such as Honed and Amandine have taken to creating our own little art walk: one abundant in refreshments, live music in the courtyard, and art, obviously!
This April 12th at MOO-YOUNG we will be showing the vibrant work of Seattle based artist, Joshua Thompson.
Artist Bio:
Joshua Thompson holds a BFA from the University of West Florida, 2005, and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2008, and has lived and worked in Seattle, Washington since 2013. He has worked across many mediums and processes throughout the years but continually comes back to oil painting as his primary focus. There are many things that filter into and out of his work, one common influence comes from natural and man-made structures both as objects and the processes by which they are formed. Building, growth, excavation, decomposition, destruction, symbiosis, temporality, birth, death, and rebirth are all frequent components that dictate process and metaphors within his work. Color is another important component to his paintings. Though some color theory does come into play, keeping an open palette allows him to paint more intuitively and in constant dialogue with the work. Also, utilizing both direct and indirect painting processes allows the paintings to guide him through realizing where they ultimately reside, created by but outside of him.
Statement:
My work is, in many facets, about process. Process can be defined many different ways, from the physical tactile process of the act of painting, to the emotional or the conceptual processes that can create different phenomena beyond the technical. These modes of working are constantly filtering in to and out of my art making practice, each lending something important to the ultimate weight of pieces. The choice of format and materials also is relevant when it comes to paint as metaphor, as poetry. The primacy of fluid and stone echoes the idea of the human connection with nature and the Earth. We are an extension of the Earth, which has its own cycles and systems and processes that dictate and drive how we navigate its terrain. These ideas manifest themselves over time and are ever shifting throughout. Try as I might, it is often quite a challenge to excavate them to the surface, to exist.