Joseph McNamara
On View: April 5 – 27, 2024
Reception: Friday, April 5, 5 – 7pm
Artist Remarks at 6 pm
“These paintings are documentaries. I prefer non-fiction to fiction.
The question I get asked most frequently is, 'How do you choose your subject matter?' and the answer is pattern recognition. Pattern recognition in this case is distinguishing a distinct visual rhythm in life situations encountered either by choice, which means traveling to pre-determined locations that I know will stimulate my curiosity, or by spontaneous reactions to otherwise apparently unremarkable life circumstances that fit these requirements. In other words I seek out content that looks like my painting.
I choose to work with subject matter that carries iconic power and prefer the mystery I perceive to remain undisturbed. I leave it to the viewer to interpret the depictions how they will — that’s part of the pleasure of the artistic experience. Personally, I rarely ask a painter to explain themselves. I figure if they're going to go to all that trouble the least I can do is hold up my end.
I've amassed a repertory of ideas/images over the years — literally thousands of individual photos — and if I ignore them for a while the ones that will make for the best references will rise to the surface on their own. They always do.
Reproducing over time, with brush and paint, the immediate impact of my observations has always been the objective. I paint these things because I want to see how they’ll look painted.”
- Joseph McNamara
Joseph McNamara
Josué Bessiake is an African American painter working in Beverly, Massachusetts whose work is heavily influenced by his environment. He was born to two parents who immigrated from Côté d'Ivoire in 1993. Growing up, his family bounced around the Midwest, allowing him to observe a multitude of settings and environments that shaped how he looks at the world. Bessiake's work ranges from abstraction to representation but what all the work has in common is a determination to express his connection to the world around him. Depicting his relationship between the spaces he inhabits and the relationship between those known and unknown. In his practice, Bessiake finds it is crucial to work from life. Taking up the same space as his subjects helps him see them more deeply, gaining a sense of empathy for his subjects.
read artist’s biography
download press release
