Josué Bessiake: A Bird’s Last Look
On View: April 5 – 27, 2024
Reception: Friday, April 5, 5 – 7pm
Artist Remarks at 6 pm
"I'm making work because I have to.
I come from a lineage of workers, it's all I know.
Creating feels like what I’m supposed to do with my life so, I do it. I seek to make works that give me an “oomph” the kind of feeling that stuns you when you experience it, like nothing exists outside of the work and the viewer. Our eyes pass by with nonchalance throughout our days, and I'm looking to make something that can hold one's attention. I go to my work with a sense of curiosity, I want to know how things work.
The difference between a line and a shape; a color’s proximity to another feels like miles to me. A mint green next to a deep alizarin crimson, for example, completely changes how we experience them, to me. I’m especially curious about the psychology of shapes. Why is a vertical rectangle associated with portraiture and human figures? What happens when that rectangle is flipped and becomes horizontal? The small changes that create a world of difference are the main interest of my work.” - Josué Bessiake
Josué Bessiake
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.
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