JosephCarlCloseArt

Featured Artists

Artist 1

Joseph Carl Close, has been producing paintings, sculpture, installations and public art since 2000.

Prior to an industrial lean to his work, Close built up a knowledge of anatomy and oils in the manner of self teaching. It was in the mid 90s when the practical skills of an industrial environment crept into Close's artistic world, with an early fascination with story and myth, both in print and cinema, gave way to pushing and stretching mythology into his works. Drawings and oil paintings are layered with bits and pieces of culture and old myth, a mash up with contemporary themes.

The raw installation and frame building arose out of necessity in his early works and quickly became an

obsession with "field dressing" old pianos and rocking chairs for specific old world, hand crafted objects to incorporate into frames and sculptures.

Close believes in a life to the human hand, especially the post industrial age of automated goods... Seeing merit in once beautiful and functional pieces of furniture and musical instruments, Close continually, breath's life back into derelict objects destined for the landfill setting them in a new context, exploding the pieces and reconstituting them into the fabric of a new myth. Joseph is currently based in Napa, California.