Joshua Hagler

Upcoming Solo Show: "The Imagined Chase"

2011-11-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

March 01, 2012

Reception 5:00 - 8:00 pm

For this project, Hagler's second exhibition with Frey Norris, the artist interviewed four men who, although unknown to each other, share commonalities including psychological trauma and complex and unusual philosophical and religious views. The personal testimonies of these four conceptually underpin the work in the exhibition -- the artist himself spent dozens of hours interviewing them, including his father and a man who burned down the building Hagler formerly lived in. Hagler animates their respective likenesses in three-dimensional virtual space, editing and re-contextualizing the original audio testimonies. This process imposes mythological or quasi-historical roles--distinct from the original intentions of the four men--as something akin to the gospel “evangelists.” The overall project explores the historical, mystical and psychological substrates which are precursors to the arising of religiosity. Animation, sculptures, and paintings will fill two of Frey Norris' galleries. Four projections, each one an individual “evangelist,” or animated version of Hagler's four contributors, play in a twelve-minute continuous and interwoven loop, as though in a complex chorus.

Serving as an entrance into the video projection room, the artist will build a 16-foot wide wall composed of burnt-black doors from which protrude high relief sculptures. This sculptural façade is composed of over a thousand torched and painted plastic action figures, seemingly extruded from within the wall.

Mixed-media paintings, which include a large-scale triptych and an eleven-piece constellation of smaller works, fill the entry gallery. A focus on structural materials predominates. Themes of rebirth, sexuality, redemption and prophecy come to light in cool muted palettes with heavily applied impasto and collaged scraps of canvas adhered with oozing use of silicone. Rorschach-like symmetries recur across media, insinuated into the digital 3D models from the animation, window frames, steel, silicone, and paintings. Hagler’s imagery springs self-reflexively from the fertile ground of beliefs and confessions that were offered by his four evangelists. Titles are adopted directly from audio quotes by the animated evangelists and reframed in unexpected ways, blurring boundaries between fictive and non-fictive narratives. These stories exploit the malleability of narrative to give meaning to personal and collective experiences. As the Rorschach inkblots were designed to tease forth subconscious associations, the paintings, in their symmetry and ambiguity, reflect upon and implicate something of both the artist and the viewer.

"Perceptions of Religious Imagery in Natural Phenomena" installed at 101/Exhibit, Miami.

2011-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

"Perceptions of Religious Imagery in Natural Phenomena" installed at 101/Exhibit, Miami.

Solo Show in Miami opening October 8

2011-09-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

When You See The Smokeless Fire I Will Be There
oil on canvas
36 x 48
2011

A solo exhibition of my recent work will open on Saturday, October 8 at 7:00pm at 101/exhibit in Miami.

Below is copy from the gallery's press release:

Joshua Hagler, the young and enigmatic visual artist whose distinct style and perspective has rapidly gained the attention of the international arts market, is returning from a six-month residency at MIRA in Puglia, Italy. With “Perceptions of Religious Imagery in Natural Phenomena” the artist will exhibit new works, a continuation of his concepts from Italy, at 101/exhibit in Miami, Oct. 8th 2011- Nov. 26th 2011.

During his time abroad, Joshua Hagler had two very successful shows in Lecce, Italy. For his two-person exhibition, "Vessel Traces" with Joseph Cohen at Chiesa San Giovanni Di Dio, the artist experimented in visual and conceptual symmetry, creating site-specific paintings, which referenced the baroque church’s classical works previously hanging in the original alcoves.

For the second show, "Percezione dell'Imaginario Religioso nei Fenomeni Naturali" Joshua was among the first international artists to exhibit in the newly renovated wing of Castello Di Carlo V.

Joshua incorporates or distorts religious motifs, building toward what he calls, “a long-term apocrypha.” Twisting images, he has a preoccupation with destruction and decay, often depicting abstractions of landfills strewn with bodily collisions and busted machinery. In his works, one sees a curious struggle between the distorted human figures and the physical, psychological, and theological debris that blends and bends within and without the flesh – with results that are at once comic and grotesque.

With “Perceptions of Religious Imagery in Natural Phenomena,” Hagler draws upon his six-month experience in southern Italy. Having toured the Salento region seeking uncommonly referenced historical works and obscure paintings and sculptures tucked inside the region's many churches, Hagler borrows aspects from these hidden gems, incorporating them into his work.

Joshua Hagler has exhibited painting, sculpture, and installation work extensively throughout North America and Europe. His next solo show “Perceptions of Religious Imagery in Natural Phenomena” runs Oct. 8th 2011 – Nov. 26th 2011 at Miami’s forerunning gallery for contemporary art: 101/exhibit. This will be Joshua’s first solo show at the gallery.

www.101exhibit.com
305.573.2101

Installation views from Vessel Traces

2011-06-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

"Vessel Traces"

2011-06-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

It has been my longtime hope to exhibit work in a historical church. With my upcoming two-person installation of paintings with Houston-based painter Joseph Cohen at Chiesa San Giovanni di Dio in Lecce, Italy, I finally have my first chance. In building toward a long-term apocrypha in collaboration with The Evangelists, the opportunity is especially exciting.

Chiesa San Giovanni di Dio, Lecce

photograph by Elizabeth Rubino

My contribution to the project “Vessel Traces” is an experiment in visual and conceptual symmetry. To do this I borrowed strategies both from Joseph, my immediate collaborator who aligns his work with the concrete painting movement, and from the Catholic Faith.

"Proposition 262"

Joseph Cohen

Reclaimed paint, gold, pigment, varnish, and oil on panel
74 cm X 50.5 cm X 5 cm
2011

Chiesa San Giovanni di Dio in Lecce is a small deconsecrated baroque church. To display more than six paintings is to crowd the space, not so much because it is that small, but because a baroque interior already calls so much attention to itself; it demands a certain restraint. For Joseph and me, a sense of the building’s history and beauty was palpable. We agreed during our first visit to use only the spaces allocated at the front and side altars to display painting, as it was in these delicately carved nooks in the wall that the display of painting was originally intended.

When we became aware that no one would temporarily remove the historical paintings, we learned that, instead, it would be necessary to install over the top (without contact) of the historical works within San Giovanni, a precarious proposition. We created a solution that would involve making careful measurements to ensure that our panels and canvases would fit in a manner that would allow them to rest against the more outward stair-step protrusions giving our paintings extra distance from the originals. It was because of the unique situation that I also sensed a more abstract challenge. I wanted to find a way to bring out that which is to lay beneath. This has significance to the church itself and with respect to Joseph’s methodology. An abstract sense of symmetry began to form in mind.

Painting of the Holy Virgin which currently hangs over the left side altar at San Giovanni

I had been traveling around the rural Salento region of southern Italy, dotted with small towns, photographing its more obscure and lesser-known paintings, frescoes and sculptures--spanning the 12th through 19th centuries--to use as visual reference for my own work. Salento is one of Italy’s often overlooked regions, and is given little political or economic consideration from the state. The town of Martignano, where I live, boasts a population of 1,700. There is a sense here that much of its wonder and richness is within or beneath what is untended, under-maintained, or overlooked. There is a strong Greek influence, more evidence of Catholic synchrotism conflated with its more distant Pagan roots, lesser-known saints, which each town champions as its own, and an undercurrent of quasi-religious superstition. Perhaps one of my favorite Pagan/Catholic traditions I’ve learned about is the Taranta ritual, outlawed or made more polite, I’m told, since the 1970’s, which you should look up if you’re curious. This is the incredible environment in which my ideas for San Giovanni began to take shape.

Martignano from my studio window. (Before the arrival of a warm summer.)

A typical example of local church interiors. This one is Chiesa Madre in the nearby town of Calimera.

I wanted to reference my imagery in the same spirit that the Catholic church created much of its iconography in historical art, often basing its figures on Pagan mythologies and altering them to fit within the always-growing Catholic cosmology. In this case, the original painting, artist unknown to anyone I’ve spoken with, depicts the Virgin Mary (Queen of Heaven) stepping on the head of the serpent. The Holy Virgin, as we visualize Her, was a creation by the Catholic Church to absorb the mythology of goddess-worshipping pagans into the faith throughout the world. It was supposed by some early theologians that Mary and/or her ancestors were born without Original Sin, which gave her the means to resist sexual temptation or to experience pain in childbirth. There are numerous Pagan goddesses that historians look to for early influence in the Christian creation of the Holy Virgin.

Above: The Holy Virgin Mary, Below: Isis and Horace

My paintings find residence in a Catholic church which does not function in its original capacity. The work imagines a post-Catholic religion, in which the Virgin Mary evolves into yet another mythological figure (which has actually been common enough as it is.) This Mary quite literally overlaps the Catholic Mary and splits her into two symmetrical figures.

Two symmetrical versions of the historical Holy Virgin painting altered digitally.

To do this, I photographed the original Mary painting and flipped it horizontally along a vertical axis so that two perfectly symmetrical versions existed digitally. I used a variety of found photos of water and created symmetrical compositions that would hint at the crucifix. I began to overlay these splashing water images with the appropriated Mary painting. I also used images of animal carcasses and bones and overlaid them with the rest. I wanted to give just the slightest sense of the original Mary coming through the white semi-transparent palette.

I remained aware of the church’s interior itself, a cream Baroque interior filled with small details, like ripples in water and delicate bones. Joseph’s paintings work with a similar palette and layer paint so that each allows the last to barely show through. Like Joseph’s paintings hide its many layers beneath, and the church's history is masked in re-purposed function (no joke, a didactic for the wrong church displays just outside the front entrance), I wanted to give the illusion that I was doing the same. In the serpent’s spirit of deception, however, I wanted not to bury history, but to distort it. This loosens the imagery from its original context and readies it for absorption into my own apocrypha. This method is part of a broader strategy currently developing in all of my work to emulate and accelerate the manner in which religion is naturally given form over time. One of my many questions is whether it's possible that religious faith forms and evolves through collective Apophenia, a perfectly common eventuality in a sincere and thoughtful need for purpose.

"Flank Left"

oil on canvas

169 x 118 cm

2011

"Flank Right"

oil on canvas

169 x 118 cm

2011

The third painting, a circle, which will fit above the center alter, brings the other two paintings together, and solidifies the three in another layer of symmetry. In this case, by having my side altar paintings positioned lower, and my circle painting, positioned in the upper center, the work aligns itself with the Holy Trinity.

"Entry Wound"

oil on wood panel

90 x 90 cm

2011

To make the center circular painting, I referenced photographs taken by recent MIRA artist Patricia Clark. Specifically, I used one photograph she made of a cartapesta sculpture of Jesus. These sculptures are dramatically made by regional artisans and collected from various churches around Easter or Pasqua for use in processions. I zoomed in on the spear wound depicted in the abdomen of one of the sculptures. The wound, according to Biblical scripture, was made by a Roman guard to verify the death of Jesus after crucifixion. The spilling of blood and water from the wound would come to symbolize purity and sacrifice in the Christian religion.

photograph by Patricia Clark

cropping in on the spear wound

spear wound made symmetrical

Zooming on the wound and creating a symmetrical digital composition with it, a kind of gateway or portal is suggested. I call this painting “Entry Wound” and the two others, “Flank Left” and “Flank Right.” Within the church interior, the installation of these three paintings will be configured not only in the pyramid arrangement of the Holy Trinity, but will also suggest a natural childbirth position.

In parting, I will point out an unplanned and all-too-perfect accident, that of a faint image of the Holy Virgin within the red area at the center of the painting.

Or perhaps it's just me.

Documentation on the upcoming installation will be posted very soon.

Thanks for reading.

Josh

June and July Exhibition in Italy

2011-05-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ciao amici!

Now in my fourth month of my six-month residency at MIRA in Martignano, Italy, I am hard at work preparing for two important exhibitions in Lecce this summer. Though I know many of you receiving this cannot travel to Italy for these events, I would be grateful if you would pass the information on to anyone you know who might be interested.

The first is “Vessel Traces,” a two-person installation of paintings with accomplished Houston-based artist Joseph Cohen opening at 7pm, June 18 at Chiesa San Giovanni di Dio.

Joseph and I have carefully planned six new paintings that respond to the church’s exquisite baroque interior. We’re privileged to have received permission by the Strada d’Arte Cultural Association to custom-make our panels and canvases to fit safely over the original historical paintings within. My works appropriate imagery in unexpected ways from the originals which physically hang behind, while I continue my recent exploration into symmetrical composition. While researching at the residency, I took several trips around southern Italy’s Salento region with my assistant Francesco Murrone, to seek out unknown and obscure paintings and sculptures which populate the many churches throughout, and have begun to borrow aspects of these hidden gems for use in my own work.

The second is “Percezione dell’Immaginario Religioso nei Fenomeni Naturali” opening July 2. I am lucky to have the opportunity to exhibit work created here at MIRA in a newly renovated wing of Castello di Carlo V. I will have individual use of two galleries for display of my new work on view concurrently with three other exhibitions at the castle, including the current Chagall display.

The new wing of the castle has been devoted singularly for the exhibition of international contemporary art, and I am happy to be among the first to exhibit my work here. A large turnout is anticipated with the mayor of Lecce to MC the ribbon cutting ceremony and the expected arrival of controversial art critic and historian Vittorio Sgarbi.

After the exhibitions close, the work will travel to the gallery 101/Exhibit in Miami, which has given me its generous 5,000 square feet to exhibit all of this work and more in a solo show entitled in English, “Perceptions of Religious Imagery in Natural Phenomena,” opening in October. More information on this show to follow.

Although my time in Italy will be over before I know it, I am securing future gallery exhibitions, public sculptural installations, and publishing opportunities in Rome and southern Italy to keep me coming back for years to come.

Before I sign off, some of you might be wondering about my animated video installation project, “The Evangelists.” After successfully raising $10,000 on the website Kickstarter.com, I hired three animators, with a few more looking likely. I am so far very excited by the quality of work that has been coming in, and look forward to sharing from time to time. As always, please spread the word about this project. If you missed out on the fundraising stages, you can still learn more about it by watching this video. The project will debut at Frey Norris Contemporary and Modern in San Francisco next February.

As always, I thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Joshua Hagler

Watch the making of "The Evangelists"

2011-02-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jhagler/the-evangelists-a-cerebral-experiment-in-3d-animat

45 Days to Raise $10,000 for Animated Short

2011-02-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you from my new studio in the charming village of Martignano, Italy. The year began with a whirlwind of activity, coming home from Trondheim, Norway, where I was in residence for a month, to my home studio in Berkeley, California, only to pick up and move here to Italy where I will be making work for the next six months at the artist residency MIRA. I’m including a photo of the nearby town of Gallipoli on the Mediterranian Coast; you see what a beautiful region Salento is!

Although I only arrived little more than a week ago, I am hard at work preparing for the imminent launch of my fundraising campaign to raise $10,000 for a 12-minute 3D animation, which I will debut as a four-channel projection for my solo show, “The Imagined Chase,” at Frey Norris Gallery in San Francisco early next year. Using the website Kickstarter.com, a very smart and popular platform for funding creative projects, you can link directly to my project and watch a video I made that explains the work and shows clips from the animation progress so far. By contributing as little as $10, you become an arts patron and play a crucial role in our ability to finish the project. And you’re not just giving your money away; you get goodies like DVD’s of the animation, limited edition prints, and one-of-a-kind artwork for your contribution. This newsletter arrives to you at a critical moment for this project, so if you think you’d like to contribute, please consider doing so as early as possible. If we don’t raise the target amount of $10,000, your credit card is never charged, so your contribution is risk-free.

In addition to the animation, many other exciting projects are in the works. While I’m here at MIRA, I will be working on a body of paintings that will debut in a solo show this October at 101/Exhibit in Miami, Florida. More specific information to follow in the coming months. I am excited to begin working with 101, and will have my first opportunity beginning March 2 when I exhibit work with the gallery at Scope art fair in New York. Although I won’t be in attendance, my sculpture, “A Fossilizing Towards...” will exhibit for the first time, so if you’re in the New York area, please check it out if you can.

Then, in April, I will be participating in a group show at Galeria d’Arte il Grifone in Lecce, Italy, exhibiting works from progress I’ve made so far here at MIRA.

Releasing this month is Beautiful/Decay book 5, several pages of which are dedicated to a feature about my work and studio practice. You can find the exquisitely designed art magazine in fine book and art supply stores throughout the U.S. or order it directly from their website: www.beautifuldecay.com.

"In which The Human Torch, Captured by the San Francisco Fire Department for Collusion with Uncertainty, Undergoes Treatment for His Condition"
oil on canvas
59 x 79 in.
2011

Before I close, I’d also like to invite my Bay Area friends to attend the grand opening of Frey Norris Contemporary and Modern on February 26, from 4 to 7pm in its beautiful new space in downtown San Francisco. Although I can’t attend, I am personally very excited about the new space, and would encourage everyone to visit what will be a very prominent destination for contemporary art in San Francisco.

More than ever, I thank you for your interest in and support of my projects. Please remember to contribute to the animation early if that’s something you’d like to do. Our momentum now will determine the success of the fundraiser, and we don’t have much time. Your generosity is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to sending you good stuff in the mail!

Until next time, grazie mille!

Sincerely,

Joshua Hagler
www.joshuahagler.com
http://joshuahagler.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/joshua.hagler

Interview at Refraction Art posted here

2010-10-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Intense Personal Necessity: Q & A with Joshua Hagler

Posted: October 21st, 2010 | Author: Lance Hewison | Filed under: Digital, Mixed-Media, Painting | Tags: Joshua Hagler, Mixed-Media, Nearly Approaching Never to Pass, Painting, Reaves Gallery | No Comments »

“Evangelist 1″

“All of my work is made as a result of a little game I play with myself and sometimes with other people . . . You win the game by following the link of so many lies that you end up back to something that’s essentially truthful.”

Q: You are exhibiting alongside artist George Pfau for your new show, and I see that the two of you have collaborated before. How did the two of you meet? Also, can you tell me more about how you’ve worked together?

“Ancestor 4″

A: Unlike KateEric, George and I aren’t married, so there’s less yelling and probably not as much sex. I might steal glances or find some tiny thing–a hair, a bit of sawdust–to brush from George’s arm or breast pocket from time to time, but the romance of our collaborative effort resides more in the work than in our special kind of suppressed chemistry.

We collaborated by inventing (I like to say) the Pfaugler print, a process which involves printing on the right and/or wrong side of an inkjet transparency, and then layering those transparencies perhaps two to seven layers thick. We (George) named this collaboration “Ancestral Palimpsest” because we were both using artwork originally created by his grandfather and my great-great grandmother, both of whom had died long before George or I entered the cosmic stage.

By printing on the slick side of a transparency, one can move the ink around with a finger or brush–paint with it, so to speak–since it takes a week or two to dry. Then, by layering the transparencies, new, unexpected imagery forms. It becomes a trial-and-error process of layering each other’s intentionally faulty inkjet prints until something worthwhile emerges. Each Pfaugler print is unique. Buy yours today.

“The Crowd, Liking to Escape the Chase…”

Q: The title of your current exhibition is “Nearly Approaching Never to Pass”. It’s an intriguing combination of words. Why did you choose this title?

A: The inspiration came as much or more from George’s work as from my own. I’ve been dealing with ideas about an abstract hunt or chase for almost two years, while George has been interested in overlapping concerns through the vehicle of zombies. I was definitely thinking of George’s zombies when that title came to mind.

It’s hard not to sense a kind of general urgency, whether we’re talking about religion, the economy, politics, etc. Yet a cursory look back through history reveals that this urgency has always been with us. I’m thinking of that ancient voice ascending through the generations and emerging through the airport speaker, “We are currently experiencing a Homeland Security threat level of orange.” There are six colors I think, but I haven’t heard the voice warn me about green yet.

“The Trial of Hags the Dancing Clown”

Q: Congratulations on your exhibition at Reaves Gallery, by the way. How was the opening? Are there any juicy stories to be told?

A: You have no idea, actually. But telling them might get us in trouble.

I did have an ex-girlfriend from high school show up and I was very nervous. She’s quite striking and I couldn’t make words with my mouth. I did that thing where you introduce your wife (even more striking and I love her) but you forget her name suddenly. Then I remembered my wife’s name (it’s Laura) and went on with the stuttering.

Also, George got very drunk and began flashing anyone he thought might be a collector, thinking rightly that it would improve his chances for sales, which it did.
So as you can see, the opening went spectacularly. I might have seen Jay-Z in the crowd.

“All You Need is Love”

Q: Walk me through your creative process a little bit. How would you describe the evolution from the conception of one of your ideas to a finished piece? Do you usually work the image out beforehand, or do lots of surprises happen along the way?

A: I’m going to tell the truth.

All of my work is made as a result of a little game I play with myself and sometimes with other people, in which the main rule is you have to distort the truth so many times and so wildly that you can’t remember the first deception. You win the game by following the link of so many lies that you end up back to something that’s essentially truthful.

“The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise the Soundless Mouth is Open”

Q: “The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise the Soundless Mouth is Open” is a fittingly epic title for an epic piece, both in scale and in subject matter. It appears to me that a truly bizarre event is occurring in a landfill of discarded body parts. I don’t like to ask artists to explain the meaning of their work, but I’m curious: did a particular event inspire this scene, or is it completely imagined?

A: I’ll tell you what the painting means. It means that I’m terrified of becoming my father. That’s my father and me in the picture. The 3D models depict our respective faces. I was thinking of those routine myths, Abraham and Isaac, Oedipus Rex.

The explanation that’s missing from all of this is that the content in my work is actually coming from four individuals whom I interviewed–my father, a homeless friend who warns about future disasters, a well-known cartoonist, and the kind fellow who burned down my apartment three years ago. The homeless friend was molested by his father as a kid and wrote a self-published comic book about the second coming of Christ born to a scavenger woman in a landfill. So I excavated from his past to make this. I’ve been excavating from all of their pasts and imaginations and imposing my own narrative just beneath theirs. I think of myself as a Gnostic painter.

Since the homeless friend also sees himself as a prophet–as someone whose thoughts change the very fabric of reality around him–I’m sort of at his service. So if his vision finds its way into my work, then he’s not just crazy; he’s validated. I’m supporting his claim to be a prophet rather than dismissing him as crazy. This is true for all four of my collaborators.
I currently have a 12-minute animation in progress based on the interviews with my four evangelists. You’ll start to see it all come together next year.

Q: What excites you in other people’s visual art? Whose work are you into now?

A: Roberta Smith wrote in an essay published in the New York Times that what’s missing in art museums is work that’s made from “intense personal necessity.” This phrase hasn’t left me and pretty much guides what I like about art at all, whether it be visual or otherwise. As she said, this work is often painting, and as you could expect, since I am a painter, I often gravitate to it. I like Shiri Mordechay, Kiki Smith, Cecily Brown, Cai Guo-Qiang, Maurizio Cattelan, Glenn Brown, Wangechi Mutu, William Kentridge, Allison Schulnik, Folkert de Jong, Dana Schutz, Kara Walker, David Lynch, Henry Darger, Francis Bacon, James Ensor, Leon Golub, and lots of others.

“My dad did agree to be a part of my project, so that was pretty nice of him, and I suppose I might have abused his trust by including him in a homoerotic painting with me.”

“Return to the Temple”

Q: I like to think of myself as an open-minded guy, but some of your pieces scare me. In a good way, because they cause me to think and to question how I feel. They are viscerally powerful. Has your work had this effect on people throughout your career? What are some of the reactions you’ve received from family, friends?

A: Definitely. My favorite reaction was when a lady from Pleasanton or somewhere came to an open studio I was having, mistaking mine for a pottery/jewelry studio she meant to stop by. She became very angry with me, accusing me of hating religion and spreading general unhappiness. I don’t know if I’m spreading unhappiness, but she couldn’t be more wrong about religion. Religion provides me with all the excitement I could ever hope for. All the juiciest material comes from religion. May it never die. Most people who declare it “scary,” just spit the word out onto the floor and there it lays at our feet, dead and useless, like a run-over chicken. This tends to be where the conversation ends, two people having very different ideas about what to cook it in, what to spice it with.

My family is sensationally apathetic. Only my brother expresses an opinion and probably because he is the only member of my family who possesses one. My dad did agree to be a part of my project, so that was pretty nice of him, and I suppose I might have abused his trust by including him in a homoerotic painting with me. But in general, each member of my family tends to be an equally mysterious piece of a puzzle none of us know how to put together, so it’s probably not their fault that they tend to pay the work no mind. Well, that’s not so bad when you consider the shenanigans I put them through once I get their attention.

Q: Do you never have the nagging urge to paint a vase of flowers, a classical nude, or a still life with fruit?

A: I do wish I could paint a luscius nude in the classical way. One would do well to have a skill that justifies naked girls at his place of business. But what on Earth would I do with a still life?

“The Colony”

Q: I read that your father is a “devout Evangelical Christian”. I grew up in an evangelical Christian family myself. My grandfather led revivals throughout the United States, and both my parents were ministers throughout my childhood. I’m deeply affected by the way you’ve captured in several pieces (“The Colony”, “The Kingdom”) a sense of the individual being devoured by this phenomenon—the phenomenon of organized religion. Do you find that tackling this complex subject in your work helps you to understand it any better?

A: That’s interesting about your upbringing. I do like how people tend to open up about their histories with religion when we talk about the work.

I don’t know if I understand organized religion better, but I certainly understand it differently than when I was a part of it. And it’s maybe ironic that when I was religious, I felt creatively stifled by it, but since the time I broke away, religion has remained a central source of inspiration. It is fascinating how the individual can take on such a dramatic change once he is absorbed into the group though isn’t it? Those works certainly addressed that directly.

Q: What are your thoughts regarding art school?

A: Well, depending on a specific question, I might respond differently. My general attitude toward it is one of ambivalence. This is especially true of the institution of the MFA, which I tend to think specializes in the overpriced sale of students’ boring ideas back to them. The ones who succeed probably would have succeeded anyway.

I went to a cheap in-state university in Arizona where I got a BFA in VisCom, which is illustration and graphic design, and I thought that was a good overall experience, but that had a lot to do with how I chose to use my time. I still wish I had had the resources and encouragement to go to a real art school, which might have helped me to come out of my shell a little earlier. I made a lot of really bad art for a number of years, and my friends who had gone to art school certainly did a lot to help me grow out of that. Or so I tell myself.

“Following a Final Rescue Attempt…”

Q: If you could sit down and have tea with any person, living or dead, who would you choose and why?

A: I’d go back in time to meet the Apostle Paul. But it wouldn’t be tea, it would be wine. After we both drank our fill, I’d ask him to pick a hand. Behind my back, I’d hold in my right hand a knife, and in my left, I’d hold the Holy Bible as it was canonized by Constantine three hundred years after Paul’s death. If he picked my right hand, I’d slit his throat on the spot, to spare us all the horror that followed his successful creation of the Christian religion. But if he picked my left hand, I’d show him which of his letters made it, even the ones he didn’t actually write, so that years later, when they capture him in Rome and force his head onto the chopping block, he’ll rest easy knowing that his martyrdom means something, that his legacy will give birth to entire cultures, that even in those remaining seconds that Paul’s brain survives Paul’s head’s severance from Paul Proper and he discovers what he already knew to be true–that there is no God, or at least not as he imagined–that he won’t feel so terribly alone; he’ll know that all the heads of incalculably huge swaths of the human race are rolling along with his, on the same slab of Roman earth, justifying every awful thing he ever said or did and forgiving him for it, because had they not believed in his fantastic bullshit, they would have believed in someone else’s, and whose to guarantee it would have been as fantastic?

Well, either that, or I would have a beer with Jack White and talk about whatever.

Yeah, probably Jack White or the Apostle Paul.

But definitely not tea.

Interview at Street Carnage reposted here

2010-10-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST JOSH HAGLER

“Golgotha”

I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled across the work of San Francisco based artist Josh Hagler a few months back; I think it was when I was looking for an image to accompany a piece about sloth and greed and our collective disgusting humanity. This one below did the trick nicely. It also looks like all of your parents, which is kind of rude.

“The Same Every Christmas”

After looking around for more of his work, I was instantly pulled into his macabre world. I got in touch with Hagler to talk about his paintings, which have a sort of Francis Bacon meets Ben Templesmith, high art horror comic style. It’s like those moments from a horror film where the demons are disguised as regular people, and then you get a flash of their true nature for a second and you shit yourself when you see what they really look like.

“When the lights came on in the middle of the night (POW!) there you were like two enthusiastic angels shining with your bright pink love, and I knew God had finally come for us deep dark children in our deep dark places.”

“The Sparkle Girls”

That’s all old work, Hagler told me. In fact he’s got a new two man exhibition (with artist George Pfau) called “Nearly Approaching Never To Pass” that opens up today at the Reeves Gallery in New York City. It’s a collection of paintings, multi-media work and collaborative prints, and like those pieces above, it’s creepy as fuck. Just don’t tell him that’s what you think of it though, because he doesn’t see his work as being particularly scary.

“Return to the Garden”

“The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise the Soundless Mouth is Open”

“All You Need is Love”

SBTVC: “Return to the Garden,” “Soundless Mouth” and “Love is All You Need” seem to be consistent with nightmarish quality I mentioned. Where do you pull that sort of imagery from? Is it a scary place inside your brain or what?

JOSH HAGLER: As far back as I can remember, people have commented on my work as being “dark,” “disturbing,” “nightmarish,” etc. Depending on their subjective tastes they might like or dislike the work for that central reason.
I don’t mean to sound dumb, but, to be honest, I don’t really get what the big deal is. It isn’t something I’m doing intentionally, and I’m certainly not trying to prove something by making work that seems dark to my audience. I’m sure I can’t answer where it comes from. To me it’s not really different than painting flowers in a way. It’s just a way of seeing; it isn’t a result of some dramatic event as far as I know. So I’m not able to answer why the work seems dark to people other than to say that I like dark chocolate, rich food, full-bodied red wine, dark beer, beautifully peculiar women, dense prose, music with heavy beats or lots of reverb, unusual fashion and bad language. These things taste stronger, thoughts of them linger, they grab my attention, they bring me to a state of alertness, they help me find my center, which is very, very kinetic, which is full of buzzing and thrashing about. This is where I’m comfortable, so it’s only natural my art should reflect that…
With the paintings you’re referencing above, the laundry list that comes off the top of my head includes: found photos of landfills, photos I took of plastic toys which I burned with a propane torch, 3D models of mine and my father’s heads, pictures of superheroes, pornography, found photos of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and probably other things I’m not thinking of right now.
Yes, it is scary inside my brain. But it’s also a shitload of fun. Why doesn’t anyone ever comment on the exuberance of the work? Or the caustic humor? The work acknowledges a basic fear, but it also celebrates it. I find nearly everything to be funny somehow.

“Ancestor 1″

“Ancestor 2″

“Ancestor 3″

“Ancestor 4″

I think the collaborative prints you did with Pfau work along the same idea, that horror movie reveal moment.

I can try to understand that, but I don’t feel a connection to the horror genre when I’m making the work. I’m not particularly inspired by or motivated by horror movies, and not particularly interested in the genre. I have lots of friends who love it, but my knowledge of slasher films or material like that is very limited. I can’t quite understand why that should bother me, but it does a little bit. I just don’t see the connection. I mean, I think our world is very dark, but I don’t think horror films obviously resemble our world typically. So why horror movies instead of some aspect of our world not captured in film? I should probably just learn to accept it. I will admit that I made the painting “Evangelist 3″ by referencing some imagery from Lars von Trier’s movie Anti-Christ, which is a horror film I suppose. I did love that one. I also love the Claire Denis movie, Trouble Every Day. Both of those movies have a richness that I don’t see in many other horror flicks.

“Evangelist 3″

Where does your approach to the human body come from? Is it from spending so much time training as an artist looking at the human form, that you naturally began wanting to depict it from the inside out, or to defy the logical shape of it?

Well at some point I guess I was interested in learning to depict the body anatomically/academically. That knowledge was important for me to learn and is still essential to the evolution of how I’ve depicted the human form. What I mean to say is that I still use the same logic to make these distorted forms that I used to make more standard or expected forms.
At some point, I think I realized that there was nothing really left to do in figure painting. There’s no particular talent I have in figure painting that is really needed or very original. I’m not a naturally gifted painter, which in some ways I think has worked in my favor. It often seems to turn out that a more gifted painter will peak earlier and settle for an academic approach that never really challenges convention, then repeats until the death of the artist or his/her career. I really had to strive to make my mistakes or my clumsiness work in my favor and I’m always trying to reconsider why and how I use the figure. So where I once had a more… oh, maybe typical or traditional interest in figure painting for the sheer enjoyment of depicting the figure, I’m now more interested in its allegorical potential or in what else it can become other than, strictly-speaking, a physical body.

In “Soundless Mouth,” is that The Watcher from Marvel Comics fucking Spiderman on a pile of trash and meat by the way?

HA! I absolutely love that interpretation and super excited you referenced The Watcher. I don’t want to ruin that dream for you, so I’ll keep it brief: The bottom figure, which carries the likeness of my father, does have a Spiderman costume on. You can decide what that means to you. The top figure, which resembles me with my head shaved, might as well be The Watcher. (Although if he is The Watcher, he ironically watches without eyes, since I was thinking of Oedipus who tore out his eyes after his embarrassing blunder.) And yes, it is a pile of trash and meat. Good eye.
Comic book characters, by the way, come up in my work more often than anyone seems to notice. I’m familiar with three bodies of mythology: Marvel Comics, DC Comics and the Holy Bible. And they’re all pretty good reading.

-LUKE O’NEIL
PutThatShitontheList.com

On the blogs

2010-10-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

My two-person show with George Pfau, "Nearly Approaching Never to Pass" is making its rounds on the blogs. If you'd like to read more about it, here are some great sources:

Little Paper Planes
short feature by Jess Wheaton

Curbs and Stoops
short feature by Ashley Zelinskie

All the Art Out There
short feature of my work by David Carmack Lewis

You can still catch the exhibit through November 13.

Reaves Gallery

526 West 26th St, Suite 706

between 10th and 11th

New York, NY 10001

Artists Salon featuring Joshua Hagler and George Pfau

2010-10-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

	Saturday, October 16 · 11:00am - 12:00pm

	Reaves Gallery 526 West 26th St, Suite 706 at 10th Avenue New York, NY



	Reaves Gallery invites you to join us for an intimate dialog between artists Joshua Hagler and George Pfau on Saturday, October 16th from 11am to noon. Josh and George will discuss the current exhibition "Nearly Approaching Never To Pass" as you enjoy the show over coffee, tea and mimosas. Space is limited an RSVP is required.

Upcoming Exhibition in New York City

2010-09-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce an upcoming two-man show with George Pfau at the Reaves Gallery in New York City. The exhibition, entitled "Nearly Approaching Never to Pass", is an investigation into literal and non-literal representations of the human body with paintings, multimedia, and collaborative works.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, October 14th, from 6pm to 9pm. The show will run until November 13th. Regular gallery hours are Thursday 6-8pm, Saturday 12-6pm, or by appointment.

Reaves Gallery
George Pfau
Joshua Hagler

Painting Selected for Show in Nottingham, England

2010-08-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

My painting, "The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise Soundless Mouth is Open" has been selected for a juried show at Surface Gallery in Nottingham, England. Beers Lambert Contemporary Art curates this exhibition, "I Am Solitary I Am An Army". The show features the work of 19 international artists from 13 different countries, including Turkey, Israel, Malaysia, Greece, Australia, South Africa, Canada, the US, and the UK. The show revolves around the idea of identity of artist and viewer in relation to the art-object. It opens on August 31st and runs until September 11th. There is a reception and private viewing from 7pm-10pm on September 2nd. The regular gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday 12pm-6pm, and Saturday 11am-5pm.

Black Lab group show at The Lab, San Francisco

2010-08-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

My paintings "Evangelist 2 and 3" will be on view, and are visible on this blog if you scroll down a bit.

Opening reception
Friday, August 13, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Special performances by Terrance Graven, Gerritt Wittmer & Paul Knowles, and Group Rhoda

Enjoy complimentary cocktails from Appleton Rum

Performance NightFriday, August 20, 8:00 - 11 p.m.
Performances by Eric Svedas, Amir Coyle, Eighth Evening, and more
Dark Wave nightSaturday, August 21, 9:00 - midnight
Dance party with DJ's Warm Leatherette and more
Exhibition runs through Saturday, August 28
Gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 1:00 - 6:00 p.m.
FREE admission
Featuring: Vincent Como* with Reuben Lorch Miller, Eric Larson, Rachel Dawson, Josh Hagler, Faye Kendall, Erik Madsen, Malcolm Smith, lourdes of the flies, Michael Campbell, Caitlin Denny and Marcella Faustini, Terrance Graven, Ben Venom, Ryan De La Hoz, Kara Joslyn, Group Rhoda, Amir Coyle, Gerritt Wittmer and Paul Knowles, Chris Vamos, Eric Svedas, Eighth Evening, and No Peace at the Gates.

Image: I Think I Had An Accident by Reuben Lorch Miller

Inspired by The Black Laboratory of Brooklyn artist Vincent Como, Black Lab investigates the cultural connotations and psychological implications of the darkest color. Michael Campbell, Eric Larson, Reuben Lorch Miller, Malcolm Smith, and Ben Venom deploy counterculture themes and imagery in two and three dimensions. Artists Rachel Dawson, Erik Madsen, and Como formally evoke aftermath, decay, and possible transcendence through color and texture in paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Faye Kendall's, Kara Joslyn's, and Ryan De Hoz's sculptures and drawings tap into occult and animalistic archetypes. Marcella Faustini and Caitlin Denny's multi-media installation plays with popular fascination with dark topics in science. Painter Josh Hagler's portraits, artifacts from the life and family of Anton LaVey, Lourdes of the Flies, and No Peace at the Gates portray the flip-side of American religiosity. Performances by Terrance Graven, Group Rhoda, Amir Coyle, and Gerritt Wittmer and Paul Knowles enact paranormal ritual and unspeakable mysteries.

“Black is the pure and unrepentant mark of information; both the origin of recording thoughts, and the fully saturated realization of all pigment as one. The goal of my work is to expand and cross the boundaries that define and divide Black, Darkness, and Matter into a unified concept. A Black Singularity.”

-Vincent Como

Comings and Goings, group show at Fivepoints Art House this Friday

2010-07-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Featuring Ryan Jones, Joshua Hagler, Ross Campbell, Erik Parra, Bert Bergen, Amanda Robinson, Heather Bernard, Lindsey Lyons, Jamie Spinello, and Dion. Curated by Jessica Wallen.

We all come from somewhere. Many of us move somewhere else, and what we are searching for varies greatly from person to person. Whether we are pursuing a career, an education, or relationship, we are all seeking adventure and opportunity in a new land.

During the month of July at Fivepoints Arthouse, Ryan Jones’ epic, wall-mounted pine structures will at once divide and unify the space by echoing rustic country architecture and the urban landscape.

Exhibiting artists will use installations of painting, drawing, paper sculpture and photography to express the related feelings of excitement, loss, fear, regret, and hope one might feel when embarking on a journey to a new home, or a new life.

Please join us for the opening reception at 7:00 PM, Friday July 9th.

Fivepoints Arthouse
72 Tehama Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Show Runs July 9th through July 30th, 2010

I will be exhibiting this painting:

"The Juice from the Earth was Called Oil and the Chase Rises With It"
oil on canvas
59 x 78 in.
2010

Frey Norris Exhibition and Black Lab Group Show

2010-06-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Two upcoming/current shows to keep an eye out for:

Frey Norris Gallery currently has a summer group exhibition from June 16th through August 31st.
My newest painting, “The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise the Soundless Mouth is Open” is on display.

Hours are 11am to 6pm, Tues - Sat, at 456 Geary St, SF.

The Lab
My paintings Evangelist 2 and 3 have been selected for the Black Lab juried group show.
Opening reception:
Friday, August 13, 6 - 9 pm.
The exhibition runs through Saturday, August 28.  

Hours are 1pm to 6pm, Wed - Sat, at 2948 16th Street, SF.

Beautiful/ Decay Magazine, which features my painting “Evangelist 1” of the Evangelist series, is nearly sold out of the current issue. The magazine is available for purchase: http://beautifuldecay.com/current-issue/

Small works donated to Visual Aid

2010-04-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

This Thursday, two of my works will be on auction at Chronicle Books to raise money for artists with life-threatening illnesses.

Joshua Hagler, Sacred History 1, oil on canvas, courtesy of Frey Norris Gallery

Visit Visual Aid for a special Spring Auction preview!

Join Visual Aid's Facebook page for updates.

Spring Art Auction

THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010, 6-9pm

Generously hosted by Chronicle Books, 680 Second Street, San Francisco

Special $35 advance ticket pricing for friends of Visual Aid

Enter code "friend" when purchasing tickets online - special extended to April 18th. Admission $50 at the door, walk-ins welcome.

Benefiting Visual Aid programs for artists with life-threatening illnesses.

Call Visual Aid at 415-777-8242 or email julie@visualaid.org for info.

Preview party begins at 6pm light hors d'oeuvres, desserts, wine and mixed drinks
Live Auction at 7pm
Followed by Champagne Toasts and a Chocolate Tasting Bar

Celebrity auctioneer Stephen Tourell will preside over the live auction.

Featured artists include: Christo, Kirsten Stolle, Libby Black, Joshua Hagler, Masami Teraoka, Rex Ray, Leslie Lusardi, Timothy Cummings, Ryan Martin, Lucy Puls, Michael Tole, Michael Beck, Charles Gatewood, Ann Chamberlain, Igor Josifov, Catherine Saiki, Phillip Hua, Betty Merken, Shinpei Kusanagi, Adam Cahoon, Jose Arenas, Danae Anderson, Heidi McDowell, Carol Dalton, Tim Yankosky, Minoru Nishiki, Joel Hoyer, Ryoko Tajiri, Justin Margitich, Keira Kotler, Andreas Reinhardt, Heather Patterson, Livia Stein, James Aarons, Donald Feasel, Jane Hambleton, James Naysmuth, Loewy and Puiseux, Lea Feinstein, Jerome Caja, Leslie Morgan, Nicholas Coley, Jenn Shifflet, Andrew Zuckerman, Kara Maria and others.

Works of art donated by these fine galleries: Gallery Paule Anglim, Catharine Clark Gallery, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, Cain Schulte Gallery, Alphonse Berber Gallery, Brian Gross Fine Art, Marx & Zavattero, Frey Norris Gallery, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Hang Art, Michael Rosenthal Gallery, Artzone 461, Don Soker Contemporary Art, Aurobora Press, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, Altman Siegel Gallery, 20x200, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, Robert Tat Gallery and more.

75+ auction includes luxury items from: Jeanine Payer, St. Dizier Design, Avalon Hotel, Postrio, Avra Organic Spa, Yoshi's SF, Berkeley Rep, Aquariva, Sumi Sushi, Kronos Quartet, Periscope Cellars, Salon Bao Bao, American Institute Of Architects, Epi Center Med Spa, Cowgirl Creamery, Joie de Vivre Hotels, Chronicle Books, Elite Café, Macys, Beach Blanket Babylon, CIIS, Great Kolor, Foreign Cinema, Sumi Sushi, Peet's, Magic Theatre, Trade Mark, Jok Church, Red and White, First Crush, Broc Cellars, Contigo, diPietro Todd Salon and many more

Luscious refreshments provided by: Blue Angel Vodka, Café Madeleine, Poco Dolce, TCHO, Mission Minis, DeLessio, The Only Cookie, Andersen Bakery, Castro Village Wine Co. and others.

Auction sponsor angels: Chronicle Books, Zipcar, Sterling Art Services, General Graphics, FastFrame, Under Glass and Toomey-Tourell Fine Art.

"Evangelist 1" in Beautiful/Decay Magazine--now available

2010-04-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that my painting Evangelist 1 is featured in the current issue of Beautiful /Decay, which is available for purchase here.

Also, here for your viewing pleasure are 3 of 4 just-completed paintings from the Evangelist series:

Evangelist 1

digital 3D model, acrylic, oil on inkjet print on canvas

48 x 61.5 in.

2010

Evangelist 2

digital 3D model, acrylic, oil on inkjet print on canvas

48 x 61.5 in.

2010

Evangelist 3

digital 3D model, acrylic, oil on inkjet print on canvas

48 x 61.5 in.

2010

P A I N T exhibition at MANIFEST

2010-02-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.manifestgallery.org/about/schedule.html

P A I N T, an exhibition featuring twenty-one works by 17 artists from 12 states, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Thailand were selected for presentation in the gallery and catalog at MANIFEST, in Cincinatti, Ohio.

The exhibition runs from March 5 - April 2.

Opening reception:
Friday,
March 5,
6 - 9 p.m.

SF Weekly Artopia

2010-02-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-02-17/news/masterminds-2010/

Joshua Hagler, finalist in Masterminds 2010 grant competetion, shows two pieces at the Artopia event at the Project One Gallery.

Two new paintings for Art Miami

2009-11-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

To make these paintings, I photographed the Amtrak near my studio and visited Bay Area Derby Girls during practice, where they were gracious enough to let me take pictures.

These will exhibit at the Frey Norris booth during Art Miami from December 2-6. I will be traveling to Florida for the fairs, so if you're attending be sure to let me know.

"The Crowd, liking to escape the Chase, abandons the self to any course of events, the residual evidence of the abandonment diminishing until each, a container of splitting cells, subatomic particle collisions, and synaptic misfirings is, by odd caprice, made invincible against consciousness, exploding into a Byzantine choreography of passions and causes."
oil on canvas
77 x 92 in.
2009

"Would the Chase reveal itself beneath the dust and cause of the Crowd, it would be acknowledged as having always been there, one more of Nature's aspects, ensnaring into position both predator and prey, the blood of lineage bearing witness to the immutable fact of what Progress is."
oil on canvas
77 x 92 in.
2009

details:

Hags the Dancing Clown and Josh Hagler: In Conversation

2009-09-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, September 10, 2009, human being Joshua Hagler meets with painting “Trial of Hags the Dancing Clown” at their mutual studio to discuss life, art, and the upcoming group show “Echo” at Frey Norris Gallery in which Hags the Dancing Clown will be on display.

Joshua Hagler: Clown, after spending the past two weeks with you, I have this burning question I’ve been meaning to ask, which is this: Are you a self-portrait of me?

Hags the Dancing Clown: Hm, good question. I don’t think so. I’m more of a caricature, a cartoon, a parody. I think a proper self-portrait must make more of an effort to be accurate and sincere, don’t you?

"Trial of Hags the Dancing Clown"
Joshua Hagler, oil on canvas, 95 x 77 in. 2009

JH: Well, I was trying to be conscious of the fact that for the upcoming group show, I was to make a painting that was informed in some way by Leonora Carrington’s "Red Mask." So I wanted you to depict a mask of my likeness, one step removed from achieving my more human likeness.

"Red Mask," Leonora Carrington, Mixed media sculpture (tanned leather, metal, feather, painted mirror & , Sculpture-Installation , 2x22 1/2x21 5/8 in, 5x57x55 cm, 1950

The Red Mask is only one of many masks Carrington made. Other masks show up in her paintings from time to time. The figures wearing them seem in most of the paintings to be presiding over rituals or ceremonies. Anyone in a mask is a priest, a judge possibly, an M.C. They require an audience, they have something on their minds, they have something behind a curtain that needs presenting, a thing of some nature that will persuade its audience one way or another.

Leonora Carrington

Clown: Is that what you intended me to be, Josh? A priest? An M.C.?

JH: Maybe a game show host.

Clown: A dancing clown?

JH: If a bullet through the head can be considered a dance.

Clown: It’s an unexpected relief to find myself very much alive. Why hasn’t the bullet killed me, Josh?

JH: The same reason the bullet didn’t kill Dr. Harold Edgerton’s apples.

Clown: Who is Harold Edgerton and who shot his apples?

JH: Harold Edgerton pioneered the use of stroboscopic light. He is often credited with inventing high speed photography. His apples were targets for speed trials being conducted.

Clown: Speed trials for the bullets, Josh?

JH: No Clown, for the camera lens, for the light, for everything that’s not seen. A bullet travels at about 1900 miles per hour, did you know that? Dr. Harold made visible for the human eye that which is not usually seen. Haven’t you seen the famous photos of the bullet passing through the apple and other fruit?

Clown: I’ve only been on planet Earth a fortnight now. I have much to learn. But let me see if I can put this together despite my recent inception. Basically, there is a cognitive illusion that takes place in the photos you found; we perceive the visible object as that which is being judged, when, in fact, the camera lens is what we must consider. The director is on trial, not the actor. The gawkers, not the car wreck or its mangled drivers. All the pacifists, the non-participants, the luke-warm, the uncommitted who, conveniently unseen, expect not to be judged, they are this time tried.

JH: I am one of them, and I am on trial.

There’s something I didn’t mention about why I became obsessed with the bullet-through-the-apple photo though. I had recently attended my uncle’s funeral, my uncle being one of my favorite people. I took a couple of his things as keepsakes, among them a .30 calibre bullet. I had used the bullet in my wall sculpture, “I am Ready to Believe” and had it in mind. The bullet in the photo looks exactly the same, and caused me to look at the photo in a new way. That’s when I discovered the subject of the photo to be the photo itself.

Clown: And how does that tie together with the 3D model, Red Mask, Dr. Harold’s apples?

JH: Who can guarantee it does?

Clown: But you can’t argue the natural proclivity that humans have for making connections. People will talk, Hagler. You know how much they hate it when you’re not clear.

JH: If clarity were my first concern, I would write instruction manuals.

Clown: Stop being dim. Look, Hagler, plainly when you look at the 3D models that Andrew Klein made and that you used as supposed reference, I look almost nothing like it. Is your experiment a failed one?

JH: Maybe. I’m not sure. Painting from the model was too restrictive. It didn’t lend itself to my natural tendencies. I had no choice but to improvise.

Clown: So, finally, does the 3D model have anything at all to do with me?

JH: Yes, I think so. I mean, objectively I stayed very near the exploding head parts. But beyond that, the 3D model gave me the proper distance from myself. In the end I made a painting loosely based on a 3D model based on a photograph of my likeness. It was important to get away from the direct material.

Clown: That’s conceptually thin.

JH: I take issue with that accusation, Clown. The central problem addressed is something I think essential to anyone who wants, in some way, to find justification for the undertaking of any Sisyphean work, which, with enough distance from which to view it, is any work at all. But in communicating the ostensible value of the work, one risks misunderstanding, even resentment, but, most often, simple anonymity, alienation, desertion. In fact, so rare is this kind of understanding, this kind of reciprocity, that we feel a kind of communion in any circumstance allowing finally that our work be accepted, our minds to be at ease in knowing that permission is finally granted to push forward with acknowledgment from an audience.

In Carrington’s paintings, the mask wearers try to communicate, but what, specifically, they communicate is ambiguous. I interpret the mask as metaphor for external perceptions imposed on the individual by others, and by the individual toward himself. Much like the bullet is not the subject, the mask is not the subject. The subject is never seen because it exists between the artist and the canvas. The subject is the trial, the judgment, the proceedings themselves. The mask, at its best, is a reflection of the proceedings.

Take our conversation for instance. In my narrative, I am the protagonist and you the antagonist. We collaborate, but not really, because you don't exist; you exist only as a concept that I can use as a vehicle to engage in the proceedings. Even though you are a character in the narrative, you are not the subject anymore than I am. You’re a decoy made to seem equivalent to a painting, which is our subject of discussion, but you are not a painting at all. You do not even exist. The subject here is really the metaphysical space between storyteller and reader. In this case, and in many others, they are the same. The fictional pretense of our encounter is the mask I, as the author, wear. And this mask is a blank screen on which our narrative is projected; it is not the narrative itself. The narrative beneath our thinly constructed plot, that is you, a painting, antagonizing, me, an artist, is actually the narrative of how I imagine myself judged in undertaking the task of creating you.

Clown: So even this blog entry, this discussion, it’s phony? A series of self-indulgent diversions?

JH: Even if the painting and this discussion are alike in that they operate deceptively, they are deceptions that can still express something truthful.

Clown: You stole that idea from Picasso.

JH: Only sort of.

Clown: You steal everything. You don’t understand authenticity.

JH: What choice, Clown, have I otherwise?

Clown: So you accept yourself as inherently insincere? I knew it. Charlatan!

JH: I can perceive myself as sincere, but the perception, the mask, is what I’m occupied with. A mask worn for long enough becomes cliché. To be sincere about cliché is naïve indulgence. Many artists are sincere about their clichés. This is the embarrassing condition of immaturity. To comport oneself as incorruptibly sincere is to be seduced by one’s own unperceived cliché. To use your methods and tools to manipulate innumerable perceptions, that’s awareness.

Clown: Why do you give yourself the best lines?

JH: Why do you think?

Clown: I think it’s because you’re vain and insecure.

JH: You came from that vanity and insecurity. You should be thanking me for it.

Clown: I’m not letting you off the hook so easily. I find it interesting that in the case of the 3D model, we have an ephemeral device constructing something that doesn’t even exist in a physical sense, but exists nevertheless. The software can house your likeness but isn’t even conscious of your existence.

JH: Yes, I find that uncomfortable.

Clown: As I suspected. And I bet I can guess why. It exposes your own feelings of powerlessness and insignificance. You, as a human being, exist so briefly, whereas I will persist long after you’re gone. In your brief time here, you are so easily captured, but not easily understood--easily identified, but not easily remembered. Long after you’re gone, the computer will contain a version of you visible in 360 degrees, to be molded, changed, projected, disassembled, reassembled all with complete indifference. Neither the computer nor its user will assist in accommodating your dying wishes. They will not even revolt against the fulfillment of such wishes. They will simply not be aware of them, as if you never existed at all.

The inclusion of your own vanity and insecurity are of no interest to me anymore than they would be to the computer, to the 3D model, to the hypothetical future computer user.

Just as you stole everything else, you stole Narcissus and Sisyphus and Carrington’s ideas and Andrew Klein’s honest labor. You stole the word “Trial” from Kafka, Sisyphus from Camus.

What else did you steal, Hagler?

JH: I’m not sure.

Clown: What about your uncle’s bullet?

JH: Probably. I didn’t think of it before, but yes, I suppose I did. He was only 49. He was not known to the world, but he was my uncle and I related to him strongly even though I only made rare visits.

Clown: You think that we should care more about your painting because your uncle died? You think your mourning interests people? Are you even really mourning?

JH: Not really. I would say I’m panicking.

Clown: Panic. You always panic. Each of your paintings was made out of panic. That’s all that informs you.

JH: Maybe. But I’ve learned to be exuberant in my panic. I’ve learned to celebrate it.

Clown: What about your audience?

JH: What audience?

Clown: Those reading this right now.

JH: It would surprise me to find many who have read this far.

Clown: Why should they? You expect too much from your audience. You want justification for your work, for your life, but you simply don't deserve it. You fail to relate, to involve yourself in the proceedings, to commune with people on their terms instead of your own. The inventions of your mind are of no utility for the proceedings of the everyday. You are not saving lives. You are not making a difference. The world is not in need of your undertakings. Tell the jury what they usually tell you about your art.

JH: They usually tell me it scares them.

Clown: Is that what you want?

JH: No.

Clown: What do you want then?

JH: I want to inspire them.

Clown: Really? Is that one of those clichés you say artists are often sincere about?

JH: Yes. I didn’t say I wasn’t one of them. I admit I can be sentimental. I don’t lament that my work is challenging but I would prefer to communicate rather than frighten.

Clown: But originally, you wanted to get under the skin of a few specific people, isn’t that right? You were one of them, a born-again Christian, and you felt disillusioned and you wanted to prove something.

"The Same Every Christmas"
Joshua Hagler, 22 x 22 in., oil on wood panel, 2006

JH: Maybe I did once. I don’t think that’s true anymore. I think my will has turned inward. I am all too aware of the absurdity that comes with my propensity for dramatic tension. I always have the sense that I’m on trial. Perhaps that comes from my history with religion. But that’s why I made you. Even now you are doing exactly what I hoped you would. That’s where vanity and a sense of uselessness come in.

Clown: Because you’re full of yourself and repeat the same pointless task day in and day out.

JH: Narcissus was cursed to obsess over his reflection; it wasn’t a choice he woke up and made one day. Neither was it the choice of Sisyphus to repeat himself beneath the burden of his own pointlessness.

Clown: And the trial?

JH: It’s still ongoing. The bullet through the mask isn’t the result of the verdict, isn’t the punishment for guilt; it’s a hint of the procession of the trial itself. It asks you to look beyond the frame. It’s the one clue I give in the painting to the trial that’s going on between myself and you, and between them and you--you who might be confused for me. The evidence presented to the jury is in the diminishing mask. When there is no more mask, the presence of authenticity will, by the jury, which is history, be found or not. All that can be said for now is that I am a clown who dances, and, like Kafka’s Joseph K., you are the cartoon character who will withstand it on my behalf.

"I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it much like myself--so like a brother, really--I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."
--Albert Camus, from The Stranger.

"Sooner or later the mind grasps at a thought and follows it into the labyrinth, one thought branching into another. Then the labyrinth caves in on itself and you find yourself outside. You were never inside--it was a dream."--Denis Johnson, from Tree of Smoke

Group show in Belgium

2009-03-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to be exhibiting with some great artists from the U.S. and Belgium in Brussels in early April. If you're in the area, I hope you can make it.

PRESS RELEASE: 72 Virgins to Die For

2009-01-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

“My process is something like a stage rehearsal, a performance that seeks to imitate the subject matter on which the work comments. Painting is a way to stay near my subject matter, to cast myself as part of the mythology, to remember that I’m not separate from it, since, in fact, my religion, even if I no longer have a sense of faith, is a part of who I am.”

November 25, 2008
Press Contact
Wendi Norris or Raman Frey
Frey Norris Gallery
T: 415-346.-7812
wendi@freynorris.com
raman@freynorris.com
Josh Hagler: 72 Virgins to Die For
February 5 – March 1, 2009

• Exhibition features 14 new paintings, 3
mixed media installations.
• 20 page catalogue available with essay by
San Francisco Bay Guardian art critic
Ari Messer.
• Debut solo exhibition precedes European
debut solo show in spring, 2010 in
Frankfurt, Germany.
• Highly controversial themes around
religious and political exploitation of
virginity mythologies anchors show to
many explosive current events.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. – Frey Norris Gallery is pleased to present our debut solo exhibition for Bay Area artist Josh Hagler. The 72 virgins of the title will populate a series of 14 paintings and receive varied treatment through three installations in a variety of materials. The dialogue between the three dimensional and two dimensional works engages with fetishes around purity, ritual cleansing and the cult of the virgin as it has manifested in various cultures
throughout history and into the present. Hagler examines purity in the context of political power, when it acts as a proxy for capricious divine providence, the Wrathful Hand of God. He tackles these immensely charged and controversial themes with dexterity and empathy, having come himself from a community of faith and experienced a difficult ideological separation from this group.

Hagler has a background in illustration and begins each painting with a composite sketch on a computer, sometimes pastiched together from select news clippings, and then makes a
rough drawing on the canvas. His immersive process moves from a basic compositional rendering to violent exhaustion and an often Baroque literary title when a work nears completion.

72 Virgins to Die For references an obscure hadith by Imam al-Tirmidhi, describing paradise as a palace of 80,000 servants with 72 ‘virgins’ or ‘wives’ for each faithful resident. This virgin identity also corresponds to the allegory of the moth in Sufic tradition, which communes with God by destroying itself in its attraction to the flame. Hence many works incorporate actual moths.

Josh Hagler's artwork has exhibited in galleries in London, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Rosa and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito. In 2006, Hagler was one of ten artists chosen by the Saatchi Gallery and UK Guardian to exhibit in London. He soon after was selected in an Artinterview.com international competition to exhibit in Berlin in 2009. Hagler was a finalist for the 2007 Tournesol Award for Bay Area artists. He is the recipient of the Wildgift Movement Grant, which awarded the artist full financial support to produce the exhibition 72 Virgins to Die For. In the spring of 2010, Hagler will receive his European debut solo exhibition, at Galerie Raphael in Frankfurt, Germany.

About the Art

A scene of devastation from a newspaper photo of the killing of Benazir Bhutto, including broken and littered corpses and vehicles, transforms through Hagler’s painting process into a mutating and fused triumvirate of sleeping babies in The Assassination. Bhutto’s death draws virgin-martyr comparisons, more deeply and blatantly explored in the painting Virgin Martyr, a scene of a woman, perhaps the subject’s mother, in black headscarf and red blouse, strapping a suicide bomber’s belt to a pubescent girl wrapped in a white shawl and hooded in a black ski mask. The creation of both paintings concluded in the brutal flinging of thick paint at their surfaces, covering them in a vigorous energy that, in the case of The Assassination, traps the bodies of actual dead moths. Large canvases such as The Prophet’s Wife I (after Munch’s Puberty) and The Prophet’s Wife II (after Schiele’s Act Against Colored Material) directly alludes to both a historical eroticizing of girls on the verge of puberty and various precedents of religious polygamy. Shed traditional Mormon clothes in both paintings reference the many marriages of renegade Mormon leader Warren Jeffs to young girls, one of whom called child protective services. In both paintings, the model’s face is erased, in Magritte green-apple fashion, by a round Petri-dish-like circle containing a single polychromatic moth.

The face of a central heaving character, his red wet flesh apparently deprived of skin, in Golgotha is similarly obscured, only this time by the bird like face of the Ortolan. Surrounding him are the heads of so many “consumers” veiled by napkins. The bleeding, central, bird-headed figure drags a large cross beneath what appear to be flying portions of splattering meat. The Ortolan, in culinary tradition, is a tiny bird to be eaten whole, bones and all, beneath a white cloth covering the heads of those eating, so as to hide their shame from God. Hagler’s tiny painting Just One More Tiny Sacrifice for the Greater Good, Then We Can Rest Easy Knowing depicts the tied dead bird in a pot of black sauce, rendered mostly in sickly ochres and greens. In The Virgin Queen, Hagler references the Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (circa 1588-9), attributed to George Gower, a cut down version of which can be found in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The painting is full of symbolism. The queen’s hand rests on a globe and she’s draped in the regal wealth of Royal Brittania, but in Hagler’s version her face flushes away from the viewer in a spiraling swirl, disappearing at its mid-point like a colorful oceanic whirlpool.

Suggestive narratives are repeated in the three installations. One installation depicts a turquoise Mormon dress, symbolic of purity, standing erect and illuminated from within, approached by a swarm of moths. Virginity also features in the installation [title here], which explores the increasingly popular Evangelical Purity Ball, a kind of prom for fathers and daughters in which the daughter must pledge her virginity to her protector parent. An implied romance and eroticism evocative of incest taboos arises from the table setting by candlelight, the printed “purity pledge” like dinner menus, and the painting of a father embracing his daughter from behind.

About Frey Norris Gallery
Focusing on important Bay Area artists and internationally recognized artists from Asia, Frey Norris Gallery provides one of San Francisco's most welcoming and dynamic venues for experiencing and purchasing contemporary art. Frey Norris Gallery exhibits paintings, works on paper (including drawings, pastels and watercolors), collage, sculpture, installations, video and innovative photographic media.
Frey Norris Gallery Gallery Hours
456 Geary Street Tuesday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
San Francisco, CA 94102 Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
T: 415.346.7812 Closed Monday
www.freynorris.com

Next at Frey Norris Gallery: In March 2009, Frey Norris Gallery will present Mudassar Manzoor and Attiya Shaukat: Contemporary Miniature Paintings. Manzoor and Shaukat are two up and coming artists who graduated from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, both working with contemporary and often deeply conflicted themes. Together, the artists
will contribute a total of fifteen new miniature paintings. This exhibition marks their first showing in the United States. Shaukat's work often features a single image placed carefully on patterned or gridded paper, with imagery that conjures associations such as a twisted spine or wheelchair, referencing a crippling accident she suffered while an art student and garnering her comparisons to the life and career of Frida Kahlo. Manzoor's themes are often more subtle, revealing themselves once time and place add context. For example, his most recent body of work presents deep hues of rich green and yellow organic forms. Upon closer inspection and after viewing an accompanying timeline the viewer discovers that the entire body of work is an outpouring of turbid emotions following the assassination of Pakistan’s slain leader Benazir Bhutto.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year and the best in 2009. As you might already know, we will be having an opening reception at Frey Norris Gallery on February 5 for my solo exhibition 72 Virgins to Die For, which will occur from 6-9pm. Though you will receive an official invitation in the coming weeks, I’d like to extend it to you personally in advance.

In preparation for the show, I have worked hard to redesign my website: www.joshuahagler.com, which is up to date with the newest work.

2008 was a standout year creatively. As some of you know, I was lucky to receive the Wildgift Movement Grant in late May, which offered full financial support to create 72 Virgins To Die For. Since that time, I worked intensely on creating large scale paintings and installations. I would not have been able to do this alone. I was able to hire Kari Marboe (www.karimarboe.com) as my assistant. Both she and my good friend Mark Baugh-Sasaki (www.markbaugh-sasaki.com) had a direct hand in the course of creating the work. Because of their contributions, I was able to accomplish much more than I could have on my own. I am very grateful for all the contributions that have made this work possible.

Frey Norris Gallery is also publishing an oversize, limited edition 20-page exhibition catalog, which will be available in February. If you would like a copy, please contact me directly, and I will keep your information until they are ready to order. I’m not sure the price yet, but I think they will be $10-$15, with the first print edition limited to 200 I believe. I am also quite happy to have had Bay Area arts and culture writer Ari Messer contribute an essay on the work. I was extremely lucky to have his insight and interpretations attached to the work and feel that the catalog greatly benefits from his talent, so I hope you will consider getting one.

Pre-sales have now begun with some of the work already sold. If you would like to know more about which work is still available, please contact Raman Frey at raman@freynorris.com for a price list and any other information.

If you are not familiar with Frey Norris Gallery, I highly recommend taking a look at their website at www.freynorris.com. They are a smart gallery not timid to exhibit engaging and challenging work, presenting a unique program representing talented and exciting contemporary artists from around the world.

In addition to my representation with Frey Norris Gallery, I have also begun working with Galerie Raphael 12 in Frankfurt, Germany, with a solo exhibition planned for January 2010. This is another fantastic gallery, which, among their highlights, have shown work by artists such as Francis Bacon and Man Ray.

If you live in North America or Europe I very much hope you can make it to one or both of these shows. I want to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged me along the way. You’ve made 2008 a successful year and for that I am grateful.
My best wishes for you and yours in 2009.

Sincerely,

Joshua Hagler
www.joshuahagler.com
www.freynorris.com
http://5mf.blogspot.com

p.s.--Be sure to check out our full page ad in Art News magazine!

2008-05-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

{INTERVIEW IN PLASTIC ANTINOMY MAGAZINE}

5 Mined Fields Studio has been featured in the second issue of the Bay Area visual arts quarterly Plastic Antinomy. If you're in the Bay Area, you can find a copy at various art destinations. The feature includes an interview about Josh’s work and the ideas behind 5MF. Kim Weinberg and Mark Baugh-Sasaki also have work included.

Click on the image below to read the interview (it will open into a larger format so that you will not have to squint).

-Kari

2008-05-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

{GRANT | SOLO SHOW}

I am extremely excited to announce that I have received major grant funding that will support us financially while I paint toward a solo show from now through November. I am under agreement not to divulge details on the grant for a little while yet, but I can say that this period of time will be used to create a body of work for a solo show I will be having in the Los Angeles area after that time. I will not be making regular updates of my work to my website nor posting much of the work for awhile. When the body of work is complete, we will be releasing a limited-edition art book to coincide with the exhibit.

{ASSISTANT: KARI MARBOE}

To help me with the workload, I have hired Kari Marboe to assist me with all things 5 Mined Fields related. I have needed the help for quite awhile now and am happy to finally have found someone as enthusiastic and capable as she. Among other things, Kari will be helping me with these updates, so this might very well be the last time you get one of these directly from me. I'll still be communicating with individuals as I always have, but instead of spending hours on these, I will be spending that time painting, to everyone's relief I'm sure. Kari just happens to be a bad ass artist herself. Check it out on: http://karimarboe.com/home.html

{SELECTED WORK IN "30 UNDER 30" COMPETITION}

And as for the last exciting bit of news, my enormous painting "Leviathan Disco" (featured on the left) has been accepted into the "30 under 30" competition which will exhibit at Varnish Fine Art in San Francisco this June.

30 Under 30 at Varnish Fine Art Gallery

Opening: Thursday, June 5, 2008 from 6:00 - 9:00pm

ArtSpan, California College of the Arts and Varnish Fine Art Gallery, collaborated to produce "30 Under 30," a juried exhibition showcasing the next generation of Bay Area Artists. The show runs from June 5 to June 28, 2008. Juried by Kerri Stephens and Jennifer Rogers of Varnish Fine Art Gallery and Justin Giarla of the Shooting Gallery.

-Josh