STATEMENT
I make paintings and drawings that explore the relationships between shape, color, patterns and repetition. My work is informed by my love for architecture, music, and cartography - particularly the 1972 redesign of the New York Subway map by Massimo Vignelli.
In tandem with large scale works on canvas, I make small, concise, bold, graphic works on paper and Mylar that combine drawing and collage, allowing negative space, limited elements and materials to take the lead - to say more with less. This work relies on restraint; compositions are edited, rigorously arranged and rearranged to forge a singular image that reads as a symbol or icon.
I strive for shifts in perception - the momentary in-between space alternating between recognition and abstraction - of being someplace and nowhere at the same time.
BIO
Joe Camoosa (b. 1969, Asbury Park, NJ) lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. He received an MFA in painting and drawing from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia and graduated from Florida State University where he studied Mass Communication and Anthropology. His work is held in numerous corporate and private collections and has been exhibited in galleries in Atlanta, Nashville, Asheville, Richmond and New York, and museums such as MOCA GA, Atlanta Contemporary, The Hudgens Center for the Arts, The Georgia Museum of Art, and The Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the Studio Artists Program at Atlanta Contemporary, a 2016-2017 Walthall Artist Fellow and is represented by Kai Lin Art, Atlanta. Camoosa is currently an adjunct instructor at The Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University.
