Sears-Peyton Gallery is pleased to announce Archetypes and Anomalies, April 19-May 25, 2007, our first solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper by New York artist Bo Joseph.

Bo Joseph applies his abstract visual vocabulary as a means to reconcile diverse and esoteric ideologies, mythologies, and cultures. Joseph scavenges archetypal forms from reproductions in books or auction catalogues. He views these icons, such as ritual tribal sculpture or religious antiquities, as distillations of cultural wisdom. He layers stencils and outlines of these objects, creating elaborate hybrid configurations, dense with organic information that is ethereal yet familiar.

Joseph has developed a highly personalized “visual questioning” process that constantly puts his image at risk. He explains: “I use deconstructive, chancy techniques like rinsing, sanding and masking to mirror a transient reality. I mine the layers of imagery in the unfolding image, unearthing unexpected contexts and new understandings.”

Interested in elemental physical and metaphysical relationships, Joseph questions how we gather knowledge and how beliefs and perception charge the experience of reality. Joseph creates works that manifest as both exploration and quotation, aimed at coaxing us to recognize our labyrinthian contemporary interdependence—cultural, economic, creative, and ethical.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Joseph has exhibited throughout the United Stated. His work is in the collections of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; The Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH; and the Guilin Art Museum, Guilin, China. Joseph lives and works in New York City.

A catalogue of this exhibition is available through the gallery.