Catalogues and Essays
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Weinstein, Matthew, “Bo Joseph: Things,” Bo Joseph: Souvenirs from Nowhere, Houston: McClain Gallery, 2016.

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Joseph, Bo, Ted Gahl: Night Painter, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY (exhibition essay), 2011.

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Bartel, Todd, Disturbances in the Field, Thompson Gallery, Garthwaite Center for Science and Art Cambridge School of Weston, MA, 2010 (exhibition essay).

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Buhmann, Stephanie, Archetypes and Anomalies, Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, 2007 (exhibition catalog essay).

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Muller, Mario, Text/Textile, Deutsche Bank Lobby Gallery, New York, May 2002. (exhibition essay).

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Dell, Roger, Tontine, Hermen Goode Gallery, Brooklyn, 2000 (exhibition catalog essay).

Articles and Reviews
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Pyne, Lydia, "Bo Joseph’s 'Feeding the Beast' at McClain, Houston," Glasstire,, December 7, 2020.

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Bartel, Todd, "Collection is Cohesion," Kolaj, Vol. 28, February, 2020, pp 18-23.

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Weinstein, Matthew, “Interview With Our Cover Artist, Bo Joseph,” Bellevue Literary Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring, 2017, pp 193-194, ill. covers & p. 55, online accessed 4/1/2019 https://blr.med.nyu.edu/content/archive/2017/spring/bo-joseph

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Powell, W. David, "The Exquisite Corpse, Drawn Quartered, Remembered," Kolaj, issue seven, February 2014, pg. 20-27.

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Rogier, Anne, “Un francese a New York,” Architectural Digest Edizione Italiano, No. 381, February, 2013,
pp. 92-99, ill. p. 8, 94-95.

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Moran, Jarrett, “Interview: Fragments of a Worldview,” Artlog.com, accessed February 21, 2012: http://artlog.com/posts/331-interview-fragments-of-a-worldview

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McCarthy, Gerard, "Exhibition Reviews: Bo Joseph/Sears-Peyton," Art in America, September 2010, Vol. 98, No. 8, pg 135.

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Buhmann, Stephanie, "Buhmann on Art: February Exhibits Worth Checking Out," Downtown Express, Vol. 22, No. 38, Jan. 29 - Feb. 4, 2010.

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——, “‘Bo Joseph: Archetypes & Anomalies’ At Sears-Peyton Gallery April 19,” Antiques and The Arts Weekly, April 13, 2007.

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——, "Kemper Museum Acquires Bo Joseph Painting," Antiques and The Arts Weekly, July 14, 2006.

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The Brooklyn Rail, Dec 2004/Jan 2005, ill. pg. 37.

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Will, Jesse, "Show Time," House and Garden, Oct. 2004, ill. pg. 204-205

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——, "After 9.11.01," Views/Rhode Island School of Design, Winter 2002

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McKown, Rich, "Cape Museum of Fine Arts/Dennis: Small Works from the Fine Arts Work Center," Art New England, Dec. 2001/Jan 2002, pg. 34, 38.

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McCormack, Ed, "Navigating the Pluralistic Pleasures of ‘Talent 2001,’" Gallery&Studio, December 2001/Janauary 2002, vol. 4 no. 2.

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Silander, Liisa, "Making a Tontine," Views/Rhode Island School of Design, Fall 2000, p. 39.

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McCormack, Ed, "New York Notebook," Gallery&Studio, September/October, vol.3 no. 1, 2000, p. 15-16.

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McCormack, Ed, "New York Notebook," Gallery&Studio, September/October, vol.2 no. 1, 1999, p. 12-13.

Selected Website Listings
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Joint virtual artist's talk for the Holocaust Museum Houston on Bo Joseph: Feeding the Beast and Rainbow Dream Machine by Julia Kunin at McClain Gallery, Houston, moderated by Lea Weingarten, December 7, 2020.

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Pyne, Lydia, "Bo Joseph’s 'Feeding the Beast' at McClain, Houston," December 7, 2020, Glasstire.com

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Zoom gallery talk and studio visit for Bo Joseph: Feeding the Beast, 2020, McClain Gallery

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Bo Joseph: Feeding the Beast, 2020, McClain Gallery exhibition video on youtube.com

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­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Solandz, Simone, “Satisfying Psychic Noise,” Our RISD, November 30, 2016, http://our.risd.edu/post/153861321244/satisfying-psychic-noise.

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Spence, Suzy, A Season of Psychic Noise: An Interview with Bo Joseph, Artsy.net, November 16, 2016.

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O’Brien, Barbara, podcast Kemper Museum Artcast: Be Inspired! Interview with Bo Joseph, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, in association with KCUR NPR Radio, accessed 6/3/2013

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Deliso, Meredith, Stretching the Definition of Printmaking at McClain Gallery, HoustonPress.com, May 24, 2012.

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Muller, Mario, "Art Fairs Los Angeles October 2011- Pulse-Part 1", Truffle Hunting, October 1, 2011.

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The New York Times Website Slideshow, "The Brooklyn Museum's Artist Ball," April 29, 2011.

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Fournel, Jenna, A 'Brave Experiment' Creates An Artistic Breakthrough, NPR / WAMU radio broadcast, March 30, 2011.

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Radio interview on Judy Charmichael’s Jazz Inspired, various stations, October/November 2007, 59 minutes.

Archetypes and Anomalies
Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, NY
Exhibition Catalog Essay
by Stephanie Buhmann
2007


Bo Joseph regards art as a means to reconcile diverse and esoteric ideologies, mythologies, and cultures. Like music, visual art may move us without employing a specific language as prerequisite; its effect on us is immediate. In his work, Joseph maximizes this potential as he explores physical and metaphysical inter-dependencies, and how we define and attain knowledge with its inherent presumptions and misconceptions.

Joseph’s analysis begins by mining archetypal forms from reproductions in books or auction catalogues. He makes stencils and outline drawings of objects he views as distillations of cultural wisdom, such as African tribal sculpture. The results are abstracted silhouettes, which Joseph then assembles into more complex conglomerates. Geological structures come to mind, as the eye travels the vast array of archetypal symbols and intertwined contours that organically float within Joseph’s picture plane. His compositions are dense with information and reveal a palette often rooted in earth tones, deep blues, and the occasional bright hue accent. The shifting dialogue of negative and positive space plays a key role, as Joseph uses the stencils to either add form when being applied to the surface, or to leave voids when used as resists.

In order to explore these relationships thoroughly, Joseph has developed a unique personalized process. The image is continuously put at risk by a sequence of actions, such as sanding, scraping, rinsing, staining, or the washing off of previously applied structures. Layer by layer, Joseph extracts new information and slowly peels his subject to the core. Through these material and formal confrontations, he encourages the occurrence of anomalies, further abstracting the symbolic artifacts, stripping off any presumed meaning. At the end, the original cultural context has been withdrawn and the hybridized imagery opens itself to new interpretations. The unfolding imagery that persists in spite of these chancy techniques attains pertinent status. In other words, by subjecting the archetypes to anomalies, Joseph creates the potential for new archetypal forms, for a new level of meaning.

By investigating his subject of interest and translating it into a language devoid of traditionally descriptive attributes, such as naturalistic rendition, size, or volume, Joseph questions its true essence. What do we see in something about which we assume that we know more than we do? And more importantly: Are there attributes that remain even if an object is disguised and put into new contexts? In Joseph’s case, the archetypes he uses have had a past ceremonial significance that today often has become unknown or remains speculative. However, despite all abstraction and transformation into a new visual vocabulary, Joseph’s hybrids continue to convey a certain air of nobility and importance. There is something that transcends, a powerful essence that persists even if assimilated into a symphonic palimpsest of forms.

Joseph does not intend to specify an object’s meaning. Instead, he examines how an object becomes imbued with meaning, how it is perceived, and how, by looking at the relationships and not the parts, we can attain a heightened grasp on the “weave of reality.” In this context, abstraction serves as both distiller and catalyst. It serves to convey an unusual clarity of thought and though inspired by reality, it hovers above literal bounds. In Joseph’s case, abstraction provides the option to observe life without taking away from its all-encompassing mystery. In his highly personalized take, Joseph aims at “coaxing [us] into a labyrinthian recognition of our contemporary interdependence—cultural, economic, creative, and ethical.”

—Stephanie Buhmann, New York, 2007

Buhmann, Stephanie, Archetypes and Anomalies, Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, 2007 (exhibition catalog essay).