let's use our words
the paintings of joshua chambers
August 30 - october 13, 2018
mainspace @ artspace
Panels with cryptic messages, a wall of ABC’s, and a chimpanzee in distress are all things to be seen in this mainspace exhibition. This showing of Joshua Chambers’ most recent works captivated audiences with its symbolism and promise of a secret message waiting to be decoded.
STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST
We use stories to define us. To better understand ourselves, sometimes we appropriate stories from a wider social sphere folding their arch and moral into our own narrative. In doing so we use those stories to better understand ourselves by drawing parallels between ourselves and the characters of the story. We discover conflicts and find likenesses with the literary or religious traditions that often use parabolic characters and their symbolic actions to explore the process of being human. I create images that begin from an autobiographical point and morph into scenes in which characters and objects of broad cultural references interact within cryptic tableaus. When approaching the work the viewer has to pour a part of themselves into the story to inform the narrative within each scene and define each character’s agency and circumstances.
ARTIST BIO
Joshua Chambers is a painter who works in acrylic, pen & ink and printmaking. Described as elusive and happily odd, Joshua's work echoes the philosophy of absurdist playwrights and deconstructed sets. Receiving his Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana Tech University in 2009 and his Bachelors of Art from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, Joshua's work has been published in New American Paintings, Creative Quarterly, and Studio Visit Magazine. Chambers work can currently be found in Graphite Galleries in New Orleans, Ann Connelly Fine Art in Baton Rouge, and The Agora Borealis in Shreveport Louisiana. His works are in the permanent collections of the Masur Museum of Art in Louisiana, the Lessedra Gallery in Bulgaria, and numerous private collections. Chambers lives in Bossier Parish with his wife Leigh Anne and their daughter Sophia.
See more artwork and updates from the artist at www.joshuachambers.net
