I'm making work because I have to. I come from a lineage of workers, it's all I know.
Through an act of disassembly and repair I’m attempting to make the unfathomable accessible using painting, drawing, and sculpture, as visual language. I’m interested in the significance of the ordinary; when broken down to its bare essentials the simplist items, actions, and ideas become incomprehensible. A memory from an old chair, The swing of a hammer or, the spaces we inhabit.
Painting and drawing become a means of recording. I arrive at an image using a build-up and removal of marks. Each brushstroke is a depiction of light going across a form. Each line is notetaking how a subject activates a space. Using sculpture I follow a procedure of examination; deconstructing, and reconstructing a form. There are hidden through lines concealed in the oblique; these mediums reveal intersections of our lived experiences
Artist Bio
Josue Bessiake is an Ivorian-American painter working across media,
Bessiake uses multiple discplines to explore the ingredients of a phenomenon using the body as the origin. Influenced by his experience as a first generation immigrant his work reflects his desire to connect himself to his environment. In a process involving reassembly, experimentation, and collection, Bessiake’s work is a collision between practicality and abstraction making references to scale, memory. and collective consciousness.
Josue Bessiake has presented work at the National Gallery of the Bahamas, Chautauqua School of Visual Arts, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Recent Exhibitions include exhibits at The University of Texas: Edinburgh; Gallery NAGA, Boston, MA; and the University of the Bahamas. Bessiake is a recipient of the William and Ruth Fusco Prize to Encourage Artistic Achievement from Montserrat College of Art and a finalist for the AXA Art Prize at the New York Academy of Art.
Contact
Email:
josuebessiake@gmail.com
Instagram:
@josuebessiake