Joseph Biel

Biodata

Dates of birth/death if applicable: 1966 -

Place of Birth: Boulder, Colorado

Current residence, Los Angeles, California

Education: 1990 MFA, Painting, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan;

1988 BFA, Summa Cum Laude, Painting and Art History, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa

Employment : on the faculty of California State University –Fullerton

Major Shows/Galleries:

iCurrently involved in a long-term artist residency at the 18th St. Arts Complex in Santa Monica.

2008 & 2003 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grant Award recipient

2008 Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Award recipient

Numerous national and international shows

2009 "Lexicon", Nettie Horn Gallery, London, England

New Work, Galerie Kuckei/Kuckei, Berlin, Germany

2007 – Rogue Wave – LA Louver

2006 New Works on Paper, Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, New York City, New York.

2004 Residency, The Ballinglen Foundation, Ballycastle, North County Mayo, Ireland

Other: More current work is in a similar style except the drawings are more complex and on a larger scale including wall drawing installations.

Media:. Graphite and colored pencils with some watercolor and latex paint in more recent work.

Technique: Drawing and painting.

Contextual information:

Influences (historical/personal/political):

“Things come into my work from a variety of sources and processes. There is a constant shifting between the imagined and the observed. Often these are combined and result in a fusion of differing qualities: stoicism and vulnerability, absurd comedy and overwrought tragedy, the banal and the bizarre. . . .My work references older artists like Bosch and Bruegel. At the same time the work has a contemporary starkness and edgy humor.

My most recent work I have increased both scale and complexity. A major theme running through all the new work is a poetic collision between beauty and the (sometimes cruel) absurdity of the contemporary world. This collision produces a variety of situations, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, all of which reveal a vulnerable sense of humanity.” From the artist’s statement at www.joebeil.com

He shows with Acuna-Hansen Gallery in Los Angeles, Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, Mark Woolley Gallery in Portland, and Galerie Kuckei-Kuckei in Berlin.