Joshua Petker just arrived at the gallery and tying up loose ends before his opening reception of new works titled “Water Lilies”. This collection is different in many aspects than his previous shows. We are both impressed and excited by his large scale paintings, but instead of blabbing on I’ll let Petker explain it himself. 

“I‘ve been told that the best way to stand out in art is to do what no one else is doing.  And, at one point, what no one was doing was figurative painting.  Now, with figure painting more and more at the forefront of Contemporary Art, I have tried to expand on some of my steadfast personal traits as a painter while attempting something my contemporaries have not.  By expanding my paintings in scale, color, atmosphere, and abstraction, I believe I have discovered a much more serious and intellectual approach to painting.

 I have found that painting faces on such a large scale really makes the work more about the emotion of the face and not so much about the fashion or beauty of the portrait outright.  Additionally, through recently studying modern abstract painters, I have become much more aware of the profound beauty in abstraction and the weight of finding beauty outside of a pretty face.  In that, I found I was able to more fully exhibit my subconscious by spending more time on the atmospheric watery world I created for the figures than on the figures themselves.  

I believe with Water Lilies that I have continued to explore my themes of fashion, beauty, fantasy, mortality, and love while pushing myself, and hopefully my audience, in a more engaging way than I have before.” -Joshua Petker

 Here are some pictures of us installing, painting and  listening to Pandora MGMT radio!!

Opening Reception is tomorrow Saturday 14th, from 7-11pm. “Water Lilies” will be on exhibit till April 8th 2024. Hope to see you there!