JOE GEGAN
PAINTINGS
A native Californian, I feel a deep love for the Bay Area Figurative Movement. While a student at the University of California, Davis, I had the extreme good fortune to study under Wayne Thiebaud. I received my MFA from Boston University, working closely with John Walker. My interest is in building paintings from intuition, allowing my hand to work one step faster than I think I can control – always searching, moving, finding as I feverishly edit and re-edit until I achieve completeness. I find painting to be a physical way of thinking, an internal discourse made concrete. Recently, I have been using the breaking down of old paintings, both my own and those of other artists, and repurposing them through collage. The action of this decay is psychologically penetrating and allows for interesting new associations, both personal and formal. My painting has become increasingly sculptural, possessing a physicality that ripples with texture and moves in muscular patterns that add layers of depth. The paintings are very much about my own reach and the movement of paint, my own physicality and touch as I endeavor to make paintings with a complex psychological presence that tries to capture the soul of a place.
—Joe Gegan
Joe Gegan's website is www.joegegan.com