Josh Azzarella
Encyclopedia
Josh Azzarella is an artist
based in New York, New York. He is represented by DCKT Contemporary
in New York City
, Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago
, and Mark Moore Gallery in Culver City.
MFA, Mason Gross School of the Arts
, Rutgers University
in Abu Ghraib and the protest of a single man in Tienanmen Square against a column of tanks
.Azzarella reworks these canonical images to omit the tragic, negative, or most disturbing aspect of these images. For example, a photograph of a smiling Lynndie England pointing to a prisoner forced to masturbate is altered to only contain the smiling soldier. His photographs muddy the waters between the artificial beauty of a cinematic set and the inherent beauty of the natural landscape. Absent their most significant events, Azzarella’s images raise questions about how our society constructs a narrative of our collective history.
The parenthetical reference refers to a deleted scene from the film where the farmhand, Hickory, is working on a machine to ward off tornados.
Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, IN.
Zimmerli Museum of Fine Art at Rutgers University
, NJ.
Montclair Art Museum
, NJ.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
based in New York, New York. He is represented by DCKT Contemporary
DCKT Contemporary
Founded in 2002, by Dennis Christie and Ken Tyburski, DCKT Contemporary is a contemporary art gallery based in New York's Lower East Side. The gallery represents emerging and established contemporary artists. Its programming ranges from, but is not limited to, painting and sculpture to video art...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Mark Moore Gallery in Culver City.
Education
BFA, Myers School of Art, The University of AkronUniversity of Akron
The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...
MFA, Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers...
, Rutgers University
Photography
Azzarella's work reflects on pivotal moments in history such as the torture of Iraqi POWsAbu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...
in Abu Ghraib and the protest of a single man in Tienanmen Square against a column of tanks
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
.Azzarella reworks these canonical images to omit the tragic, negative, or most disturbing aspect of these images. For example, a photograph of a smiling Lynndie England pointing to a prisoner forced to masturbate is altered to only contain the smiling soldier. His photographs muddy the waters between the artificial beauty of a cinematic set and the inherent beauty of the natural landscape. Absent their most significant events, Azzarella’s images raise questions about how our society constructs a narrative of our collective history.
Video
In 2011 Azzarella released Untitled #125 (Hickory), one of the longest running experimental films at 120 hours. Untitled #125 (Hickory) is an art work created between 2009-2011. The work is based upon the 6 minute and 30 second section in the film The Wizard of Oz, from the moment the viewer sees the tornado until Dorothy meets Glinda the Good Witch. This work extends a moment of transformative transition (Dorothy's journey to Oz) to envelop what the artist believes is the entire time of her experience.The parenthetical reference refers to a deleted scene from the film where the farmhand, Hickory, is working on a machine to ward off tornados.
Museum Exhibitions
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT.Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, IN.
Zimmerli Museum of Fine Art at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, NJ.
Montclair Art Museum
Montclair Art Museum
The Montclair Art Museum is located in Montclair, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States.-Collection:The Montclair Art Museum is one of the few museums in the United States devoted to American art and Native American art forms. The collection consists of more than 12,000 works...
, NJ.