Installation view of Poise in the Noise (upstairs gallery) at Josh Lilley, presenting Josh Reames
Installation view of Poise in the Noise (upstairs gallery) at Josh Lilley, presenting Josh Reames
Installation view of Poise in the Noise (upstairs gallery) at Josh Lilley, presenting Josh Reames

Artworks

bad knee by Josh Reames, 2015
goon moon by Josh Reames, 2015
stormy by Josh Reames, 2015

Josh Reames

Poise in the Noise (upstairs gallery)

20 November 2015 – 14 January 2016

I am interested in the way that the internetbrowsing, blog rolling, etc.takes away the hierarchy of image importance, meaning, and connection, Reames explained in a recent interview for Artnet. You are scrolling down through articles and headlines, and it will say 30 dead, suicide bombing in the Gaza strip, and the next one is a video of a cat, but its all equalized on this platform. I think about painting in a similar way, where images, marks, art historical references, and everyday objects are all depicted on the same level, contained in the same rectangle, emerging out of one painting and into another.

Poise in the noise is a sports euphemism, commonly used in American football broadcasting to describe a grace or clarity amid the chaos of the game. In the midst of cultural noise, brought on by the consumption of high-speed information, Reames emphasizes composition in his paintings as a means of navigation, striking a formal balance via colour and mark-making in the absence of image continuity. The content of the work becomes largely reliant on free-associative thinking, allowing the viewer to find their poise alongside the artist.

Josh Reames (b. 1985, Dallas, Texas) received his MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA from University of North Texas. Reames was artist-in-residence at Ox Bow (funded by Joan Mitchell Foundation), The Barn, East Hampton, NY and The Fountainhead, Miami, FL. Reames has exhibited in a number of galleries and institutions, including Elmhurst Museum of Art, Andrea Rosen Gallery, The Hole, Team Gallery, Josh Lilley, 356 Mission, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Monya Rowe, Galeria Annaruma, Andrew Rafacz, Bill Brady Gallery, Kwanhoon Gallery (Seoul), Koenig Gallerie (Berlin), Dittrich & Schlechtriem (Berlin), and Anonymous Gallery (Mexico City).