Joe Ferriso
Instagram: joeferriso
Website: http://joeferriso.com
Bio: Joe Ferriso grew up in a Dominican, Honduran, and Italian household in Long Island, NY, in the 80s and 90s. His childhood was impacted by his indoctrination in a fundamentalist Christian doomsday cult. Making art during church services and skateboarding after school set the stage for making art with a sense of optimism. His artworks are made from recycled and found materials and are primarily concerned with how color relationships impact perception. Ferriso moved to the Bay Area in 2009 and is a graduate of The Cooper Union (BFA 2003) and Stanford University (MFA 2018). He lives with his wife, two young children, and a dog in Sebastopol, CA.
Statement: Working in The Bay Area has greatly impacted my decisions in the studio. While living in San Francisco, Oakland, The Sea Ranch, and now Sebastopol, I have been inspired by friends, neighbors, and the materials I’ve come across. Construction waste, driftwood, and leftover house paint are the starting points of my labor. I take immense pleasure in physically combining these castaway materials into solid compositions; when painting their surfaces, I also consider color's ability to create space and establish connections. The sheer energy of color motivates my actions. Color is not an object, and emotion is not an object. However, both can be bound into an object. Like a vine to a lattice, the color enmeshes with the object and changes it. The pieces I am currently experimenting with explore changing light conditions and are activated by audience engagement.
