JUXTAPOSITIONS: Joshua Meyer on Chaos, Painting and the Many Shades of Gray. Artist Joshua Meyer discusses his painting process in this studio visit and interview by Evelyn Herwitz.

“Don't ever accuse Joshua Meyer of holding back....
Raw, emotional, tactile, Meyer's roughly realized paintings have a primitive energy that makes these works as much about the physical process of painting as about the figural identity of the imagery...the visual rhythms achieving a dialogue in which chaos and control come together in a balanced vignette of material and narrative.”
—Judy Birke, New Haven Register

“The result of Meyer's painstaking experience is stunning...Much like Meyer's complex layers of paint, contradictory ideas and emotions accumulate on his canvases, and the resulting tension is connected to the process of struggling, searching, getting lost and re-emerging.”
—Nirmala Nataraj, San Francisco Chronicle

“Energetic swipes of paint layered with a palette knife create human forms that seem to emerge and then disappear from behind a chaotic, water-like veil. Warm, fall hues and muddy browns are juxtaposed as if to balance between newly found light and the darkness that preceded it.”
—Denise Taylor, The Boston Globe

“In Joshua Meyer’s quivering portraits, reality appears to collapse in a flurry of light, color, and brush strokes.”
—Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe

“Meyer’s surfaces are loaded with paint. They reveal the artistic process while involving the viewer in each artistic decision along the way—whether they know it or not.”
—Linda Friedlaender, Yale Center for British Art

“Joshua Meyer engages us with the fleeting details of the quiet spaces in our lives. It is in these small moments that we find ourselves connected to the whole of life.”
—Rich McKown, Art New England

“Surprising and delightful...his are ultimately sensual works, concerned more with conveying the experience of the material world...The paintings read like gentle, inward-looking celebrations of matters tactile and...kinetic."
—Christopher Millis, The Boston Phoenix

“Joshua Meyer’s paintings — the products of his work — do not allow us to take our leave from them. As Rilke describes in his letters on Cezanne — art can seize and change us. The colors and textures, the marks, the strokes, and the aura of his commanding visions reflect something of the nuance and variation, alluring and questioning quality of existence.
But even more significant is Joshua’s devotionally trenchant, insistent and uncompromising giving himself over—with courageously searching honesty — to the process by which his works emerge, trail off, wander, get lost, experiment and reemerge.
This young master-artist also is a genuine intellectual — one who knows how to give the intellect a rest, but also loves what it wants to offer. Consequently, he engages fateful questions concerning the character of art and of Judaism, their possibilities, challenges and problems.
Today half of everyone and their cousins are writers and the other half are artists, but — as in every field of endeavor — there are only thirty-six, forty-nine at most, who are engaged in work of genuine value. Joshua Meyer is one of these few.”
—Dr. Steve Copeland, Hebrew College

Biography

Born in Lubbock, TX
Lives and works in Cambridge, MA

Featured exhibits

Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Everything in Between, December 2010-January 2011.

Rice/Polak Gallery, Provincetown, MA. Intermingle: New paintings by Joshua Meyer, August 2010.

Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Joshua Meyer: Scattered Syllables, March 2009.

Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA. Wandering and Wondering, April, 2008.

Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA. May, 2007.

Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, Philadelphia, PA. May-August, 2007.

38 Cameron Gallery, Cambridge, MA. January-February 2007.

The Bronfman Center, New York, NY. Becoming, August-December, 2006. Download catalog.

The Joseph Slifka Center, New Haven, CT. Becoming, May-June, 2006. Download catalog.

Hebrew College, Goldman Gallery, Newton, MA. Tohu vaVohu, June-September, 2004 (with a collaborative display at Fleet Bank, Newton Centre). Download catalog.

38 Cameron Gallery, Cambridge, MA. June-July 2004.

The Joseph Slifka Center, New Haven, CT. Courting Incoherence, February-March, 2003.

www.generationj.com, online gallery, March 2002.

Jewish Community Center, New Haven, CT. Art as Prayer, Prayer as Art, December, 2001.

Front Street, Salem, MA. February, 2001.

Front Street, Salem, MA. April, 2000.

Gallery 57, Cambridge, MA. January, 1999.

The Joseph Slifka Center, New Haven, CT. May-June, 1996.

The Joseph Slifka Center, New Haven, CT. February, 1996.

Group exhibits

Tufts University Art Gallery, First biennial MCC Visual Arts exhibition, Medford, MA. June 2-July 31, 2011.

Rice/Polak Summer exhibit, summer, 2011.

Art in Embassies, US Department of State, Unintended Consequences, Tbilisi, Georgia. March 2011-2014.

Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Painted Visions: MCC Painting Invitational, South Yarmouth, MA. July 13–August 8, 2010.

San Francisco Fine Art Fair (Dolby Chadwick Gallery), San Francisco, CA. May 21–23, 2010.

Rice/Polak Summer exhibit, summer, 2010.

Boston Center for the Arts, exhibit in conjunction with "Le Cabaret Grimm." April 8-24, 2010.

Dallas Art Fair (Dolby Chadwick Gallery), Dallas, TX. February 5–7, 2010. 

Go Figure: Contemporary Interpretations of Figurative Art, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta,GA. Curated by Hope Cohn. January 16-February 21, 2009.

Aqua Wynwood Art Fair (Dolby Chadwick Gallery), Miami, Fla. December 3–7, 2008. 

Paul Scott Gallery, Scottsdale AZ. Summer 2008.

Masur Museum of Art, The 35th Annual Exhibition Juried Competition, Monroe, LA. March 9 - April 26, 2008.

Smaller is Better, Schiltkamp Gallery, Clark University. November 2007-January, 2008.

The Lowe Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. February-March, 2007.

UMass Boston's Healey Library, Faith Alive 2006, Boston, MA. May 2006.

Emptiness, Gallery 33, with Meir Appelfeld, Bronlyn Jones, Aaron Norfolk and Stuart Shils, Tel Aviv, Israel. February–April 2006.

38 Cameron Gallery, with Deborah Barlow, Don Gurewitz, Hwae Jung and Riki Moss, Cambridge, MA. November 2004-February 2005.

38 Cameron Gallery, with Hwae Jung and Stephen Sheffield, Cambridge, MA. June-July 2004.

International Exhibition, San Diego Art Institute, May 2003.

Stonewall Studios Celebration of the Arts, Stonewall Studios, June 2002

Select Work, Booth Contemporary Art, Wakefield, RI. April, 2000.

Distinguishing/Distinguished Jewish, Starr Gallery, Newton, MA. Curated by Louis Kaplan. December 1999-February 2000.

Biblical Visions, Perkins Gallery, Stoughton, MA. October-November, 1999.

Raw Talent, Booth Contemporary Art, Wakefield, RI. April, 1999.

ARTcetera 1998, Boston Center For The Arts, October, 1998.

Thesis Exhibition, The Little Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT., March, 1996.

Bezalel Student Exhibition, Jerusalem, Israel. Summer, 1995.

National Art League, Hartford, CT. Summer, 1991.

Distinctions

Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, Artist Grant 2011.

Massachusetts Cultural Council Painting Fellowship, 2010.

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2008.

Visiting Artist, Berkshire Institute for Music and the Arts (BIMA), July 2005, July 2008, July 2009.

Visiting Artist, Hebrew College, (co-taught "Art and Jewish Experience") Spring 2006, Spring 2004.

Berkshire Institute for Music and the Arts (BIMA), Steering Committee and Board of Directors, 2003–2010.

Cambridge Arts Council, 1999.

Artist-In-Residence, M.L. King School, Cambridge, 1999.

The Trumbull Fine Arts Award, 1996.

The Bronfman Yotzma Fellowship, 1995.

Visual-Arts Representative / Speaker for Yale in the Arts, 1995.

National Art League, 1992.

Education

Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1996.

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Israel, 1995.

Articles, reviews, blogs

Boston Globe, Paintings, drawings, and the in between, Cate McQuaid, July 13, 2011.

Artsake, Studio Views: Joshua Meyer, May 2011

California Home and Design, Educated Palette: Jay Jeffers' Eye for Color Get This Pac Heights Home Up and Running in Style, (art featured on cover photo and ten page interior photo spread), March 2011.

Ape on the Moon Contemporary Visual Arts, 'Joshua Meyer’s Passionate Paintings,' Philip Dennis, January 27, 2011.

San Francisco Chronicle, Datebook, Don't Miss: Joshua Meyer at Dolby Chadwick Gallery, January 23, 2011.

The Forward, 'Paintings That Hang in the Balance,' Renee Ghert-Zand, The Arty Semite, January 12, 2011.

San Francisco Chronicle, 'Everything in Between':Works ofJoshua Meyer present a view of time that's chaotic, disorderly and contradictory, Nirmala Nataraj, 96 hours, December 2, 2010.

ArtBusiness.com, San Francisco Art Galleries Openings, December 2010.

Watching Paint Dry, Allegra Goodman, December 2010.

Pattern Pulp. San Francisco Collapsed Time, December 2010.

Artsake, Little bits of all of them…shimmering, November 2010

Juxtapositions: Joshua Meyer on Chaos, Painting and the Many Shades of Gray, film by Evelyn Herwitz. 4:01 minutes, 2010.

Boston Globe, Critic's Picks, Cate McQuaid, August 19, 2010.

Provincetown Magazine, August 19, 2010.

Artsake, Nano-interview with Joshua Meyer, June 2010

Cambridge Chronicle, Five Cambridge artists get grants, January 29, 2010.

ArtQ Magazine, Josh Meyer's Paintings, January 14, 2010.

Words Without Borders, Long Story Short: International Flash Fiction (cover), January 2010.

Joshua Meyer: A Brave American Painter, Valerie Mathews, December 27, 2009.

Artistaday, November 30, 2009.

Artnet News, Sept. 24, 2009

ArtBusiness.com, San Francisco Art Galleries Openings, March 2009.

Burn Away, Go Figure at Spruill Gallery, Ben Grad, February 24, 2009.

Hebrew College Today, Artist Joshua Meyer presents “Seek”, Winter 2008.

Hebrew College Currents, Joshua Meyer presents painting to honor President Gordis, December 2007.

Atlanta Jewish Times, Wandering Through His Own Mind, Suzi Brozman, May 18, 2007.

The Philadelphia Metro, The Knives Have It, Dorothy Robinson, May 2, 2007.

The Philadelphia Daily News, A Cut Above, April 27, 2007.

The New York Metro, Check this Out, September 13, 2006.

The New York Sun, Figures in Color, August 21, 2006.

Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Paintings by Yale Grad on display at Slifka Center, Howard Blas, June 2, 2006.

New Haven Register, Heavily textured 'Becoming' draws from primitive energy, Judy Birke, May 21, 2006.

Makor Rishon, Omer Lachmanovitz, March 20, 2006.

The Boston Metro, Divine Beauty, Michael Freidson, December 11, 2004.

Sh’ma, Creating a Jewish Arts Community, February 2005.

The Jewish Press, Painting the Void: Joshua Meyer at Hebrew College Gallery, Menachem Wecker, October 22, 2004.

Roslindale + West Roxbury Transcript, Hebrew College Exhibit, October 7, 2004.

Brookline Tab, Art and Jewish Creation, September 16, 2004.

The Daily News Tribune, September 16, 2004.

The Daily News Tribune, Art, Judaism and creation talk at Hebrew College, September 13, 2004.

The Jewish Advocate, Hebrew College features artist Josh Meyer, September 10, 2004.

Boston Globe, Artist finds his inspiration in the time before creation, Denise Taylor, August 26, 2004.

Boston Phoenix, August 20, 2004.

Artsmedia, Summer 2004.

The Jewish Advocate, Giving a form to our world, Penny Schwartz, July 9, 2004

Gleanings, Tohu vaVohu, July-August, 2004.

Boston Metro, Big fat Meyer, June 30, 2004.

The "Commanding Vision" of Joshua Meyer, syndicated in:
Arlington Advocate, June 24, 2004
Beacon Villager, June 24, 2004
Beacon, Acton Edition, June 24, 2004
Belmont Citizen-Herald, June 24, 2004
Billerica Minuteman, June 24, 2004
Burlington Union, June 24, 2004
Chelmsford Independent, June 24, 2004
Concord Journal, June 24, 2004
Lexington MInuteman, June 24, 2004
Lincoln Journal, June 24, 2004
Tewksbury Advocate, June 24, 2004
Stoneham Sun, June 23, 2004
Westford Eagle, June 24, 2004
Wilmington Advocate, June 24, 2004
Winchester Star, June 24, 2004

Newton Tab, New art exhibit on display at Hebrew College, June 23, 2004.

MeltonArts.org, Tohu vaVohu and The Jewish Artist, December 2003.

The Joseph Slifka Center Calendar, 2003–2004.

The Yale Bulletin, March 7, 2003.

GenerationJ, Mosaica: Grey, It's the New Black www.genj.com/lifestyles, by Jodi Werner, August 2002.

GenerationJ, Interview, www.generationj.com, Jodi Werner, March 2002.

The Boston Phoenix, Christopher Millis. January 28, 2000.

The Boston Globe, Christine Temin. January 26, 2000.

The Sharon Advocate, October 15, 1999.

Art New England, Rich McKown. April 1999.

The Cambridge Tab, January 4, 1999.