Artist_Info

About the Artist


		Joe Walentini

	There is a train that picks me each busi- ness day from my hometown in Maplewood New Jersey and drops me off in Hoboken before I complete the trip to New York. Just before a stop at Newark’s Broad Street station the train travels in a corridor of ancient concrete. At least it looks ancient given the many years of exposure to the weather, countless water stains and the

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millions of trains that have rumbled through depositing several layers of grime onto their surfaces. The walls look old beyond their years like a set of lungs in a chronic smoker.

There is also something else; persons unknown have tagged these pock-marked filthy walls with bits of color arranged into swirling, looping, often dancing forms. By invading these places reserved for the exclusive passage of trains those persons unknown have taken great risk to render their temporal paintings. The paint and the images are cheap and existential. These are not art works destined to become future antiquities. The paintings age even more quickly then the walls do. Eventually they appear to ‘sink’ in; to become a part of the surfaces as they continue to gently fade away.

I have longed sourced street graffiti in my work particularly for the random layering


	that time and people apply to it. But there is something special about the images that I witness nearly every day on my train ride. Maybe it’s the forbidden nature of where they are. Or perhaps it is the way in which they unintentionally capture a weird combination of comedy for what they express with the tragedy of their decay. In any case they have inspired my current work and in part it is these qualities that I have likewise tried to express.


		~ Joe Walentiny, December 2009

Solo and Small Group Exhibitions

2009   Thinking in Paint, Galerie Cerulean, www.abartonline.com
2008   Rock, Paper, Scissors, (Paint), Galerie Cerulean, www.abartonline.com
2007   American Expressionism, Galerie Cerulean, www.abartonline.com
2006   New Work / New York, The Painting Center, New York, New York
1994   3 Person Show, E.S. Vandam Gallery, New York, New York
1992   Painting Spoken Here, Giardino Gallery, New York, New York
1990   Impromptu Paintings, WBGO Jazz Radio Gallery, Newark, New Jersey
1988   4 Person Show, Frank Bustemante Gallery, New York, New York
1983   Un-Academic Abstraction, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1983   Caveman Paintings for Our Nuclear Age, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, Wisconsin
1983   Drawings and Paintings to Scare Small Children, Durham Arts Guild, Durham, North Carolina

Group Exhibitions

2006   13th Anniversary Show, the Painting Center, New York, New York
2004   Nature Abstracted, the Painting Center, New York, New York
2000   Other Worlds, Online exhibition, the Painting Center website (http://www.thepaintingcenter.com), New York, New York
1993   Incidence of Passage, Art Initiatives, New York, New York (catalog available)
1993   Necessary Fictions, Madelon Powers Gallery, East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania (catalog available)
1992   Temporal Surfaces, Davidson College Gallery of Art, Davidson, North Carolina (catalog available)
1990   Primal Denouements, Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
          In conjunction with the 15th Annual Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle, Penn State University (catalog available)
1989   Other Dimensions, Twining Gallery, New York, New York (catalog available)
1988   In the Air, Pleides Gallery, New York, New York (curated by Stephen Westfall)

Editor/Publisher

1999 - 2007 Abstract Art Online (http://www.abartonline.com).
A web-based, monthly journal with a focus on New York abstract art featuring reviews, Artist Profiles, essays, a Conversations series and links to related websites. 10 issues are produced per annual volume. Since 1999 over 50 essays & artist profiles and over 300 exhibition reviews have been published.

Writer/Curator

2004   Book Review - Milton Resnick, Out of the Picture, (transcribed, compiled and edited by Geoffrey Dorfman,
          Midmarch Arts Press, 2003). Review published on Art Critical.com (http://www.artcritical.com)
2001   Catalog Essay - Phillip Pavia, Freefall Sculpture (solo exhibition), Broome Street Gallery, New York, New York
2000   Essay - The Painter’s Dilemma, American Abstract Artists Journal
2000   Curated Exhibition - Other Worlds, online group show, The Painting Center, Website (http://www.thepaintingcenter.com)

Panels

2004   Moderator - Why Won’t Abstract Art Die?, the Painting Center, New York, New York
2004   Moderator - Panel in conjunction with the group exhibition, Abstract Identity, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, New York
1990   Panel Member - Artist Panel in conjunction with the 15th Annual Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle,
          Penn State University and the Primal Denouements Exhibition at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

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