Born 1972, in Chapel Hill, NC, lives in Jamaica Plain, MA and works in Dorchester, MA
Received his MFA from Boston University, Boston, MA and his BFA from the University of Washington, Seatlle, WA
www.joewardwell.com
Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY
LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, MA
Joe Wardwell’s recent oil paintings are big, bold, and politically amped. In these works, Wardwell paints idealized, nostalgic portraits of the American West and overlays these canvases with graphic hand-painted rock lyrics. By conflating the 19thcentury Hudson River School style of romanticizing untouched America—made famous by landscape painters Thomas Cole, Frederic Erwin Church, and Albert Bierstadt—with the culture and lyrics of American rock and metal, Wardwell paints a remixed vision of the 2011 American political and cultural landscape.
Wardwell is interested in the historic link between landscape painting and the shaping of national identity. This is a lineage that can be traced back to the early imperial advocates of Manifest Destiny to the Hudson River School painters and takes form today in advertisements where rugged terrain is a stand-in for American-ness.
