The Esvelt Gallery is honored to present Infrastructure by Joe Hedges. The exhibition runs from January 5 – February 1, 2024, with an artist lecture on January 11 at 2 pm in P201 with a reception to follow at the gallery. Hedges highlights the tension between the digital and physical world in his work by combining painting on canvases with screens, stereos and salvaged electronics and materials, his works reflect the disorientation of the moment.

Artist Statement
The tension between a digitally networked, screen-based experience of the world and a physical, more tactile experience has never been more acute. By combining painting on canvases with screens, stereos and salvaged electronics and materials, my works reflect the disorientation of the moment. The painted portions function as images but also as symbols of oil painting itself — pointing toward painting’s capacity for slowness, its complicated history and its unique physical presence. I frequently integrate imagery inspired by and borrowed from archetypal Renaissance and Baroque as well as deeply personal subjects and digital artifacts. In an algorithmic age, a time of diminishing faith in contemporary images and media, art-making for me is a way to meditate on how we might reclaim a sense of human agency and physical presence. Finally, by mixing the past and present my works seek to celebrate unexpected and unconventional creative possibilities within our tangled technological and art historical milieu.

Joe Hedges is an intermedia artist with a dynamic practice that weaves together oil painting and media installation. Based in Pullman, Washington, Hedges makes use of a diverse background in the arts to conceive original, innovative works that bridge the gap between traditional and digital art forms. Hedges has exhibited nationally and internationally and is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant, an Innovate Artists grant, and was recently included in an issue of New American Paintings. He is represented by Enclave Contemporary in Shenzhen, China. In addition to maintaining his studio practice, Hedges plays an integral role in the small creative community of Pullman, Washington. In Pullman Hedges has spearheaded many public initiatives including murals and festivals with the Pullman Arts Foundation, an arts nonprofit he co-founded with his partner. Hedges is as Associate Professor of Painting/Intermedia at Washington State University where he has coordinated the painting area since 2015.
 
www.joehedges.com
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For more information please email the CBC Gallery Director at gallerydirector@columbiabasin.edu.

Gallery Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 8 am - 5 pm
Friday: 8 am - noon