The USC Fisher Museum of Art is proud to introduce JS Carson in his first museum presentation. Fisher’s exhibition will feature a range of large mixed media works spanning the past decade revealing Carson’s talent. Exhibition on view through March 5, 2011.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1971, JS Carson moved to Los Angeles in 1997. A self-taught artist, Carson is pursuing parallel careers in the visual arts and music as a drummer. The artist moved to Hollywood when he first landed in Los Angeles, and credits Hollywood–its unique fast paced urban feel and on the fringe, outlandish, and visually overwhelmingly busy environment–as a major influence on the development of his work.
Carson’s art practice concentrates on photography based mixed media. His work ranges from large-scale mixed media and found objects collaged on wood panels to urban landscape paintings with photography. “I like to let the physical world in to my work,” says Carson. In his latest work the artist has developed a unique artistic process he terms “Painting with Photography”: using archival ink from a Canon inkjet printer, the artist conveys an image/ink to a wood panel, handmade paper, etc. using 8 ½” x 11″ sheets of acetate paper. Carson uses this process as a medium–as one would use paint for instance–to create a larger work by manipulating photos and using multiple printouts. His process does not involve starting with a computer or digital image and merely transferring it to a larger surface. Each work is built using individual photographs and sections of photographs much like a collage. A single resulting artwork might take hundreds of sheets of acetate to create. Carson likes this painstaking and meticulous process because of the organic urban decay feel it gives the work.
Image: USC Fisher Museum of Art
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