Josh
Greenberg is an artist with a unique vision and approach to
making art. Oakland Museum's Chief Curator of Art Phil Linhares
calls him "adventuresome, eccentric, unique." In
the 1980s, Greenberg began making large, low-relief wall-hanging
constructions from thousands of small pieces of balsa wood
that he cut, sometimes adding touches of red and black. According
to Linhares, who curated this exhibition, these works almost
had the feeling of very curious and intricate roadmaps.
Greenberg's
more recent works are again unique constructions, this time
made with plywood and pigment-enhanced bondo, the resinized
clay used to repair dents in automobiles. The artist was inspired
by the pietre dure stone-carving technique used in
sixteenth-century Renaissance tabletops. Greenberg describes
it as "the technique of inlaying small, exquisitely cut
and fitted, highly-polished semi-precious colored stones into
paintings, tabletops, and other prized objects." He began
working to approximate these mosaic-like inlays using materials
other than stone, and eventually found that bondo cut into
plywood was the perfect combination to create the inlay appearance
he was looking for.
Greenberg's
subject matter comes from his life, from family events, and
from art and other things he sees around him. He transforms
these into large plywood-and-bondo "paintings" with
repeating elements and patterns that are reminiscent of friezes
one might see in Pompeii or Crete. The effect of repeating
patterns is to put viewers into a reflective state. Greenberg's
work is sometimes colored with a dark humor, as in The
Family Plot, and is sometimes more somber and elegiac,
as in the compelling Operation. He is currently working
on a series with images and evocations of coral, sponges,
and other oceanic life. Come hear about Greenberg talk about
his work on Saturday, July 11 at 4 p.m.
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