Joe Ballweg's Studio, 2014
Joe Ballweg was generous enough to allow me to go through his archive of
paintings clandestine style during our studio visit last week. In addition to seeing his latest paintings, it was a great pleasure to see works that hadn’t been shown in years, beginning from 2002 to 2014. My first introduction to Joe’s artwork was in 2013 during the group show, “White Wash” at Brian Morris in the Lower East Side.
The painting above is one of my favorites from Joe’s earlier
years—a scintillating, monochrome beauty entitled, White Key. The varying shades of white, purple and blue hues fluctuate according to the light level in the room. In the
top-right-center one can visualize a keyhole surrounded by asymmetrical shapes, whereas this painting could also be referenced as an adage to a Robert Motherwell or Hans Hoffman. It was
stored amongst older works within a painting rack located in Joe's
basement. The basement was nostalgic and looked to be an artifact in
itself; a past-time room with a built in bar untouched,
excluding an area taken over by Joe and his girlfriend, Andrea Bergart for
storing most of their of their older work.
While upstairs in the bright and spacious studio, I said to Joe
that I was looking forward to seeing the outcome of this painting above, not titled yet and in-progress, 96 x 72 inches. Beneath the paper is a depiction of two enigmatic shapes
that I find incredibly intriguing to look at. Amongst their
quirkiness these dualistic forms are precisely painted and positioned atop a
background of glimmering gold hues that Joe, to his dismay, hand-mixed.
Left and Right, more of Joe Ballweg's recent work
Although he is in no way giving up painting purely abstract forms—like that of the visual, mathematical fractal shape coined by Benoit Mandelbrot, i.e., the Mandelbrot Set, Joe recently deviated to painting a composition comprising a portrait. In the work above, Joe informed that the image is inspired by Harpo Marx and depicted in a thinker pose! I think that this deviation and color palette is one of Joe's best! The colors bode well with the overall fluidity and masculinity of the composition, and I can still make out a manifestation of Joe's trademark Mandelbrot formation.
Joe’s meticulousness with preparation should be mentioned, also. His initial drawings are analogous with the notion of using a life vest
for venturing into deep water. By drawing varying stages of ideas for his next painting, the method helps to avoid the risk of losing the concept entirely as it is transferred onto a significantly larger surface. Above is an image of the developing sketches of
the portrait painting from his sketchbook, which shows an organized
progression of one idea.
Left: Joe Ballweg "Laughing and Trembling" / Right: Benoit Mandelbrot's Mandelbrot Set
Seeing the above painting, "Laughing and Trembling" (left) at the latter part of the visit
was quite the surprise! Since Joan Rivers passed away, (some gawking; some
crying) we have been reminded about the importance of humor in our lives. I absolutely adore
this funny blob like creature surrounded by immense black saturation.
Joe said he was adamant about conveying as much black pigment as possible for
this painting. At one glance the shape surrounding the saturation looked to be that of an oil spill,
and in a way, trumped the red monster in the middle—not to mention my
nostalgic memory playing Pac Man as a child at a Pizza Hut in New Orleans. Akin
to an Evie Falci Joe's dark pigments in this painting are bold and daring, yet one does not witness such deviation often in Joe’s other works, making it entirely unique. While we
brooded over this painting for quite some time, we came to a consensus. Dear
Joe, paint on!
Left: The Big Kablam, ca. 2004 / Right: Inspired by Kablam, ca. 2014