Artist Statement: Ich interessiere mich sehr f�r Menschen in Extremsituationen. Dieses Interesse wird in meinen einzelnen Werken durch unterschiedliche Mittel widergespiegelt, manchmal durch die Darstellung des Augenblicks vor oder nach einer Tat, die selbst nicht benannt oder gezeigt wird. Ich m�chte eher narrative Vorschl�ge machen als klar aufgel�ste lineare Geschichten erz�hlen, obwohl es auch wichtig zu sein scheint, gewisse Details (z. B. Gesten, Gesichtsausdr�cke, Kleidung, Objekttypen) als eindeutige Charakteristika zu erhalten. Wenn die allgemeinere Metapher auf das besondere Charakteristikum trifft, k�nnen meine Bilder ein gr��eres, vielschichtigeres Potenzial entfalten.
Die verschiedenen visuellen Komponenten in meinen Arbeiten gehen aus einer Vielzahl von Quellen und Prozessen hervor. Der Blick verschiebt sich st�ndig zwischen Erdachtem und Beobachtetem. Oft ergibt sich eine Kombination von beidem. Viele meiner Arbeiten sind Resultate des Zusammensto�es kontrastierender Haltungen: stoischer Gelassenheit und Verwundbarkeit, absurder Kom�die und �berspannter Trag�die, des Banalen und des Bizarren. Ich hoffe, dass diese Kombinationen sich von leicht zu erfassenden Strukturen hin zu facettenreichen Konstruktionen entwickeln, die von der befremdenden Komplexit�t des Daseins erz�hlen.
Joe Biel, 2006
English version
Artist Statement: I am most interested in charged human situations. This interest is reflected through various means in particular works; sometimes by portraying a particular moment or event, but more often by showing the moment before or after an action which is not named or specified. I'm more interested in the suggestion of narrative possibilities than in clearly resolved linear narratives, though it seems important that certain details (i.e. gestures, expressions, clothing, object types) remain quite specific. For me it is in the possibility of the more general metaphor meeting the peculiarly specific, that images start to realize a greater, more layered potential.
Specific visual components come into my work from a variety of sources and processes. There is a constant shifting between the imagined and the observed. Often these are combined. Much of my work is a result of a collision of differing qualities: stoicism and vulnerability, absurd comedy and overwrought tragedy, the banal and the bizarre. It is my hope that these combinations move away from simply read structures in favor of more multifaceted constructions which begin to speak of the strange complexity of existence.
Joe Biel, 2006
JOE BIEL
*1966 born in Boulder, CO. Lives in Los Angeles
EDUCATION 1990 MFA, Painting, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 1988 BFA, Summa Cum Laude, Painting and Art History, Drake University, Des Moines, IA
AWARDS AND HONORS 2003 Pollock-Krasner Foundation- Grant Award recipient Featured Artist, New American Paintings: 2003 West Coast Edition 2000 Residency, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha Artist in Residence, Multnomah County, OR 1999 Oregon Arts Commission Grant for a specific project proposal 1998 Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant for an exhibit at the Art Gym, Marylhurst College, Portland, OR 1993 Merit Award, Bradley National Works on Paper, Bradley University, Peoria, IL 1991 Charles Cinnamon Award, Grant given by the NFAA to assist artists with a specific project 1989 Ned Dybvig Award for an outstanding first year graduate student, Stipend, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 1986 Fellowship (one of thirty internationally), Yale Summer School of Music and Art, two month intensive program in all media. Program included seminars and workshops with visiting artists 1984 Finalist (one of five nationally), National Arts Recognition and Talent Search competition sponsored by the NFAA, Stipend. Competition included seminars, interviews and works on site, Miami Finalist, National Presidential Scholarship Competition, for academic excellence
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2009 Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin 2007 18th Street Arts center, Santa Monica, CA 2006 Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, New York Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin 2005 �New Work�, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle �Captain ILL�, Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles 2003 Joe Biel: Drawings, Mixture Gallery, Houston, TX Joseph Biel: Works on Paper, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland, Oregon 2002 Small Graphite Drawings, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle Post Gallery, Los Angeles Works on Paper, Galerie Katia Rid, Munich, Germany 2001 New Works on Paper, Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles Fayerweather Gallery, installation, University of Virginia, Charlottesville Mark Woolley Gallery, installation, Portland, OR Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, installation, Omaha 2000 Greg Kucera Gallery, Installation with Richard Kraft, Seattle 1999 Draft of a Landscape, installation, The Art Gym, Marylhurst College, Portland, OR 1998 Study for a Book, installation, Anderson Gallery, Drake University, Des Moines, IA Yellowman Actions 1, 2, and 3, live performance pieces, Portland, OR 1997 House of Cards, outdoor installation, May 1, 1997, Portland, OR Quartersaw Gallery, installation, Portland, OR 1996 Fragments from a German Requiem, group exhibition, Gallery 299, Portland State University, OR Traces through an Ash Board, installation, Hatton Gallery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Quartersaw Gallery, installation, Portland, OR 1995 With a Variable Key, installation, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR Between Spectacle and Silence: The Holocaust in Contemporary Photography, installation, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA From Darkness to Darkness, installation, The Light Factory, Charlotte Work by J. Biel and R. Kraft, Savannah College of Art and Design 1994 Metropolitan Arts Commission Space, installation, Portland, OR
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009 �Drawn/Draft/Depict�, IVC Art Gallery, Irvine Valley College, Irvine, USA 2008 �The Clearing�, Nettie Horn Gallery, London 2007 �The Diane and Sandy Besser Collection�, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA �Weltempf�nger. 10 Jahre Galerie der Gegenwart�, Hamburger Kunthalle �On Death and Drawing�, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA �Rogue Wave�, L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles, USA �It figures�, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, USA 2006 �The Square Root of Drawing�, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin, Irland First Bienal de las Americas, Tijuana, Mexiko 2005 �Paradise Lost�, Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, New York �The Manifesto Show�, Ambrosino Gallery, Miami, FL �Erotic Drawing� Part 2, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT �Erotic Drawing� Part 1, Diverseworks, Houston, TX 2004 Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland, Oregon Drawn Fictions, The Art Gym, Marylhurst, OR 2003 Not Always the Same Part One, Hammer/Sidi Gallery, London, England Not Always the Same Part Two, Mjellby Art Center, Halmstad, Sweden Little Disasters, Red Dot Gallery, 2003 Scope Art Fair, New York 2002 Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC Works on Paper Gallery, Los Angeles Relative Objects, Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA What a painting can do, Hayworth Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1997 Oregon Biennial, group exhibition, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR 1993 Merit Award, Bradley National Works on Paper, Bradley University, Peoria, IL Small Works Exhibition, Loyola University, New Orleans Clemson National Print and Drawing Exhibition, Clemson University, SC SODARCO Internationally juried Exhibition, Sodarco Gallery, Montreal
