Joe Fig – I’m a Fan!

My friend Claudia recently brought to my attention a contemporary artist by the name of Joe Fig. Joe has a new book out titled Inside the Painter’s Studio and she thought I might like it. Turns out Joe is a fellow School of Visual Arts graduate and a VERY talented artist. I checked out his website at www.joefig.com and was really really impressed. It amazes me how much his work, although compositionally completely different, reminds me of my own. He has an incredible sense of detail and color. I would describe his art as “still life gone wild.”

Here are a few of his images that i thought were particularly engaging.

This was the first painting I looked at. What a fabulous image. My first thought was that it reminds me of a modern day Norman Rochwell image. Rockwell was famous for telling a whole story with a simple composition. He utilized textures and expressions and details to tell that story. Joe’s painting of the shoes is a simple composition but there’s so much going on. Such detail. There’s a real story in these shoes and looking at the painting makes you want to know what that story is.

I absolutely love the chaos and the detail in this painting! The textures are incredible and the emotion is raw and real.

This portrait of Chuck Close is absolutely brilliant! Sit and stare for awhile at the face…you can reach out and touch his shirt…feel the hair on his arms…and to put the artist in front of one of Joe’s compositions is very telling.

I can declare myself a fan of Joe Fig and I hope you check out his work!