JJ Baker
Bio
JJ Baker is an artist and educator from Cincinnati, OH and currently on faculty at Mount St. Joseph University. He is a recent graduate of the Alfred-Dusseldorf painting program and received his BFA from the University of Cincinnati. JJ’s recent shows include a solo exhibition at Monterroso Gallery in Houston, TX and at the Robert C. Turner Gallery in Alfred, New York. He has exhibited and taught internationally. His teaching practice goes hand in hand with his creative practice.
JJ’s recent paintings explore the connection between memory and image. He uses gathered and collaged materials to build layered surfaces which serve as physical manifestations of memory. Through a destructive process, JJ pushes his paintings beyond the image into textured abstractions that compress time into an immediate, visual experience.
JJ enjoys listening to cover songs, watching black and white movies, and painting.
Artist Statement
My artwork is an investigation into the ephemeral connection between the people, places, and things I experience. The work materializes memory and paradoxically attempts to freeze time. I employ the language of painting for this investigation, and whether my paintings are abstract, representational, figurative, or objective, the physical medium of paint is the ideal method for me to build an understanding of the world around me. My art has a contradictory quality to it, yet a unity found in the physicality of the materials I use. The work is consistently tied to the environment in which it is created and becomes a signifier of that environment.