Joe Gegan

My interest is in building paintings from intuition, allowing my hand to work one step faster
than I think I can control – always searching, moving, finding as I feverishly edit and re-edit
until I achieve completeness. I find painting to be a physical way of thinking, an internal
discourse made concrete. Recently, I have been using the breaking down of old paintings, both
my own and those of other artists, and repurposing them through collage. The action of this
decay is psychologically penetrating and allows for interesting new associations, both personal
and formal. My painting has become increasingly sculptural, possessing a physicality that
ripples with texture and moves in muscular patterns that add layers of depth. The paintings are
very much about my own reach and the movement of paint, my own physicality and touch as I
endeavor to make paintings with a complex psychological presence that tries to capture the soul
of a place. I was born in Santa Cruz, CA and raised in Davis, CA. I received my MFA in painting
from Boston University in 2013 and my BA in Art from University of California, Davis in 2006.