JOY KREVES
These sculptures function in all kinds of lighting, from daylight, spots, UV, and night. They show different aspects of themselves in the various lightings. I use a combination of acrylics, fluorescents, UV reactive and even invisible paints which only show under UV lights and not others. I call these sculptures “rocks”, but they are creating over armatures made from our refuse: bottles, styrofoam packing, and cardboard. They are my fantasy of how nature will try to reclaim our refuse by turning the items into mutant “rocks”.
I was born in Illinois, received my MA in studio art from Illinois State University, then moved to NYC for 8 years during which time I exhibited in guerrilla art shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1986 I married and moved to New Jersey, where I have lived and worked since. I ran Joy Kreves Art gallery in Frenchtown before moving to Ewing, where I have lived and worked since 1992.
2022 ARTWORK:
2021 ARTWORK:
2019 ARTWORK:
This year I continued to work in two of my established series, and added another:
The natural world is full of gifts from Earth. Geodes are easy to see as one of them. Seemingly ordinary rocks, geodes contain the extraordinary. This idea was my starting point for The Geode Series. In each work I attempted to create an extraordinary interior.
My intention in the "Distressed Forest" series was to draw attention to the serious problem of earth pollution, but I had a lot of fun creating the sculptures. The richness of the natural world is determined to express itself under the weight of our consumption debris.
This year I have continued to explore the ephemeral medium of salt crystals, in "The Remembrance Series". The salt crystals have a certain compatibility with the vintage handkerchiefs that I utilized in these new works. The vintage linens suggest a permanence and care that has disappeared from our relationship with objects.
-Joy Kreves, 2019
2018 ARTWORK:
Contemporary poetic landscape constructions in two and three dimensions by Joy Kreves featuring modern nature-inspired imagery expressed in ceramics, mixed media, painting, poetry and assemblage.
TOURS THIS ARTIST PARTICIPATED IN: