Josh George has always been attracted to the urban landscape. “It holds a different kind of beauty,” says the artist. “The decaying masonry work of time tested dwellings and the dismal skies that surround them. Quilt like patterns are revealed when you view through these arrangements. Shadows that cast on withered walls display individual windows where people go about their routine lives.” The people in Josh George’s paintings are engaged in static acts of everyday locality. They drink coffee, they smoke or stare at beer. They stroll about town hearing the urban world, but not quite listening. Everyone simply exists. “I use a barrage of materials to record these scores and a lot of fat paint knifed over torn strips of wallpaper and ugly product labels. The piece is finished with a delicate brush to define a street sign or a highlight on someone’s wine bottle.”

Josh George has been influenced by many artists, including Degas and Mary Cassat, both excellent drawers, and the Ash Can artists George Bellows, John Sloan and Robert Henri. “I love the way they documented the changing city from a street level,” says George. Contemporary artists Richard Diabankorn and Wayne Thiebaud have also served as inspiration for Josh who appreciates the liberties they took redesigning the cityscapes to fit their own views.

Click Here to read The Independent Review on Josh George’s Exhibition