J.B. Nearsy
J.B. Nearsy is a mixed media and assemblage artist as well as a sculptor who has exhibited across the United States as well as in Canada and France. He is represented by Untitled Gallery...
J.B. Nearsy is a mixed media and assemblage artist as well as a sculptor who has exhibited across the United States as well as in Canada and France. He is represented by Untitled Gallery in St. Louis and Cerebra Gallery in Kansas City. Notable solo exhibitions include triple shows to date at Untitled Fine Art and other features at Parish Gallery in Houska Gallery, Concrete Ocean Gallery, and Serendipity Gallery, all in St. Louis,, Twisted Pair Gallery in DuQuoin, Illinois, Art Alley Gallery and Vergette Gallery in Carbondale, Illinois, and The Gallery Space in Murphysboro, Illinois. Recent collective exhibitions include 8th Annual Salon International Art Résilience, Musée de peinture de Saint-Frajou in France, Mission Point Resort in Mackinac Island, Michigan, Art St. Louis, St. Louis MO, and Gallery of St. Albert in Alberta, Canada.
An eclectic artist who works in numerous sets of series, J.B. Nearsy explores form, provocative subject matter, and abstraction simultaneously. From depictions of death through skulls, making ‘jury-rigged’ rifles out of pieces of wood and steel as well as representations of celestial elements, J.B. wishes to keep the viewer on their toes. His most notable series would be Nebula, Arbitrage, and Heavens & Humanity.
Nebula depicts vast gasses in outer space through exaggerated forms. While nebulas can be colorful in the galaxy, J.B. chooses to depict the entities with neon and pastel colors, indicating a personal interpretation of the subject. His nebulas appear more like representations of atoms rather than a sfumato of gas, indicating he wishes to solidify the form. Arbitrage could be described as J.B.’s most interesting series as the works contain photographic assemblage. Very few artists work with collage implementation of original photography, which makes the works more rare as well as his application of geometric layout and bold neon colors indicating either light design or digital manipulation. Finally, Heavens & Humanity reveals a post-apocalyptic aesthetic with makeshift rustic pistols and rifles made from raw wood and metal. The piece may remind the viewer of the various ‘pipe guns’ from the Fallout video game series, specifically Fallout 4 in post-apocalyptic Boston.
Ghosts (North North) Variant no.1 (pictured above) represents a photographic assemblage. How the piece is constructed remains a mystery, but from what we know, the work incorporates two photographs applied on top of each other, either digitally or manually. One photo appears to be a crop close up while the other showcases a wide angle. The works are tinted red revealing a deep urban aesthetic which represents passion or intensity.
J.B. Nearsy could be described as an indirect artist. His works are metaphorical and contain references usually manipulated through either color or materials to reflect a deep sense of personal interpretation. There remains an urban grit and post-apocalyptic mania within his compositions which reveal investigative approaches towards understanding our city environments. These compositions bloom towards a greater purpose of treating art as a tool of contemporary symbolism and regarding subject matter as a means to reflect personal identity as well as accentuating a heightened sense of urban individuality.
