ART JOSEPH is perhaps the most prolific artist I know. On his Instagram he posts at least two new drawings a day, usually either based on posters of films he enjoys or drawings of his friends. Below, on the left hand side, is a comparison of a drawing Joseph did of my partner alongside an image of them, to give an idea about how Joseph’s art style manifests. Joseph has multiple disabilities, although this is not the focus of his art nor of his life. Instead, Joseph pays no mind to the art world and focuses on doing drawing for pure pleasure. Sometimes, I have watched Joseph produce several drawings in the space of just a few hours. Joseph is an outsider artist, but he is also my friend, and therefore he defies the mythos of personality that is often prescribed to artists.
Alongside a friend and my partner, I attended the private viewing of Joseph’s first solo exhibition ‘Pretty Bubblegum Woman’ at The Haggerston Pub in Dalston. In the upstairs exhibition space, there were around fifty pieces of work on display – his ‘drawings’ as Joseph refers to them. Some were on display in frames and for sale, while others were on display in folders on a table in the centre of the room for patrons to flip through. There were also hats from Joseph’s time volunteering at the Rio Cinema, Dalston, a place in which he met many of his friends and that continues to have a great influence on his artwork. Popcorn in boxes taken from the cinema was also given out.
I spoke to some of Joseph’s collaborators, artists Dandy Day and Gar O’Dwyer who helped curate the exhibition, about their struggles with creating the space and their main takeaway was simply that it was hard to decide what to display! With Joseph’s output spanning eight years of constant drawing, the amount of work he has is truly astounding.
Joseph loves to sing karaoke, specifically Creedence Clearwater Revival. As part of the exhibition, he curated a playlist of music that he enjoys for those attending the exhibit to listen to. This meant that, instead of either silence or quiet background music not meant to detract from the art on display, we were in the exhibition looking at the artwork to the sound of Eminem, Tina Turner and Survivor. In a less organic setting, this choice would have been ironic, a choice made in order to separate the art from its creator and to install some kind of ironic distance for those viewing the art. Except, for Joseph, the music he chooses to accompany his work comes from a place of sincerity and not from a desire to impress.
I love Joseph’s art, and I love how much Joseph loves to create it. He has dabbled in pottery, beatboxing, theatre and prose – including writing an entire zombie novel entitled Evil in East London, but always returns to drawing as his main artistic practice. He is sincere, and exists without any need for mythos or attribution. Alongside how well he can capture people, this is something I greatly admire about Joseph, and why I tell every person I meet about his artwork at any given opportunity. I find his take on art refreshing, and attending the exhibition energised me, giving me confidence to try out new techniques or methods that I otherwise may not have attempted.