SUMMARY

 BUILDING BABEL (2018) 
oil on canvas/panel
33" x 33"

Joshua Elias (b. 1957 Chicago Illinois)

Raised in Wilmette (a suburb of Chicago), the family moved to Bexley, Ohio. It was there in high school that Elias was introduced by his mother to Ava Glimcher’s first Pace Gallery located in a mansion and met the artist Louise Nevelson. Upon meeting the Grand Dame sculptor, they shook hands and she proclaimed him “you have the soul of an artist.”

Elias is a lyrical abstract artist, writer and poet, interweaving these worlds in his oil paintings. He is highly engaged in utilizing raw materials, making paint, working on fine linen, all foundations acting as a vehicle for a greater understanding of painting.

The artist incorporates humor as a stint and abstraction as a vessel to hold an interior landscape of a higher world. Thematically his interests lay in the interstitial. Through his writing he has come to be known for his poetic, sometimes comical titles for his artworks.

Uncovering ancient Spiritual locations are recurring themes within his work.

A BFA at San Diego State University he continued his studies at Otis Parsons Los Angeles and at Design Art and Architecture School in Santa Monica, studying with Laddie John Dill and George Herms and Ronn Davis. Early on in his painting studies he privately apprenticed with historical classical technique painting master Sylvana Barrett, a consultant at the Getty Museum.

Joshua Elias has received many honors including an Artist Residency at Fundacion Valaparaiso in Andalucia Spain, inclusions at the art collection at the RAND Corporation, artworks featured at TED.com Kohler Home for the Future, as well as numerous private and public commissions.

In March 2017 the Elias painting Skin of the Sea was purchased by President Gudni Th Johannensson, the President of Iceland.

A new book, ROCK LIGHT Ltd Edition of 100, featuring paintings and poetry of Joshua Elias, from Lumen Press at FATHOM GALLERY Los Angeles, has been released July 2017.

Elias works daily at his art studio at the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles.

-P.G.-

Education

Design, Art, and Architecture, SMC
Sylvana Barrett  Getty  Consultant /Historical Techniques
Otis School of Design
Santa Monica City College
B.F.A. San Diego State University 1983