Artist:Bri Joy
Exhibition:Merge
Media:Bfk printmaking paper, light sensitive emulsion stencils, water based ink screen with aluminum frame she handmade
Gallery:CSULB School of Art, Gatov Gallery East
Website: No website until after graduation
Instagram:bri.joy
This week I met a really down to earth artist: Bri Joy. She is an undergraduate student in the Print Making program at CSULB. She went to community college at Orange Coast and hopes to graduate from CSULB very soon. Her exhibit today was her undergraduate BFA show, which every art student needs to graduate! She comes from a wilderness of sorts. The town she grew up in had less than 1,000 people and no one even really had a cell phone. As Bri moved from a small town to Long Beach and Orange County she experienced a major culture shock. She said she was “a hobbyist”. She loves everything active, as she hikes, surfs and does yoga on the regular. All of her pieces explore the organic and digital worlds colliding or merging. The title of her exhibit is based off of her life.
Her work embodies her past and present life coming together. Each piece describes her two communities differences. She described her work as being heavily digitalized lines seamlessly coming together. She really doesn’t try for specific line shapes but just wants all of her work to be cohesive. 3 out of her 7 pieces incorporate figurative formal qualities which I found fascinating. Bri uses BFK print making paper. She likes using large pieces of paper to create larger pieces, therefore she has to order the paper in rolls. In addition to the paper, she used a screen she created herself, occasionally stencils and ink. She creates value from manipulating the eye and line.
Bri wants there to be conversations throughout her whole piece, rather than have any moments of seamless parts. All of her pieces are about her past. She is trying to explore a world of few people, little use of technology, close bonds and trust. At the same time she is trying to explore a word of technological advancements, crowded cities and less genuine relationships. The two worlds she tries to explore in each of her pieces are the two worlds she has lived in, one as an adolescent an one currently as an adult.
She described how as she moved cities, she experienced a major culture shock, due to the fact she believes people in Southern California are not as open as people from her home town. She told us to really value the genuine bonds in our life and I took that to heart. She was so right we live in such a populated place where creating strong bonds is not as easy as when in a close knit community or town. I really enjoyed her exhibit and could tell she put a lot of hard work into it. She described the process to me and explained how she had to make her own board because she wanted to make larger pieces then artists previously. I admired her hard work and determination and it definitely showed off in all of her pieces.
madisonbraverman 