Artist Profile 032: Joshua Bienko

Joshua Bienko holds a BFA in Painting (2000) from the State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, and MFA (2008) from Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

Bienko’s practice explores the complicated issues of our times, drawing from a diverse range of subject and material such as modern philosophy and aesthetics, the history of art, pop culture and its history, contemporary sports, and rap and hip hop. His practice combines the traditional and untraditional; for example, drawing by hand with digital assets, oil paint upon neoprene, and performance as video. Bienko’s work has been included in solo and group exhibitions from California to New York, and in Australia and Europe. He has served as a panelist and presenter at institutions across the United States. Bienko’s lectures include “Thy Mother’s of My Generation: What’s She if I Be A Dog? Hegel’s Aufhebung and the Necessity of Conflict” College of Architecture Research Symposium, Texas A&M University, 2009; “Desiring le’ Con” Alfred University School of Art and Design, Alfred, NY, 2010; “Rappin’ about Art” Akademie fur Internationale Bildung, Bonn, Germany, 2011; and “Collage, Art, Association or Digital Collage, Internet Memes and the Future of Painting” SECAC Conference, Greensboro, NC, 2013.

While Bienko is the subject of a number of reviews and articles, he also writes about contemporary art and artists, maintains a blog about art and drawing under the pseudonym “Martin Kitchenburger”, and curates exhibitions. Bienko is a founding member of the cross country collective Ortega y Gasset Projects in Queens, NY and a co-founder of C for Courtside in Knoxville, TN.

Bienko has served as Instructor at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Visualization at Texas A&M University. Currently Bienko is an Associate Professor of Drawing and Extended Media, at the School of the Arts and Architecture, University of Tennessee Knoxville.

For more information visit www.JoshuaBienko.com

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