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Born in 1996, Joseph Colangelo is an artist based on Long Island, NY. His work is influenced by the human nature of searching for meaning in a world of endless stimuli: imagery, stories, and information. As well as time’s role in changing the meaning of ideas over differing periods of time.
He is a graduate of Hofstra University, where he studied fine arts, psychology, and art history.
Focusing on juxtaposition and the process of interpretation in his work, Colangelo’s practice is tied to traditional oil painting with appreciation for old masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. His process and works are mainly influenced by surrealism, mythology, history, and philosophy.
It is human nature for people to question the meaning of things that go on around them. The main purpose of my work is to invoke the question “what does this mean?”. The goal of my work is not only to make viewers question the meaning of the artwork in front of them, but also to become aware of the self-burden of “figuring it out”. I juxtapose various images to create a composition. The viewer, who observes these works, creates their own interpretation to my artwork. This allows for a collaboration between artist and viewer in the search for meaning.
While the original meanings behind my works can be found, I am encouraged not to impose them on the viewer. Many ideas have disappeared and have been brought back with modern improvements. People in history have been mythologized only for their own myth to be repurposed in time. Things have vanished and reappeared as vintage, retro, or old-fashioned. Even ancient works that have stood the test of time occupy a different space in our minds than was intended. The core of the work is interpretation and time. As we are all becoming the “new old-fashioned”, consider what an artwork means to you at different times in your life. What might a work mean in 500 years? and what does in mean about us that we ask these questions in the first place?
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