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My work in the past ten years has examined the role of technology in our changing landscape. This pursuit has led me to investigate communication networks, energy and oil companies, and the industrial agriculture infrastructure. I am interested in how these industries shape our view of “the natural environment” as well as physically shape our planet. My work moves through drawing, painting, sculpture and digital practices. I am interested in historical methods of image making while simultaneously embracing new digital technologies and media. This duality of longing for the past while striving for the future permeates the environmental discourse. My intent is to use both to raise new questions about the nature of nature.

Joseph Smolinski was born in St. Paul, MN, and lives and works in New Haven, CT. He received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin (1999) and his MFA from the University of Connecticut, Storrs (2001). Group exhibition venues include Diverse Works, Houston, TX; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown, OH; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. Solo exhibitions include Mixed Greens Gallery, NY; Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA; Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT; and ArtSpace, New Haven, CT. His work has been discussed in Art in America, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and Art Papers. He is a recipient of the Connecticut Commission of the Arts 2012 Artist Fellowship, the 2014 Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the College of the Environment at Wesleyan University and a 2012 Artist Resource Trust Grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

Junco and PPE, 2021, watercolor, graphite and gouache on paper, 6.25 x 9 inches.

Mourning Sun, 2020, Mosaic with jet stone and sea coal on wood panel, 9 x 12 inches.

Open Water 22, 2017, ink, acrylic and graphite on paper mounted on panel, 11 x 14 inches.

Sparrow and PPE, 2021, watercolor, graphite and gouache on paper, 6.25 x 9 inches.

Multiplier, 2019, Laser etched acrylic, aluminum, burnt wood, and sea coal, 24 x 36 inches.

Open Water 16, ink, acrylic and graphite on paper, 62 x 43 inches.