Julon Pinkston
overview works about exhibitions
About the Artist
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Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Julon Pinkston first began his studio practice in college after serving as an Infantry soldier in the US Army. It was as a result of the military experience and experiencing personal loss that spurred him into taking the bold move and practicing studio art as a career, embracing an Army motto Fortuna Favet Fortibus (Fortune Favors the Bold).
Julon Pinkston earned a BFA, graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston in 2003. He went on to earn an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas, College of Visual Art and Design in 2008. After graduating he moved home to Houston and began teaching as an adjunct professor at various community colleges and working as an art teacher at Houston Independent School District. His work has been exhibited in various art fairs, featured at Houston’s Art Car Museum, the Beeville Art Museum, McMurtrey Gallery, and Zoya Tommy Contemporary Galley, where he is currently represented in Houston. In his current work he creates impasto paintings along with paint made to look and feel like ubiquitous objects relating to his studio practice like duct tape, plywood, red stickers using acrylic paint as a medium. His work explores the transformity of acrylic painting as a media while maintaining a seductive, elegant quality. |
Artist Statement
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I believe that in my work the use of play and intuition are central to my creative process and methodology in making art. This has not always been that way that I work, but I find that I discover far more, and enjoy the work more by knowing how I will start a work of art, but allowing the work of art to take me where it wants to go. My work mirrors the world around me, both in nature and manufactured materials.
I often manipulate acrylic paint to look like ubiquitous objects such as duct tape, masking tape, red dots, bandages, utilitarian items, etc. This gives the imitation of the work being made in a swift, effortless and inexpensive manner, but at the same time (since they are not tape, but acrylic paint) there is this almost tedious or ridiculous amount of labor involved in making them look and feel like the real thing. Art should seem like it is easy even when it’s no, especially when it is not. The diversity of manipulation of acrylic paint becomes an integral part of these works, which are exploring the tactile sense and embraces direct experiences. These works reject the overabundance of two dimensional pictures that are saturating our world in the current digital revolution. All of these elements used in my paintings: tape or stickers (made of acrylic paint), nail-drips, staples, BBs, plywood, the gestural mark, etc., for me, are there in order to be able to discover new possibilities in art. I enjoy pushing the conventions that confine artistic media, whether traditional or nontraditional, and seeing what else I can do with it. I hope that when you look at this work you see it with the same sense of humor, the same kind of play or sense of discovery in which they are made. |
