Joel Otterson
Joel Otterson (born in Inglewood, CA, 1959, United States) is one of many artists on display at the MADE IN LA, Los Angeles Biennial 2012 show (The Hammer Museum, LA><ART, Barnsdall Park). Otterson's work has been described as "an aesthetic of excess that combines debased elements of interior design, motifs from rock culture, and a wonderfully wacky approach to comfort."[1]
Professional Life & Education
BFA, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY. (1982) Otterson currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. (2012)
Early Career
In 1983, Otterson exhibited for the first time at Gallery Nature Morte in Manhattan. He would have exhibitions with other notable artists together with artists like Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, and Kevin Larmon. [2]
Made in LA
(2012) Joel Otterson is fascinated by the American proclivity to mix styles and genres. Deploying an impressive array of mediums, materials, and methods of fabrication, he pays particular attention to the spaces we live in. His recent quilts, furniture, and objets d’art mix an earnest and adept pursuit of craft with a playful queer sensibility that leads us to consider how both personal and shared experiences inform our aesthetics. Otterson’s hanging soft quilt is made from dozens of found fabrics pieced together using a technique taught to him by his mother. This vibrant textile collage suggests affinities with feminine codes, feminist practices, and queer subjectivity. The softness of the form is one extreme in his arsenal, while hard ceramic and concrete blocks form the ground of another. Inspired by the geometries of overhead shots in Busby Berkeley’s films, each snowflake Hawaiian-style block in Otterson’s elaborate “hard quilt” references a different location or aspect of Los Angeles—from the tall palm trees to the boys walking along Santa Monica Boulevard. His arrangements of lamps, vases, and figurines on embellished end tables refer us back to the domestic space, which he reveals as a site of enormous creativity.[3]
Collections
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Oh. Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Jewish Museum, New York, NY. Yokohama Museum of Contemporary Art, Yokohama, Japan.