Josue Bessiake is an Ivorian-American painter working across media.
Bessiake uses multiple discplines to explore the ingredients of a phenomenon using the body as the origin. Influenced by his experience as a first generation american his work reflects his desire to connect himself to his environment. In a process involving reassembly, experimentation, and collection, Bessiake’s work is a collision between practicality and abstraction making references to scale, memory. and collective consciousness.
Josue Bessiake has presented work at the National Gallery of the Bahamas, Chautauqua School of Visual Arts, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Recent Exhibitions include exhibits at The Charles Wright Museum, The University of Texas: Edinburgh, Gallery NAGA, Boston, MA; and the University of the Bahamas. Bessiake was a recent finalist for the AXA Art Prize at the New York Academy of Art and is a recipient of a grant from the Elisabeth Greenshield Foundation.
"Through processes of disassembly and repair, I create works at the intersection of the mundane and the universal. Often centered on objects and spaces related to the body, my practice spans multiple media; taking a cross-disciplinary approach to painting. In a method based on intuitive decision-making; painting, and drawing serve as tools for recording. I arrive at an image using a build-up and removal of marks. Each brushstroke is a depiction of light going across a form. Each line is notetaking how a subject activates a space. I follow a methodical examination of forms engaging with fabricated and found materials in sculpture. I work to make the unfathomable accessible using this assemblage of methods as a visual language."
Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.
I like to say I'm from the middle of the map; not too close to anything. My parents immigrated from Cote D' Ivoire to the United states so we bounced around a lot growing up. For the sake of giving an answer I usually say the midwest and east coast i was born in Michigan but spent a lot of my life on the east coast. My interest in the arts has been there ever since i can remember. I'd say it first came from my older brother a fellow artist Habacuc Bessiake, it also helped that at whatever new school I ended up at kids tend to like you if you could draw their favorite cartoons, so perhaps that is what really was the driving factor behind my artistic journey.
Before desicinding to pursue a professional career in the arts i had dreams of being a physicist or something in the sciences; when you've got parents from out of the country there's always this sentiment of " we've gotta have something to brag about to our family back home" so after high school I had two choices become a professional soccer player or study physics, I figured I would do art on the side, however, after spending about a little less than a year with art in the back of my mind i could not take it. I knew that I had to take this seriously or i'd regret it. It really did help having a older brother in the arts as well to take the brunt of the "why aren't you a doctor questions".
Anyway I transferred to Montserrat College of art to study painting, it was a real shock since the school was so small and in America I was so certain Montserrat would be on the British island. I really benefitted from being at that place; My diploma says BFA with a concentration in painting but I did pretty much anything i could learn, i vividly remember walking into random classes to see what I could pick up on. I learned from my great people there, Paul Jeanes, Funlola Coker, Kamiya Masako, Judith Brown, and Jesse Kahn, to name a few but the person who stood out was a man named Timothy Harney, I call him the old man, in secret. He was a real tough cookie but he taught me how to see in a way that I never saw before, to draw and paint with empathy. My interactions with him completely transformed my practice and this school of thought deeply informs my practice today.
What kind of work are you currently making?
I've really been interested in making work related to domestic spaces, perhaps because of my personal relationship to home and my recent travels. It's been in the form of these small and large works on paper using handmade paints. I've really been interested in using materials that are tied to a space if i can get some dirt from my environmtent and put it in my work i try to.
In terms of subject matter the work has been fairly figurative with a play of abstraction finding that sweet spot where a piece has the visual excitement of abstraction and some of the quiet that comes from representation, so far my answer has come in a play of edges or "a marriage of edges" as my old teacher would call it. I like when images emerge and there's something to be discovered as you keep looking.
What has been at the forefront of my making process is an ongoing project " The Anatomy of a home" an interdisciplinary exploration of the home, examining its components and cultural variations. Derived from my mother’s first home after immigrating, I’ve broken down the concept of home into five key areas: the exterior, dining room, living room, bedroom, and kitchen. In this project ive been making monoliths from discarded wood parts, from abandoned houses or furniture. Something about the idea of a towering structure has been exciting for me.
What is a day like in the studio for you?
On an ideal day in the studio I get up really early in the morning to start working but what ends up happening is I will be in the studio very late in the evening. I've been residency hopping over the past year so my studio practice has changed quite a bit. Instead of working on a painting usually on canvas for months on end I've taken to making works on paper that are rather quick and more about keeping the freshness or energy of a new work.
I usually have around 5 or 6 pieces all going on at once; a few small paintings a drawing or two and maybe one large assemblage or painting that takes up the most of my time. all the smaller works are to get myself out of a problem caused by the large piece I'm working on or just something quick to see if I've still got chops. The sweet spot for me is really 3-4 but once I start a 4th piece I figure whats the harm in starting a few more.
I always start a studio day by just looking, staring at the work I've done the day before and getting ideas about what could happen next. I stare at my work until I find the piece that bugs me the most and go from there. If I'm starting fresh on a new piece ill mix colors that i think i'll use during the work session and throw in a few random colors for the sake of seeing something new.
I've been making my own paints recently so I'll start with making some new colors to play with and get started. If I'm painting or drawing I can pretty much go uninterrupted for about two hours on a good day. I try to stay as focused as possible so I rarely have music on in my studio, so its very VERY quiet, an ideal place to let my ideas run rampant.
After about an hour or two I'll take a break, maybe Ill read a bit of a book or step outside, what ends up happending is ill start looking at some of my favorite pieces of art recently its been something by Richard Diebenkorn or Lee Krasner and get excited to start up again so the breaks don't typically last long. If im not paitning or drawing, I go out foraging for materials to make assemblages, or pigments in most of the places that ive stayed theres great discarded furniture waiting to be turned into work, I'll try to find some abandonde house or a constructtion site. If there are workers I'll try to strike up converstaion and convince them to let me haul off with anything they arent using to bring back into the studio. I dont usually have access to power tools so if im wood working its a pretty meticulous process working with my favorite pull saw and a large asortment of rulers and levels to get things the way i like them.
What are you looking at right now and/or reading?
In terms of artists ive been looking at the same five artist for the past few months, Brancusi Antonio Lopez Garcia, Raimonds Staprans, Cornelia Parker, and Nour Jaouda whose work I'm really obseesed with, everything about Jaouda's work is really exciting to me. Whenever I'm stuck or I want to look at something interesting I'll turn to her website.
Right now I'm reading a few small books that I pick up on my travels; anything that can fit in my back pocket, so its mostly been small novels. I recently finished reading the Fox by D.H Lawrence which was a great read and I'm rereading the immoralist by andre gide since the book just barely fits in my studio pants. I've been dragging my feet to finish up Kafka By the Shore, anyone who's read it knows its good but its been a bit of a hassle to sit an read the full thing but I've also been reading the screen play for my favorite movie The Lighthouse so I'll go in between those two and try to read a couple pages in between novels.
Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)
Website: www.josuebessiake.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josuebessiake/
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