The works of Joel Sager

Joel Sager, a native Missourian, recently completed his degree in fine art at William Jewell College near Kansas City. While there, he was selected to receive the Harriman Fine Arts Scholarship and was a four year recipient of the Carpe Annum award, given to the most outstanding art major. During his senior year, the college administration purchased one of Joel's paintings to be exhibited at the Truman Foundation headquarters in Washington, D.C. After graduation, Joel interned with artist Mark English and received a full scholarship to the Illustration Academy at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Upon his return from studying at the Academy, Joel began working as an independent artist, gathering a body of work that has been described as “moody” and “smart.”

Fascinated by the vitality of the austere way of life and the tools therein, Joel presents a dark perspective on these images (most often landscapes, still lifes, and portraiture) which he believes are going by the wayside. Concurrent with the way some mid 20 th century artists turned to basic subject matter after the war, Joel's work serves as a redemptive examination into post-September 11 America. The work itself reflects the modest aspects of his subject matter with its simplistic composition and almost archaic stylization. However, with the deconstructive paint process Joel employs, his work simultaneously exploits the social deterioration of the literal subject matter. This process involves an underpainting of naïve color and collage, a subsequent wash with tar, and a scraping on and off of paint with a palette knife. The result is part realism and part primitivism: a visual struggle between idealism and pragmatism. Joel has lived in Columbia, MO since 2003. Currently he is represented in Columbia by Perlow-Stevens Gallery.