Joseph Schneider
Joseph Schneider’s assemblage sculptures, paintings, and collages contain found objects intricately joined together evoking themes of childhood, spirituality, time and space. His works celebrate pattern, language, and the feeling of wonder in everyday life.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Schneider spent his childhood constructing sculptures out of whatever was around and taking lessons with the painter Robert Gilmore. As a student at Gonzaga University, Schneider spent a year studying in Florence, Italy, drawing inspiration from early Christian art, Greek art, Renaissance art, and Islamic art.
Acceptance into the Museum of Modern Art’s P.S. 1 National Studio Program brought him to New York City, where he remained for fifteen years. While living in cramped studio spaces and working as an art handler and massage therapist, Schneider built work that would take years to complete, assembling sections when space was found.
His creations have received national and international recognition appearing at the Trans Hudson Gallery and the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center both in New York City, and the Fundacio “la Caixa” in Barcelona, Spain. Schneider’s large ship, Sea of Tranquility, was a focal point of the Independent Curators International show Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art which traveled to many locations, among them the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH; the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ; the Brooks Museum of Contemporary Art, Memphis, TN; and the Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA.
Returning to his roots in the northwest, Schneider currently resides in rural Oregon. Recent projects have received funding from the Creative Capital Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission.
All artwork & photos
© Joseph Schneider
