Education
M.F.A., University of Connecticut - Storrs
B.F.A., University of Wisconsin - River Falls
About Joseph
Joseph Smolinski is a multidisciplinary artist and educator that lives and works in New Haven, CT. His practice questions the shifting roles of technology within communication networks, energy and oil companies, and the industrial agricultural infrastructure, which indelibly shape the so-called natural environment.
Smolinski received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin (1999) and his MFA from the University of Connecticut, Storrs (2001).
Group exhibition venues include Diverse Works, Houston, TX; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown, OH; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. Solo exhibitions include Mixed Greens Gallery, NY; Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA; Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT; and ArtSpace, New Haven, CT. His work has been discussed in Art in America, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and Art Papers. He is a recipient of the Connecticut Commission of the Arts 2012 Artist Fellowship, the 2014 Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the College of the Environment at Wesleyan University, and a 2012 Artist Resource Trust Grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. He has been an artist in residence at Wassaic Projects, 2021 and the Happy and Bob Doran Connecticut AIR Program at Yale University Art Gallery and The Vermont Studio Center.
Artist Statement
I am interested in the cycles of life and death, the interconnectivity of living things, alternative energy sources, notions of bio-tech hybrids, good and bad science fiction, human impacts on nature, cellular systems, bioluminescent sea creatures of the deep, spawning galaxies from afar, giant cell towers disguised as trees, the energy of spring, the suspended animation of winter, the plants that grow in my garden, and the intricate complexity of life. All of these influence the drawings, paintings, sculpture and digital animations I produce.
Exhibitions and Publications
- Colony Collapse, Green Street Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 2014
- Night for Day , Mixed Greens, New York, NY, 2012
- Invasive Horizon , Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2011
- Divided Terrain , Mercy Gallery, Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT, 2011
- From Here On...,The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center , Montgomery College, Takoma Park, MD, 2011
- Beginning Of The End , Mixed Greens, New York, NY, 2010
- HereAfter: Envisioning a Landscape of Tomorrow , Seton Gallery, University of New Haven, CT, 2009
- Ground Control , Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2009
- After The Fall , Mixed Greens, New York, NY, 2008
- Transmission , Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, 2006
- Energy Potential , ArtSpace, New Haven, CT, 2004
- Regeneration , Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT, 2002
- Strange Natures, The Institute Library, New Haven, CT, 2013
- Interventions, Artspace, New Haven, CT, 2012
- Out of Nature, The Institute Library, New Haven, CT, 2012
- House, Reinterpreted 2012, Pardee-Morris House, New Haven, CT, 2012
- Trees: Selections from the West Collection, Speer Gallery, Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA, 2012
- The Nature of Drawing, The Anthony Giordano Gallery, Dowling College, Oakdale, NY, 2011
- 1st Alumni Exhibition, Gallery 101, University of Wisconsin River Falls, River Falls, WI, 2011
- War-Making: A Exhibition of This Time, A-Space Gallery, New Haven, CT, 2011
- Things are Expanding, Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2010
- Board, Beam, Breath: an investigation of trees, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, ID, 2010
- Line Dancing: A Writer’s Choice of Works on Paper, A-Space @ West Cove Studios, West Haven, CT, 2010
- Beastiary, Maxon Mills, Wassaic, NY, 2010
- Treemendous, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY, 2009
- Dispersion, Artspace, New Haven, CT, 2009
- Disjointed Terrains, NY Studio Gallery, New York, NY, 2009
- Uprooted: Group Drawing Show, Ch'I Contemporary Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY, 2009
- Current Connecticut, Paper New England, Hartford, CT, 2009
- X: Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Mixed Greens, New York, NY, 2009
- Solution, Diverse Works, Houston, TX, 2009
- Seduced, Guilford Art Center, Guilford, CT, 2009
- Our Present Planet, The Art School at Old Church, Demarest, NJ, 2009
- Full Circle: Ten Years of Radius, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, 2008
- TREES: Christopher Elliot, Deborah Weiss and Joseph Smolinski, Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT, 2008
- Badlands, curated by Denise Markonish, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams,
MA, 2008
- Cultivate, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA, 2008
- Connecticut Contemporary, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, 2007
- The Elements: AIR, The Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, 2007
- Road Trip, Mixed Greens, New York, NY, 2007
- Convergence: Collaborative and Individual Works By Trifocal Projects, Todd Jokl, Jessica Schwind, Joseph Smolinski, Akus Gallery, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT, 2007
- Landscape vs. Netscape, Unit B (Gallery), San Antonio, TX, 2007
- Modeling the Photographic, curated by Saul Ostrow, McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown, OH, 2007
- Follies: Allegorical Constructions, OHT Gallery, Boston, MA, 2007
- Works on Paper, Flux Factory, Long Island City, NY, 2006
- Endless Forms, Engaging Evolution, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2006
- Dreaming of a More Better Future, curated by Saul Ostrow and Stuart Horodner, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland,
OH, 2005
- Shifting Affinities, Yale School of Art, Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT, 2004
- Radius, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, 2004
- Vistas: Interventions in a Mediated Landscape, curated by Denise Markonish, Mount Ida College, Newton, MA, 2003
- Info@Blah, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, 2003
- Mueller, Kurt, "Solution: Houston", Art Papers magazine, June 2009.
- Devine, John, "Solution, Houston" Art Lies magazine, Issue # 62. 2009.
- Genocchio, Benjamin, "A Show Goes Heavy on a Traditional Medium Yet Feels Fresh", The New York Times, January 2, 2009.
- Hodara , Susan. "Celebrating a Decade of Nurturing Artists on the Verge", The New York Times, January 2, 2009.
- Ostrow, Saul. "Joseph Smolinski, Mixed Greens". Art in America, December 2008.
- Banai, Nuit. "Joseph Smolinski, "After the Fall." Time Out NY. Issue 677 September 19-25, 2008.
- Markonish, Denise. Badlands: New Horizons In Landscape. Mass MoCA, June 2008.
- Mitchell, John E., "The Wheels On The Tree Go Round And Round", North Adams Transcript, August 8th, 2008.
- Smee, Sebastian, "Earth In The Balance", The Boston Globe, July 4th, 2008.
- Bahr, Lynne, "Nature Speaks", American Artist Drawing, Fall 2008.
- Genocchio, Benjamin, "A Contemporary Showcase At Wadsworth Atheneum",The New York Times, June 3rd, 2007.
- Ackerman, Ruthie, "Low-Tech Art In High-Tech Era", Hartford Courant, May 22, 2006.
- Ostrow, Saul, High Velocity in Slow Motion, Real Art Ways. 2006.
- "Worlds of Tomorrow", The Chronicle Telegram, October 21, 2005.
- Howards, Ellen, "Taking the Outside In", artsMEDIA, October, 2003.
- McQuaid, Cate, "Taming Technology’s Overload with Artful Systems",The Globe Correspondent, May 2nd, 2003.
Awards and Grants
Artist’s Resource Trust Grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, 2012
Connecticut Commission of the Arts Artist Fellowship, 2012
Public and Private Collections
West Collection at SEI
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Yale University Art Gallery