HUBBARD, Joseph

Joseph Hubbard was born in Illinois in 1945 and acquired Canadian citizenship in 1974. The artist obtained an M.A., B.F.A. (studio) and a B.A in art history from the University of Illinois. He has taught at secondary & tertiary levels in the US and Canada. Hubbard was seconded by the Ontario Government as an advisor on provincial art curricula and served as artists’ representative on the Board of Directors of Museum London. He has worked as president of Canadian Artists Representation (C.A.R.) at the Forest City Gallery, London (Canada).

The artist’s practice utilizes extremely diverse mixed media technologies. These include metals, fiberglass, wood, ceramics, photography, plastics, vacuum forming, photography video, and bricolage, or found technological detritus.

These darkly humoured, acerbic cultural insights are influenced by diverse expressions in non-western cultures. Over three decades Joseph Hubbard has revisited the same dozen themes in series, gradually refining each successive interpretation. But the consistent subject of the work is social criticism and re-examination of our contemporary values.

Artist statement:

The work frequently engages opposites: banality and sophistication, comedy and tragedy, surface realism and abstraction. These complexities, although arcane, do not render the work impenetrable. The realism that has at least one obvious interpretation is largely a hook to engage the viewer. Wit or black humour is intended to produce nervous laughter, which I regard as a kind of entropic verbalization, as valid as analytical insight. The work is often part of a continuing series, which are explored over a period of several years. The meanings are multi-layered from the obvious to the ambiguous. In works from The Elephant Is the Room, the process of art-making itself, including “collaborations with dead artists” and museum “interventions”, archiving and exhibiting, became the subjects.

Craftsmanship in the work is not intended to be a technical tour-de-force but rather to build on ambiguities suggested by the media themselves. The irony is that the mimicry possible in different materials actually subverts reality. Some pieces use lights and/or sound as a “material” that satirizes by appropriating and stylizing only a snippet of experience. Objects are recreated in unexpected materials as a way of challenging perceptions about the role of the art object, and the existence of the source object. (re: museum track light dimmers cast in bronze) These works often occupy relatively small, intimate spaces in which they can be contemplated closely. In spite of all the concerns present in the work, I see no reason that the work cannot function simultaneously as visual poetry with an elegant, if yet critical and disturbing presence.

In style the work has varied from Dada, Funk (my early ceramic works) to post Fluxus was influential, and Joseph Beuys was indispensable in his ability to suggest meanings through subtle, subversive choices in the juxtapositioning of images and materials. Semiotic artists Ed Ruscha & Jenny Holzer, and surrealist filmmaker Louis Bunuel, Wym Delvoye, Bruce Nauman and Robert Gober have some similarities to my work. Gerhard Richter and British artist Marc Quinn also mix diverse techniques and styles.

Also inspirational are Antony Gormley, Jeff Wall, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, and Damien Hirst, because of their social insights and evaluations of human existence.

EXHIBITIONS

2016 McINTOSH GALLERY; Western University, London; Portraits curated group

2016 McMASTER MUSEUM of ART Security Station 25 (permanent solo installation)

2011 ART GALLERY OF WINDSOR You Don’t Know What You Are Seeing (Romancing the Gallery) solo

(works about museums & artists’ relationships to galleries) solo

2010 THIELSEN GALLERY,London, Ontario: Works For the Visually Impaired

solo; introductory notes by Ihor Holubizky

2008 WOODSTOCK ART GALLERY,Ontario: Two Solo Exhibitions by Joseph Hubbard:

The Elephant IS The ROOM (works about art making, galleries, archiving)

Selections From WMD's & Paranoia; introductory notes by Dr. Madeline Lennon

2008 THE ART EXCHANGE, London, Ontario: Art Mentors: 25 Years of Influence group

2008 McINTOSH GALLERY; Western University, London; Recent Acquisitions in Context

2007 ST.THOMAS-ELGIN ART GALLERY; St. Thomas, Ontario:

WMD's and Paranoia: solo

2008 THAMES ART GALLERY; Chatham, Ontario: WMD's and Paranoia; solo

2007 CANADIAN CLAY AND GLASS GALLERY: Waterloo, Ontario:

JOSEPH HUBBARD: 25 years of Provocative Questions ~ solo

(retrospective, plus installation works, performance piece,

catalogue: essays by Virginia Eichhorn, Gil McElroy and the artist

DVD by Canadian Art Productions

2007 STATION ART GALLERY; Whitby, Ontario: Prohibited Areas and Non-Sites;

catalogue by Gil McElroy :(with Barb Hunt, Peter Dykhuis, Adrian Gollner, Sarah Beck)

2006 GALLERY LAMBTON; Sarnia, Ontario: WMD's and Paranoia: solo

2006 McINTOSH GALLERY; London, Ontario: WMD's and Paranoia; major solo catalogue

essays by C.E.Shaw, Mike Atkinson, Anton Allahar, Corinna Ghaznavi, the artist

2006 MUSEUM LONDON, Canada: Recent Acquisitions

2005 THEILSEN GALLERY; London: Time Pieces and The Weight of Words: solo

2000 THIELSEN GALLERY; London; Bealart Faculty Exhibition

1998 MUSEUM LONDON, CANADA: Bealart: 80 Years of Experiment:

curated group; catalogue by Paddy O’Brien

1990-1993 Built 40 foot sailing ketch Local Colour; 1994-1997 teaching; international travel; study

1989 McINTOSH GALLERY; London; Bealart Faculty Exhibition

1988 FOREST CITY GALLERY/ McINTOSH GALLERY/LONDON REGIONAL ART GALLERY;

Homage a Marcel Duchamp: curated group; catalogue R. McKaskell

1988 LONDON REGIONAL ART GALLERY; Sculpture: 20 By 20: curated group; catalogue

1987 KAMEN GALLERY; Toronto; solo

1987 LONDON REGIONAL ART GALLERY; Prime Source; curated group; catalogue

1986 McINTOSH GALLERY; London; The Many Faces of Contemporary Art; catalogue

1985 LONDON REGIONAL ART GALLERY The Artists Collect; curated group; catalogue

1984 LONDON REGIONAL ART GALLERY; Works On Paper; curated group

1984 ART GALLERY OF TROIS RIVIERES, QUEBEC: juried group biennale

National Biennale of Ceramic Sculpture: catalogue;

1984 THIELSEN GALLERY; London; solo

1984 McINTOSH GALLERY; Western University, London; two solo exhibitions; w/ Gerald Trottier

1984 CENTRE BONSECOURS; Montreal; two solo exhibitions; w/ Alain Tremblay

1984 VALOURIS; FRANCE, CENTRE DE PICASSO,

International Biennale of Ceramic Sculpture: juried exhbition; catalogue

1984 BARBARA SILVERBERG GALLERY; Montreal

1983 TATAY GALLERY; Toronto; Some Certain 20th Century Monuments: solo

1983 THIELSEN GALLERY; London; solo

1983 ROTHMANS of PALL MALL : annual juried exhibition

1983 AUBERGE DU PETIT PRINCE; London; solo

1983 TRAJECTORY GALLERY; London; solo

1982 ART GALLERY OF WINDSOR; Southwest 42: annual juried exhibition

1982 AUBERGE DU PETIT PRINCE; London; solo

1981 RODMAN HALL; Ontario Society of Artists; St.Catherines,Ontario: juried group

1981 AUBERGE DU PETIT PRINCE; London ; solo

1980 ROYAL BANK OF CANADA; Ontario Society of Artists; Toronto: juried group

1980 HARRIS GALLERY; London; Joseph Hubbard; solo

Public gallery collections include Museum London, the McIntosh Gallery, and private

collections in Ontario, British Columbia, Montreal, New York, Vermont, California, Illinois,

Wisconsin, Nebraska. Work in foreign countries includes Mexico, England, & Holland.