about JOEL PINKERTON

Joel Pinkerton (b. 1956)

This outsider artist was born in Bowling Green, KY where as a young child, routinely created new toys from the broken hand me downs he’d gotten from his three older siblings. As an adult, Pinkerton developed a successful career in commercial and industrial construction management, but years of stress and the related health problems it caused, lead him to rethink his future.

His first assemblage experiments began in 1992 and in 1999 he began working full time creating unusual, one-of-a-kind sculptures and assemblages. He truly transforms domestic and mundane “found objects” into poetic works of art. Pinkertons’ most recent exhibit in April/May 2009 at Zephyr Gallery of Louisville, KY was full of work created from license plates, product containers, and metal signage.

His assemblages draw out unique expressions full of allegory, irony, metaphor, and satire. He has also included unique inter-active installations to his work at Zephyr Gallery that have drawn great praise and public appeal.

You might describe Pinkerton’s work as uncovering the activity of still objects, the meaning associated with the items is both amplified and changed, a psychological shift that challenges viewers to reassess what they know and how they feel. One can feel the spirit of others linked to the obsolete, broken or abandoned things we once needed as manufactured necessities of our existence. “I see art in everyday items and I’m drawn to these objects by their shape, texture, patina and former purpose.”

Joel Pinkerton lives and works out of his studio in Louisville, KY. He is self-taught and considers himself a 21^st Century (or contemporary) Folk Artist.