Joe Camoosa

Joe Camoosa makes drawings and paintings that focus on complexity, order, and the uncertainty of meaning. Working within abstraction, he searches and strives for what doesn’t exist and hasn’t been seen before: the un-nameable. Mystery and ambiguity loom large; his work contains a number of things that might look familiar yet can’t quite be named—a map, a glimpse under a microscope, a scientific model containing arteries or clusters of organs and bodily shapes, or something in bloom, coming alive. His work is informed by many ingredients: maps, aerial landscapes, music, trains, graffiti, architecture, the sensation of rhythm and movement, the grid of New York City, and the tattered subway map from his childhood.

Camoosa was born in Asbury Park, NJ, and lives and works in Atlanta. He received an MFA in painting and drawing from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia and graduated from Florida State University, where he studied mass communication and anthropology. Camoosa has exhibited throughout the Southeast, and his work is held in numerous corporate and private collections.