Painter and UGA professor Joseph Peragine has his first solo show on campus since becoming director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art two years ago. Low Anchored Cloud/Spring Hoax is on view at the UGA Performing Arts Center Lobby Gallery, which is free and open to the public weekdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
A reception honoring Peragine and his paintings will be held in the gallery Tuesday, August 20 at 5 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
“I’m really happy with the way it looks,” Peragine says. “It’s really fun to have it on campus. As an administrator I’ve been the man behind a desk. It’s nice to share the passion side of me. It’s why I got into education, into art.”
The exhibition consists of 23 whimsical, vivid canvases. Three very large ones with animals are from a series called Low Anchored Cloud, which takes its title from a Henry David Thoreau poem. A cluster of 20 smaller ones is from Spring Hoax, which juxtaposes Day of the Dead skulls with flowers and insects.
“I think of making art as synesthesia,” Peragine says. “What does it taste like? What does it sound like?” He compared his blend of weight and humor with the music of Talking Heads and writing by Kurt Vonnegut, which both can tackle serious subjects in an off-kilter way.
Peragine appreciates showing his work in a less traditional space with so much foot traffic. He said the institutional cooperation reminds him of the most recent Dodd school graduation, which was in the PAC with Hugh Hodgson School of Music students providing music, and Georgia Museum of Art Director David Odo speaking. “It was using the whole East Campus,” Peragine says.
Low Anchored Cloud/Spring Hoax will be shown until Dec. 21. Click here for more information.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Known for infusing dark humor into diverse subject matter, Joseph Peragine explores the themes of life and death in his latest paintings through two distinct bodies of work.
The three large works on view come from a series titled Low Anchored Cloud. This title is derived from the eponymous poem by Henry David Thoreau, which evokes a misty landscape—a “Dew-cloth, dream-drapery”—a transcendental place where animals are hidden in boggy labyrinths and among banks of flowers and dreamy abstract landscapes. Peragine’s squiggly brushwork and electric colors highlight the unreality of these realms. The ghostly animal inhabitants are often rendered in soft, lavish textures like beings sculpted from living cloud. Stylistically they are at odds with their flat surroundings, as if they no longer fully belong to their world. The animals in these works feel as if they are holding their breath, motionless and unblinking.
The installation of smaller paintings is from Spring Hoax, a vibrant visceral body of work featuring skulls enmeshed in jewel toned flowers and playfully rendered insects. Conceived during the pandemic, these sensuous paintings draw from a range of influences, blending elements of Vanitas and Day of the Dead imagery. Vanitas paintings, a hallmark of the European Renaissance, served as stark reminders of life’s impermanence and the fleeting nature of material wealth. Similarly, references to Day of the Dead imagery infuse the work with a sense of celebration and remembrance, emphasizing the connection between life and death. The vivid colors and playful depictions of insects and flowers in the paintings capture the joyful spirit of this tradition, where death is embraced as a natural part of the human experience.
ABOUT JOSEPH PERAGINE
Joseph Peragine is an artist and educator. His paintings, sculpture and animation have been presented widely in galleries, contemporary art spaces, and museums throughout the country and internationally. The scope of Peragine’s multi-disciplinary practice encompasses public art projects and commissions, including exhibitions at Art in General in New York City; Islip Museum of Art, West Islip, NY; Sunken Garden Park, Atlanta; and an installation for the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, for which he was awarded an Atlanta Urban Design Commission Award of Excellence for Public Art, as well as being noted as one of the best public art projects in 2001 in Art in America.
Peragine’s animations have been exhibited at the Palm Beach ICA, Florida; the Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA; DiverseWorks, Houston, TX; and the Arizona State University Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival, among others. His paintings, drawings and sculpture have been exhibited in galleries including Solomon Projects, Atlanta; Atlelie397, Sao Paulo, Brazil; David J. Spencer Museum at the CDC, Atlanta; Agnes Scott College, Dalton Gallery, Decatur, GA; Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL; the UA Museum of Art, and Kress Gallery, Tucson, AZ; and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA.
Peragine was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1961. He completed his undergraduate work in fine art at the University of Georgia, Athens, and in 1995 received his MFA in painting from Georgia State University, Atlanta. Joe Peragine is the Director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.