Justin Life
Justin Life
In my recent drawings I am exploring possible scenarios involving my body within the CERN Large Hadron Collider, located near Geneva. The CERN project is focused on analyzing the outcomes of collisions of photons against photons and heavy ions to provide a window on a state of matter that characterized the early stage of the life of the Universe. In my drawings and mural I imagine myself within the accelerator and improvise different scenarios that depict the creation and effect of black holes and possible paths of undiscovered particles created from the collisions of particles within and against my body.
I see parallels between the circular rhythmic movement of the particles within the collider and the dynamic compositions found in Baroque figurative painting, as well as the loose calligraphic brushwork of Zen Buddhist painting. I use the pictorial language of Baroque religious artwork to discover whether the intrinsic dynamism is tied exclusively to a religious goal or whether it can be distilled into essential properties that can exist without a specific religious context.
Justin Life received an MFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts (‘07) and a BFA in painting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (‘02); he also studied at the Winchester School of Art at Southampton University in England (‘02). His shows include “Brutal Doodle”, Lufthansa Studios, Boston, MA and Fountain Studios, Brooklyn, New York (‘11); “Boston Drawing Project 10th Anniversary Show” at Carroll and Sons Gallery, Boston MA (‘09); “Flora and Fauna” at EM Gallery, Winston Salem, NC (‘09); “MFA Thesis Show” at Tufts University (‘07); “Boston Young Contemporaries” at 808 Gallery (‘07); and “Affirming the Hand” at the Courtyard Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (‘05). Life also teaches at Tufts University, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Boston Architectural College.
December 2-17, 2011
Opening reception Friday December 2, 2011, 5-8PM
