JoKa

Presentation

JoKa is a Philadelphia based painter specializing in hyper-pointillism, using toothpicks as his sole form of paint application. Using collage, he skews and distorts, pushing familiar images into the surreal. He has been exhibiting his work since 2005 across the country as well as internationally, and in national art publications. In true "necessity is the mother of all invention" fashion, his unique method was developed in lieu of learning how to silkscreen, but instead developing a technique to provide the same desired effect, by dotting black over solid color backgrounds. Extrapolating on that practice, he decided to execute more fleshed out and multi-layered pieces of art, in an effort to update and showcase an underused and, nowadays, academic form of painting. Using such a regulated and precise technique leaves no inch of surface without extreme care to detail, and the works beg for closer and repeat inspections.