JOHN FOLSOM
::: artist currently showing :::
John Folsom is a mixed media artist born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky. He combines photography with traditional paint media that reference the sublime painters of the nineteenth century to create “ideal landscapes” that conjure a personal sense of place.
In Folsom’s work, the representational landscape becomes alluringly fictional. By presenting a place through the lens of yearning and romanticism, he invites viewers to move the images beyond their specific geography to a place born of personal memory, drawing on the idea of the memento or travel keepsake. In this way, the artwork does not exist in the real world, but is in fact dependent upon the viewers’ own history and experience to achieve its sense of place.
His photographs are altered, scanned, de-saturated and further enhanced with other media such as paint, encaustic and tar to achieve the fictionalized and self-consciously nostalgic final images. His work promotes the natural environment as a repository for introspective thought, intrinsicly advcocating for conservation.
Folsom completed the Banff International Arts Residency in 2007, from whence many of his images stem geographically, as well as from the Pacific Northwest. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout North America and can be found in collections around the world, including the Christoph Merian Foundation in Basel, Switzerland; the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee; the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, Tennessee; the Fulton County Arts Council in Atlanta, Georgia; as well as many private collections.
John Folsom lives in Atlanta and has been exhibiting with Besharat Gallery since 2010.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2011 Marietta Museum of Art, Summering At The End of Empire, Marietta, Georgia
2010 Gibbes Museum of Art – Lure of the Low Country, Charleston, South Carolina
U.S. Ambassador to Africa. Art in Embassies Exhibition, African Union, Ethiopia
New Zones Gallery of Contemporary Art, Calgary Canada
Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee Year Without A Summer 1816
2009 Lanoue Fine Art – Kaaterskill: Selected PIctures from an Imagined Wilderness,
Boston Massachusetts
2008 New Zones – Souvenirs , Calgary, Canada
Fay Gold Gallery – Lure of the Low Country , Atlanta, Georgia
2007 Lanoue Fine Art – Canopy , Boston, Massachusetts
Zeitgeist Gallery – Canopy , Nashville, Tennessee
2006 Fay Gold Gallery – Strangescapes , Atlanta, Georgia
Blue Gallery – solo exhibition, Kansas City, Missouri
2005 New Zones – Hurricane Ridge , Calgary, Canada
Cumberland Gallery – solo exhibition, Nashville, Tennessee
Museum Works Gallery – “Defining Nature”, group exhibition, Los Angeles, California
2004 Fay Gold Gallery – solo exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia
2003 Volunteer State College – solo exhibition, Gallatin, Tennessee
The Etherton Gallery – invitational group exhibition, Tucson, Arizona
2002 Blue Gallery – solo exhibition, Kansas City, Missouri
New zones Gallery – group exhibition – Calgary, Canada
The Lowe Gallery – solo exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia
2001 Side by Side – Group Invitational, Belfast, Northern Ireland
1999 Yeiser Art Center – solo exhibition, Paducah Kentucky
1995 Cheekwood Museum of Fine Art – Two Beauties, solo exhibition, Nashville Tennessee
AWARDS
2001 Christoph Merian Foundation – Artist in Residence, Weil Am Rhein, Germany
1997 Christoph Merian Foundation – Artist in Residence, Arlesheim, Switzerland
1996 Tennessee Arts Commission – Individual Artist Fellowship, Nashville, Tennessee
ARTFAIRS
2011 Scope Basel – Basel Switzerland
Art Chicago – Chicago, Illinois
Dallas Art Fair – Dallas, Texas
2010 Dallas Art Fair. Dallas, Texas
2008 AIPAD – New York, New York
2006 Art-212 Contemporary Art Fair – New York, New York
Art Chicago – Chicago Illinois
2005 Scope Art Fair – Miami, Florida
AAF Contemporary Art Fair – New York, New York
Art Chicago – Chicago, Illinois
2005 San Francisco International Art Exposition – San Francisco, California
2004 AAF Contemporary Art Fair – New York, New York
Art Chicago – Chicago Illinois
2003 San Francisco International Art Exposition – San Francisco, California
2002 Art Chicago – Chicago, Illinois
San Francisco International Art Exposition – San Francisco, California
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2011 Marietta Museum of Art, Summering At The End of Empire, Marietta, Georgia
2010 Gibbes Museum of Art – Lure of the Low Country, Charleston, South Carolina
U.S. Ambassador to Africa. Art in Embassies Exhibition, African Union, Ethiopia
New Zones Gallery of Contemporary Art, Calgary Canada
Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee Year Without A Summer 1816
2009 Lanoue Fine Art – Kaaterskill: Selected PIctures from an Imagined Wilderness,
Boston Massachusetts
2008 New Zones – Souvenirs , Calgary, Canada
Fay Gold Gallery – Lure of the Low Country , Atlanta, Georgia
2007 Lanoue Fine Art – Canopy , Boston, Massachusetts
Zeitgeist Gallery – Canopy , Nashville, Tennessee
2006 Fay Gold Gallery – Strangescapes , Atlanta, Georgia
Blue Gallery – solo exhibition, Kansas City, Missouri
2005 New Zones – Hurricane Ridge , Calgary, Canada
Cumberland Gallery – solo exhibition, Nashville, Tennessee
Museum Works Gallery – “Defining Nature”, group exhibition, Los Angeles, California
2004 Fay Gold Gallery – solo exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia
2003 Volunteer State College – solo exhibition, Gallatin, Tennessee
The Etherton Gallery – invitational group exhibition, Tucson, Arizona
2002 Blue Gallery – solo exhibition, Kansas City, Missouri
New zones Gallery – group exhibition – Calgary, Canada
The Lowe Gallery – solo exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia
2001 Side by Side – Group Invitational, Belfast, Northern Ireland
1999 Yeiser Art Center – solo exhibition, Paducah Kentucky
1995 Cheekwood Museum of Fine Art – Two Beauties, solo exhibition, Nashville Tennessee
COLLECTIONS
The Gibbes Museum, Charleston, South Carolina
Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Atlanta Georgia
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Christoph Merian Foundation, Basel, Switzerland
Fulton County Arts Council, Atlanta, Georgia
Terminus, Atlanta, Georgia
King and Spalding, Atlanta, Georgia
Fulton County Arts Council, Atlanta, Georgia
RCA Records, Nashville, Tennessee
Sprint PCS Communications Company, Kansas City, Missouri
Coral Energy Incorporated, Calgary, Canada
Progress Energy Incorporated, Raleigh, North Carolina
Monarch Incorporated, Atlanta, Georgia
Dollar General Corporation, Nashville, Tennessee
REVIEWS and PUBLICATIONS
Ridley, Jim, Critics Picks, Nashville Scene, September 2007
LaFerriere, Catherine, John Folsom: Recent Works, ArtScope Magazine, Setpember 2007
Cole-Miller, Julie, Southern Accents, September-October 2006
Hoppen, Stephanie, “Picture Perfect: Collecting Art and Photography, 2004 London:
Aurum Press Limited.
Architectural Digest, “Art across America”, May 2003
Ryesky, Helen, “Painterly Landscapes at Pentimenti”, Art Matters, November 2000
Wall, Donna Dorian, “At Home in the Landscape”, Southern Accents,
Sept.-Oct.2000, P114
New American Paintings, June – July 2000
Smith, Terri, Plus Four, Art Papers, March – April 200
EDUCATION
1990 Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois,
Bachelor of Fine Arts – Cinema and Photography
Exhibitions:
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Besharat Gallery
