J J FAIRCLOTH

J J Faircloth was born into this world at sundown on February 21, 1980. He spent his childhood exploring the forests and rivers of Florida and his adolescence in the sea. As a teenager and young adult, Faircloth traveled the lower forty-eight states as a songwriter and musician. While receiving his degree in Comparative Religion, he realized how strongly his love of painting informed his vision for life. Upon receiving his BFA in Painting from the University of North Florida in 2007, Faircloth lived for a time on the Amalfi Coast, a paradise rich in the histories of Art and spirituality alike. In 2010, the artist began his Master Studies in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where, among a number of devilishly clever painters and instructors, he continues to create works which explore the complexities of the human condition in its humors, its beauties and its tragedies.

These past works, currently featured in our gallery focus on collective character interaction within a narrative structure. The paintings entice the viewer through direct visual contact with irrational figures. Use of bizarre and uncomfortable relationships among the figures creates cognitive dissonance in the space. The viewer is allowed to derive subliminal messages fed by their own collection of experiences and identification with the gaze. Reorganization of existing characters, types, and themes makes possible the building of provocative new stories simultaneously foreign and familiar. These devices elicit visual and cognitive responses which are then subject to gestalt restructuring through identification with personal and particular cultural, social, or mythological motifs.