Instructor: Joerg Dressler
Mondays & Thursdays
October 21, 24, 28, 31
November 4, 7
9am-12pm
6 sessions
Open studio hours: Tues/Weds, 9am - 12pm
Mon/Thurs, 1pm - 4pm
The workshop begins by developing an "inventory" of our personal affinities to help identify individual themes. With these insights, we will start developing visual ideas through exploratory and experimental collages. This process will generate a pool of source materials for each participant.
As we review these collages, we’ll be encouraged to identify common themes, such as recurring subject matter, compositional principles, or color preferences. By cross-referencing these outcomes with our personal inventories from day one, we can refine our ideas and create additional collages as needed. This will help reveal personal narratives or themes, which will then guide our painting practice.
Each Monday, we’ll share our work in a "show and tell" session, during which individual assignments will be given to explore throughout the week. On Thursdays, we’ll come together as a group to discuss our progress, challenges, and discoveries. One-on-one feedback will be provided to address individual strengths and areas for growth, with a strong emphasis on supportive peer exchange.
By the end of the workshop, students will have developed a unique and cohesive set of collages that will serve as a foundation for a series of paintings, both during and beyond the workshop.
(1) Students who are proficient in Photoshop can bring their laptops and create collages digitally if they prefer that method over analog collaging.
Joerg Dressler was born in Hanau, Germany. He received his MFA from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach, Germany, in 1994. Additionally, he studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France. Joerg moved to the United States in 1996. Joerg Dressler’s work is driven by nature and how we perceive it. He is presenting his experiences of reality filtered through his perception. As a result, disjointed experiences of the seen and unseen are reassembled, creating in the work a reality of its own. Joerg’s evocative, sensual paintings derive from a sincere dialogue between the representational and the abstract. His vocabulary for his work is drawn from a cross-section of art history: Romanticism, Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, graphic design and photography. “Joerg evokes sublime depictions of our confrontation with nature, especially the contrary effects of nature on the human psyche,” writes Christopher Busa in Provincetown Arts. “He places tranquility side by side with violence, light clashing with the dark, fragility beside boldness—surprising forces seemingly summoned on a whim, with involuntary energy.” Recurring themes in Joerg’s work include the passage of time, impermanence, frailty, and perception. He is a recipient of the Romanos Rizk Scholarship, and was awarded the Mass Cultural Council 2020 Artist Fellowships Program: Finalist in Painting. Joerg’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York and the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, NY.
Joerg is represented by Alden Gallery, Provincetown, MA, and Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, NY.
IG:@joerg_dressler