I am interested in distilling various collected images down to a singular iconic aesthetic. My work provides a quiet contemplation of our over-stimulated society, a Zen-like balance. With the work, I present subtle allegory through deceptively simple imagery. – J. Ivcevich

Garvey|Simon Art Access is proud to present J. Ivcevich: Sampling, a mini-retrospective exhibition, in its Indianapolis location, 27 East Main St., Carmel, Indiana, 46032. The exhibition will run from April 20 – May 31, 2011, with a planned reception on May 14 to coincide with the Second Saturday Gallery Walk in the Carmel Arts + Design District.
Entirely self-taught as an artist, Ivcevich was born in Ohio in 1971 and raised in Indianapolis. Woven through J.’s career is a continuous Indiana thread. He attended Brebeuf Preparatory School, has attended every Indy 500 race since 1982, served as camp counselor during summers in Brown County, and has exhibited at the (now-closed) Ruschman Gallery in downtown Indianapolis. He had a solo exhibition of recent work at Franklin College in 2010.
After graduating from Brebeuf, J. attended Emory University in Atlanta, where he received a degree in sociology. He started his career as an artist in Atlanta after graduation, while also pursuing life as a music producer and disk jockey. Ivcevich also has a successful sock company: Stroke’s Striped Socks.
His passion for music and design is reflected in his paintings. The simple bold patterns of his footwear bear similarity to his use of simple bold planes of color in his paintings. He takes what he wants to paint and reductively pares it down to its most simple elements. In music, sampling refers to taking a portion of a (usually well-known) recording and reusing it as part of a new song. In a nod to his life as a DJ and music producer, Ivcevich is “sampling” from the Everyday.
He defines his own work as a cultural bricolage, using whatever is on hand while changing the original purpose to inform and comment. He uses iconic imagery of urban deterioration and isolated scenes to explore the triviality of modern culture. The works in this exhibition contain images as diverse as kitschy toys, urinals, re-vamped album cover imagery, graffiti, urban signage, newspaper kiosks, bicycle, and construction-site barriers. Yet, the way in which the artist enigmatically presents this imagery leaves us looking for ways to relate to these mundane subjects anew.
This exhibition will feature a range of works the artist has produced in the last decade. His paintings have gone through various transformations as he has approached each series of work throughout the years, but certain signature elements remain constant: his style of painting with acrylic in a syringe; his bold use of outline and flat planes of color; his attraction to random everyday scenes; and his subtle contrast of high and low cultural imagery.
Many of the works in the exhibition are painted with his resin technique. Sometimes starting with a photograph mounted on board, other times painting on aluminum, he then applies numerous layers of resin, and paints with acrylic in between the layers, producing a literal three-dimensional effect within a flat surface. There are also several canvases in the exhibition which feature his use of syringe-painting, including several of his newest white-on-white “toy pile” pieces inspired by his trips to markets in Vietnam. We also have a delightful suite of miniature cast urinals !
J. Ivcevich’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, Washington DC, Memphis and Atlanta; and in group exhibitions in NYC, Berlin, Providence, San Francisco and Boston. In 2001 he received a Pollock-Krasner Grant, and he has made the cover of the juried, in-print exhibition, New American Paintings, twice.