Josh Foley is interested in using objectifying calculative strategies to position him somewhere contemporaneously in relation to the activity of painting today. In a way, it is a sociopath type of endeavor – sociopathic painting. To transcribe his formulations into visual data Foley will attempt to create a painting that moves! Then, reviewing the fraught concept of original expression, Josh will create two pictures using the same brushstrokes; one abstract and the other one of a rooster. There will also be a giant-sized computer screen painted onto a wall using brushes, air, tape, sponges, ink and determination. This represents analog painting, backed up against a wall, adjusting itself before the digitized virtual realms and platforms that humans are increasingly ensconced by.
Parataxic distortion, a psychiatric label, is the tendency for one to skew perceptions of others based on fantasy. Regarding the title of this exhibition, parataxic refers to – maladjustment. Conflating the term with “sublime” the artist seeks to quantify his thoughts about contemporary painting; he is eluded by conventional terminology that satisfactorily describes them. But elusiveness plays a big part too.