JJ Manford

Manford works with materials such as jute, whose fiber enriches the texture of his paintings. His understanding of the visual field gives him tools he applies especially to geometry and perspective. Formal elements connect within a spiritual cosmogony, acting as mediators of a visible or invisible message. There is a connection between the natural quality of the support and the visual representation of the environment, underscoring the importance of coexistence. Rooms, rather than spaces of daily life, are depicted as a hybrid place between reality and imagination, opening room to experiment with narrative and the meaning of composition. Objects that can be identified with Western or Eastern culture (collective memory) simultaneously serve as a source of personal information (individual memory).

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A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) with an MFA from Hunter College (2012), Manford has spent more than a decade building a career distinguished by his command of detail, texture, and tonality. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. In 2013 he co-founded Underdonk, an artist-run exhibition space in Bushwick, Brooklyn — the same neighborhood where he currently lives and works.