Josh Sperling

(American, born 1984)

Josh Sperling is an American contemporary artist known for his minimalist sculptural paintings, which consist of multiple pieces of stretched canvases over different three-dimensional layered plywood structures. Using his signature palette of saturated pop art colors, his works blur the lines between painting and sculpture, taking inspiration from 1960s geometric abstraction, shaped roadside signage of the postwar era, and the playfulness of Keith Haring’s work. Other artists that he has said influenced his work include Fernand Leger, Paul Feeley, Frank Stella, Bridget Riley, Constantin Brancusi, and KAWS. Sperling’s process is also influenced by his own background in graphic design and furniture making: “I never wanted to be a graphic designer and I never wanted to make cabinets as a woodworker, but...I have become good at these two things and these skills have influenced my process more than anything else,” he commented. Sperling was born in 1984 in Oneonta, New York. Growing up, he was always building things, so his family pushed him towards applied arts, seeing woodworking as a more stable way to make a living. He graduated from SUNY Potsdam in 2006 with a Bachelors in Fine Arts and worked as a graphic designer. His current works are structures that range from angular and geometric to organic, using the interaction of light and shadow to create an enhanced illusion of depth. He paints with bright, monochromatic hues to play with bright contrast and unexpected color combinations. Sperling has held solo exhibitions at Perrotin Gallery in cities around the world, including New York, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo, and Shanghai. His pieces are also included in public collections like the Fondation louis Vuitton in Paris, France, and the Arsenal Contemporary in Montreal, Canada. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.