Joshua Jenkins was born April 14, 1987 in Willingboro, New Jersey. He was raised and home-schooled by his Mother, along with his five siblings, in Poughkeepsie, New York. During the summers he would spend his time with his Father, in Central Kentucky, where he would eventually move to for High School. Jenkins began creating art at a very young age, although it wasn’t until his later years in High School when he thought about taking it seriously. Jenkins ended up back in Poughkeepsie in 2006 to attend Marist College, where he studied Digital Media and Studio Art. Throughout his college years Jenkins began showing his works, locally, at coffee shops around the Hudson Valley. By the time he graduated Jenkins ended up landing his first solo show in Beacon, New York. After graduating in May of 2010, Jenkins moved to Philadelphia for half a year before ending up back in Kentucky for a career opportunity. Jenkins currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky where he continues to pursue his goal of becoming an established artist.

Artist Statement
"I use art as a catalyst to express ideologies and emotional obstructions that stem from my life.  I have always felt as though I have been unintentionally submerged into this queer culture, a topic which has now become a very strong presence in the majority of my work. Through a library of mental snapshots, captured from my day to day experiences, I attempt to document the life of gay men in the 21st century.  I do so through my expressionistic style of painting as a sometimes raw approach of a visual dialogue. Using mixed mediums in my paintings I primarily focus on line, color, and texture as a catapult for my voice.

Line and color are two of the most prominent signatures of my unique style of art in whichever medium I am using; they are, in essence, the individual piece’s vocal chords.  With them I make pieces as expressive as possible with a desire for the viewer to feel the exertion that I put into them as I create. Between the use of raw, vibrant, colors and the variation in lines and textures used, I strive to express a certain mental tone, at times with a childlike cognition by impulsively painting without my own initial understanding. My ultimate goal as an artist is to make my paintings come to life by giving off an emotional ray of energy in each piece. When the viewer sees my work, I want them to feel what I felt throughout the creation process.

Every work tells a story and has an emotion tied to it. I try to stay away from complete abstraction within my work, leaving elusively realistic qualities of body and form throughout. I find there is always comfort in a piece when the viewer’s eye sees something it’s used to. The purpose of my work is not to make the viewer ask what they are looking at, but instead to ask how it makes them feel. Each figure in every work doesn’t necessarily represent a specific person, but the idea of a person I have met or seen, and in some cases an obscured self-reflection of my own self. I do not like to give too much detail on what or whom an individual piece is about because I want it to be open for discussion and self-reflection on the part of the viewer."

Curriculum Vitae
2013 Solo Exhibition, Mouton, 954 N. High Street, Columbus, OH
2013 Solo Exhibition, "Ascertainment", Regalo Gift's 4th St Gallery Loft, Louisville, KY
2012 Solo Exhibition, "Portraits of Expression", The Gallery at Tech Gallery, Syracuse, NY
2012 Solo Exhibition, Magnolia Photo Booth Co., Louisville, KY
2012 Group Exhibit, "Urban Art Show", Mellwood Art Center in Louisville, KY
2012 Collaboration, "Espacio Panamá" Collective Investigation Show. Soul Performace, Espacio Panama, Casco Viejo, Panama City.
2011 Group Exhibition, "Open Apple Steve / Memoriam: an aesthetic homage to Steve Jobs", The Tech Garden, Syracuse, NY
2010 Collaboration, "Mood Watcher(s)", Meld, Pink Hair Affair, Philadelphia, PA
2010 Group Exhibition, “ (in) case” , (r) evolution art studio, Syracuse, NY
2009 Solo Exhibition, Floor One Gallery, Beacon, NY
2008 Duo Exhibition, Zuzu's Leaf & Bean, Beacon, NY
2008 Group Exhibition, "Landing", Muddy Cup Coffe House, Poughkeepsie, NY
2007-2010 Annual Student Exhibition, Marist College Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY

Accomplishments
2013 Selected Judge (on a jury) for Congressman Yarmuth's Art Competition, Louisville, KY
2013 Commissioned for a Public Mural at Nowhere Bar, Louisville, KY
2013 Interviewed for Online Blog: Graphic Echo
2012 Interviewed for The Community Letter
2012 Work showed in "Art Show Scene" for the movie "Adult World" (Directed by Scott Coffey.) Scene filmed in March, 2012, Syracuse, NY
2010 Interviewed for "New School, a moving portrait of Hudson Valley Artists", an independent film by Ty Marshal premiered at Dia: Beacon Museum in upstate New York

Projects
2012 Founded "The WeR1 Project" www.facebook.com/thewer1project