TAWA at 45
The Exhibition
Joy Kreves
Pasture Rock
acrylic & UV-reactive phosphorescent and fluorescent paint on celluclay over cardboard, 2021; 35″h x 42″w x 7.5″d
Joy Kreves has had work in over 100 juried and invitational exhibitions and several solo shows including one at Rider University Art Gallery in 2010. She is currently assistant managing editor of Worksheets, a poetry journal published by DVP/US1 Poets, and next year will be the managing editor. This year one of her sculptures was chosen for the cover of the Cool Women Poetry Anthology.
“I love making ‘rocks’ and writing poetry. Occasionally my poems want to be in artworks, like in FORECAST. Poems can alter consciousness, something I am very interested in. My rocks are part chameleon, and glow when the viewer shines a UV-flashlight on them. The UV light even brings out some colors that were invisible before and provides the viewer with an experience that may be like seeing cave paintings revealed by torchlight. But my rocks include contemporary images. Cows, not bison. These rocks hint at the possibility of attaining higher states of consciousness in which perception is heightened. I have no interest in creating products primarily for the purpose of selling them, and do not celebrate the current blurring of lines between investigative art and artisans’ work. All my work comes from motivations to explore and experiment and draws directly from my life. For example, my husband died from lung cancer during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I created Mourning Rock with Kickstand right after that. I am a member of many arts organizations such as Princeton Artists Alliance, ROOTs Artists Alliance, Arts Council Princeton, Ewing Artists, West Windsor Arts Council, Hunterdon Museum, Ellarslie, and Artworks Trenton, as well as DVP/US1 Poets.”