BIOGRAPHY: JB BOYD

J.B. Boyd is a professional vagabond in search of place. This search is as ambiguous as it is elusive, like the horizon line in the distance. Always changing, it slowly and subtly reveals the continual variation of landscape. Boyd’s oil paintings attempt to capture these transitory moments that embody a lifetime, and stretch them across the life span of a painting. Professionally trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and steeped in the tradition of both abstract and realist landscape art, Boyd seeks to create in his paintings modern documents of place.

Boyd paints from an extensive collection of photographs taken throughout his travels. In the studio, the photographs are then cropped, edited, and rearranged in sketches and studies to create the one painted image. The first layer of each of Boyd’s paintings is a graphite sketch, followed by a light burnt sienna wash that creates in monotone the underlying lights and darks of the image. Boyd then slowly works in layers of color, building the tones and hues that capture the saturation of color existing in his work. The surface is meticulously kept flat to preserve the uniformity of space, and the final surface layer is a glaze of cold wax. This layer not only provides an archival/ protective surface for the painting, but also adds the soft matte finish to his work.

Lulled here by the promise of many a long, low horizon line, the artist has called Charleston “home” for nearly two years, though interrupted by time spent in Africa (which was the source for “The Africa Paintings,” a nationally acclaimed solo show here at RL•S). He moved here from the mountains of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, preceded by the oceans of California, living in both Carmel and Los Angeles.

He graduated in 2000 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, with a BFA from Tuft’s University, and spent his first semester at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. Boyd began painting in earnest at the age of fifteen and is most proud (too proud, we think) of being voted most artistic of his kindergarten class.

Before joining RL•S, Boyd has shown his work in Los Angeles at The Space and in New York City at Spike Gallery.

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS:
16 Miles RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2008
Trees RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2007
Sea Change RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2006
Dimensions RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2006
The Africa Paintings RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2005
           
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Ratio RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2008
small Works 2007 RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2007
BIG Works 2006 RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2006
small Works 2005 RL•S Gallery, Charleston 2005
Summer Show: Emerging Artists Spike Gallery, NYC 2002
Art Potluck: Photos, Paintings, Performance, & Perversion The Space, LA 2001

SELECTED JURIED EXHIBITIONS:
Vanishing Landscapes: Piccolo Spoletto 24th Annual Juried Art Exhibition City
Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston 2008
Juror: Dr. Mokhless Al-Hariri
Studio Visit Magazine The Open Studios Press, Boston 2008
            Juror: Carl Belz, Director of the Rose Art Museum
Boit Competition Grossman Gallery, Boston 1999
Jurors: Deborah Bright, Randi Hopkins, Todd McKie

AWARDS & GRANTS:
Michael and Donna Griffith Lowcountry Artist’s Award Winner $5,000 Grant
Charleston 2008
Michael and Donna Griffith Lowcountry Artist’s Award Finalist Charleston 2007
Dana Pond Awards in Painting Finalist SMFA Boston 1999

SELECTED COLLECTIONS:
Michael Appleby, Charleston
Michael & Tina Chambers, NYC
Liz Dunton, London
The Langes, Charleston
Suzzane Romaine, Charleston
MickeyWilliams, Charleston

EDUCATION:
B.F.A. Painting, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston & Tufts
University, Medford, MA 2000
Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia (one semester) 1996

GALLERY REPRESENTATION:
RL•S Gallery, 151 E. Bay St. Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 805.8052

REVIEWS OF EXHIBITIONS:
Rose, Joshua “16 Miles” American Art Collector June, 2008 p. 146-149 Reproductions
Smith, Nick “View from the Street” Charleston City Paper May 9, 2007 p. 34
Smith, Nick “Supersize Me” Charleston City Paper February 15, 2006 p. 39.
DeRose, Jennifer “Update” Interior Design  v. 76 n. 11, September 2005 p. 32
Reproduction