Bio

Joseph Kameen is a painter based in South Carolina, where he is an assistant professor of art at the University of South Carolina Aiken. Originally from Pittsburgh, he received his BFA in painting and sculpture from Boston University, and his MFA in painting from Indiana University Bloomington. Kameen’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including New York, London, Berlin, and Greece. His work has also been featured in a variety of publications, including Friend of the Artist, Emboss Magazine and PIKCHUR Magazine.

Statement

My paintings combine memory, observation, and narrative to investigate the ways in which I search for and create meaning in my life. In my work, I look at how my sense of self relies on memories I assume to be accurate. However, in these memories, even the most basic facts—the dimensions of the room, the objects around me, the color of the light—have been tinted by associated feelings. These composite visual memories, part fact and part fiction, form an integral part of my identity. Investigating this process highlights the room for self-reflection that routine events, spaces, and objects help create.

My current body of work began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout time spent isolated at home, I became increasingly aware of my unchanging surroundings: a lamp, a closet, a certain quality of light. Through their constant presence, these places—devoid of meaning on their own—became mentally associated with the larger concerns that occupied my thoughts at the time. These static objects could even seem to change as my own outlook shifted. My recent paintings build on these experiences, focusing on how spaces and objects can serve narrative functions in my own search for meaning. Our surroundings are an essential part of the semi-fictional story that we create to explain our lives, and calling attention to them provides a space for us to consider and examine our experiences from a new perspective.

I depict everyday moments seen through this lens; dramatized and amplified as internal thoughts are projected onto inanimate surroundings. I freely combine observation and invention, blurring the line between reality and memory. I make paintings that feel like something strangely familiar; a moment that has been previously known, but is now seen from a different point of view, exposing a whole new perspective. I invite my viewers to find reflections of their own thoughts and concerns in these scenes, like searching for meaning while recalling a dream.