JOE ONGIE

Joe Ongie is an artist and musician, currently working in New York City.

Artist Statement:

I have been asked many times why I primarily paint the human figure. The answer is simple: people interest me. A ride on the subway is a surreptitious study of faces and body language; a trip to the museum is a long walk in search of portraits and peripheral glances at the other viewers; a stroll down the street is a mental picture taking ramble of the passers by.
The artists who inspire me (and inspire rest of the world) were mostly figurative: Rembrandt, Velasquez, Vermeer, Degas, Sargent. The painters who are my personal touchstones and particular area of scholarship were/are all artists based in England (although they were not always of English descent): Holbien, Van Dyck, Lawrence, Raeburn, Orpen, Freud..
I think of myself as a subjective realist. I paint what I see, to a point. Beneath the veneer of the so-called “real” are abstraction and structures. Like the cartilage in an ear, they shape the visible surface into it’s recognizable form. Often it is the intersection of lines with the edge of the canvas, and the small interlocking shapes of color that fascinate me most about a painting.
These rhythms are the real subject of my work.
I would like to think that my paintings can be viewed as equal parts representation and abstraction.
If there is any narrative in my paintings, it is mostly a byproduct of an emotional connection I have made with the subject. Color is a combination of careful observation and intuitive harmonization.