JPWagner

Jonathan Wagner has returned to New York after studying at Virginia Commonwealth University where he received Bachelor degrees in Painting/Printmaking and Philosophy.  While working and studying full time, he has managed to launch a career as a professional painter.  The West Morris YMCA in New Jersey proudly displays a large series of murals they commissioned from him in 2002.  Wagner searches out the alternate venues such as night clubs, coffee houses, and musical performances to bring his art to an audience that is generally overlooked.  By incorporating his work in these venues, he hopes to encourage an appreciation and love of art in people who are rarely exposed to the fine arts.

Wagner focuses his artistic talents on the study of faces, where he finds that people are able to see reflections of themselves in the expressions shown in his art. “I search for what the subject experiences as I paint their face. In discarding what I see, I look for how I feel about the emotions within the subject. Our common experience, human emotion, transcends race, ethnicity, and social status. We have all been angry, ecstatic, hurt, and hopeful. The various shades of emotion are what I concentrate on, looking for the common core of humanity in them all.”

Jonathan Wagner has worked at several galleries in New York City, and was an editor at American Ceramics Magazine. He is also a member of the Blackwell Street Artists Organization. In a few short years, he independently organized and promoted many solo shows and a series of group showings of his paintings in association with artists of a variety of mediums in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.  Exhibitions include The Community Theatre in Morristown, NJ, Anderson Gallery in Richmond, VA, Nanci RayGun in Richmond, VA, Cafe Bar in NYC, and The Science Museum of Virginia.  He also curated two shows, Richmond Icons at the Visual Art Studio and Interface/Tri Pole I at Chopstix in Richmond, VA.