Joey Watson

Handjob Gallery is pleased to present HAPPYHAPPYJOYJOY, a solo exhibition of ceramic works by Kansas City based artist Joey Watson.

Watson’s practice is oriented around ceremonial paraphernalia and the spaces that they inhabit. His work is utilitarian only in a ritual context and it is intended as a vehicle for transformation. “I’m interested in the supernatural force that these very specific objects contain and the sequence of operations that are necessary to harness it,” writes Watson. His ceramics blur the lines between art and design, abstraction and function.

Watson’s HAPPYHAPPYJOYJOY is the second in a series of exhibitions at curated by Zoe Alexander Fisher at HANDJOB Gallery which offer creatives, who’s practice lies in-between established notions of contemporary art and design, an opportunity and space to explore, expand and enrich the dialogue around objects and their meaning in our daily lives.

Joey Watson was born in 1991 in the Sonoran Desert. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics. He has been recognized through the National Council on the Education for the Ceramics Arts as a Regina Brown Undergraduate Award recipient and has exhibited nationally. He was awarded a studio residency by the Charlotte Street Foundation for the 2014–2015 term and, currently, is the artist in residence at the KC Clay Guild.