Josette Urso

Josette Urso received her MFA in Painting from the University of South Florida and currently works in New York City. Urso has had numerous grants and residencies, including, Ucross Foundation in 2014, a Gottlieb Foundation Award in 2013, Yaddo in 2009 and a second Pollock-Krasner Foundation award and residency at the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Germany, both in 2008. She traveled to Taiwan for a residency at STOCK20 in 2006 and to Cambodia with the AIEP American Artist’s Abroad program in 2004. Other awards include those from Basil H. Alkazzi, the NEA, The Chenven Foundation and Art Matters and she was a participant in the Bronx Museum for the Arts AIM program. In New York City, she has shown at the Drawing Center, Markel Fine Arts, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Schema Projects, Storefront, Norte Maar, DFN Gallery, Metaphor Contemporary and the New York Public Library.

Artist Statement: I make exploratory paintings and drawings working directly and urgently in response to my immediate environment. My approach involves moment-to-moment extrapolation governed by intuitive leaps of scale, color and wayward geometry. As I work, contrasts and cross-fertilizations unfold and are cumulative, non-linear, free flowing and interpretive. Space becomes an ambiguous and malleable substance; its manipulation and acrobatic handling become a kind of gymnasium of mark-making and image collision.

For me, painting and drawing parallels the act of seeing and is the most direct link to private time with the physical world. Despite the urgency of my process, as I work, time slows down. My work becomes a record of exploration and a reflection of my inherent energy and reason for living.