Artist Statement

Justin Jude Carroll is a Portland-based painter whose practice is an exploration of what occurs when spirit encounters material. Working primarily with acrylics, he seeks to discover what naturally happens when paint, media, and surface are acted upon by intuition and impulse. The core of his approach is reduction of elements to their essence, followed by a manipulation of those basic lines and forms to create surprising results.

Educated at Carnegie Mellon University and Brown University, Carroll draws on draws on the canon of Abstract Expressionism as well as the natural world. His creative process is both intuitive and formal. In his abstract work, mark-making spontaneously gives rise to emerging forms, while in his representational work, he is interested in reducing compositions to basic planes, then injecting unexpected color and texture into these regions, creating landscapes or portraits never before seen.

A more detailed story of how Justin came to make art.

Curriculum Vitae

Education:
BA English Literature, Honors in Creative Writing, Brown University, 1997
BA candidate English/Theater, Carnegie Mellon University, 1993-95

Solo Exhibitions:

JoLa Cafe, Portland, OR Oct-Nov 2024
Caffe Destino, Portland, OR, Dec 2023
Sarah Bellum’s, Portland, OR, May 2023
Portland Playhouse, Portland, OR, Feb-Mar 2023
Cross-disciplinary exhibit to accompany production of What I Learned in Paris
Ground Coffee, Hood River, OR, Jan 2023
Caffe Destino, Portland, OR, Oct 2022
Sarah Bellum’s, Portland, OR, Jun 2021
“Serious Play”, Sip D’Vine, Portland, OR, Mar-Sep 2020
“New Drawings”, Village Coffee, Portland, OR, Feb 2020
Caffe Destino, Portland, OR, 2019

Selected Group Exhibitions:

A Distant Center, Lake Oswego Artspace Gallery, Sep-Oct 2024
Oregon A-Z, Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education, Apr 7, 2024
Surprise Party: Abstract Only, Ford Gallery, Portland, OR, Oct-Nov 2023
Art/Lab inaugural exhibition, Eastside Jewish Commons, Portland, OR, Jun 2022

Press:

“The Children We Grieve: Buzzy's Bees nonprofit transforms grief, loss into art for families overcoming the death of a child”, Nov. 7, 2021

Awards/Honors:

Emerging Artist, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR, Jun 2022

Continuing Education:

Founding participating artist, Art/Lab, Portland OR, 2021-2022

Collections:

Private Corporate Collection, Bank of America, multiple sites
Private Corporate Collection, Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company
Private collection, individual collectors

Publications:
Short Fiction

“Kali Box”, Greensboro Review, Fall 2022
“12:12”, Pacifica Literary Review, Spring 2022

Professional Affiliations:

ORA Northwest Jewish Artists, 2022-present