Joel Douek Artist Catalog | Agora Gallery

JOEL

D O U E K

530 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Joel Douek began his career in the arts as a composer. After writing music for film and television over many years, he felt compelled to express himself in a broader way, and thus his path as a visual artist emerged. Douek was born in the United Kingdom and now lives and works in Los Angeles. He is also co-founder of EccoVR, a sound and music company dedicated to virtual reality and new forms of immersive media.

Douek’s range extends from music and the virtual sphere to his aptitude for manipulating real and raw materials, often with gold and metal leaf.

His artistic career is an exploration of creative analogies, often testing the equivalences in purpose and expression between art and music.

Douek is fascinated in materials with a history, like weathered metals and reclaimed woods. Rather than using paints and conventional techniques, he explores the deeper potential of his mediums using processes of oxidation to reveal colors, textures, and other properties. Embodied in his approach is the sharing of authorship, a creative conversation between nature, the materials and himself as the artist. Douek has exhibited in many different countries and has also won awards in various competitions like ArtVista and the Fusion Waterscapes Competition. His work resonates precisely because its message is subtly delivered through a concretely honed aesthetic.

V I E W J O E L D O U E K O N A G O R A G A L L E RY

Meander, 2022 Oxidized Copper, 18K Gold Leaf, Resin 24” x 24” $ 4 0 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Meander II, 2022 Oxidized Copper, 18K Gold Leaf, Resin 24” x 24” $ 4 0 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Above & Beyond, 2021 Oxidized Steel, Red Patina, Resin 24” x 36”

$ 5 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Icarus, 2022 Oxidized Steel, Red Patina, Resin 24” x 36”

$ 5 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Heartbeat, 2022 Oxidized Steel, 24K Gold Leaf, Red Patina, Resin 36” x 60”

$ 8 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

It’s Okay to Cry, 2020 Oxidized Copper, 18K Gold Leaf, Resin 50” x 12” x 12” $ 1 2 1 5 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Great Rising, 2022 Oxidized Steel, White Gold, White Patina, Resin 24” x 60”

$ 7 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Wave, 2019 Oxidized Copper, 18K Gold Leaf, Resin 40” x 12” x 4” $ 4 0 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Three Views of Bliss, 2020 Painted Wood, Colored Resin, Gold Leaf 16” x 48”

$ 3 7 5 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Spring, Resin, 2019 Brass Plate, 24K Gold Leaf, Solvent Dyes, Resin 22.5” x 18” x 4” $ 4 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Fissure, 2022 Oxidized Copper, Resin 36” x 60”

$ 1 1 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Shy Cat, 2019 Oxidized Steel, 18K Gold Leaf, Resin 54” x 10” x 10” $ 5 0 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Falling Tree, 2022 Oxidized Copper, Resin 23” x 18” $ 3 0 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Whirl, 2021 Oxidized Copper, 18K Gold Leaf, Resin 56” x 16” x 16” $ 1 2 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Expansion, 2020 Oxidized Steel, 24K Gold Leaf, Resin 30” x 70”

$ 9 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Blossom, 2019 Oxidized Steel, 24K Gold Leaf, Gold Powder, Resin 24” x 38.5”

$ 3 5 0 0 – B U Y O N A RT-M I N E.C O M

Where one person might see an imperfection, a fault, another sees beauty. Yet for nature, beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It is a mysterious and pervasive quality that expresses its own internal striving for survival and betterment, whether observed by humans or not. We see this in a piece of bark or a fractal pattern in the rusting of iron. It doesn’t need us. It already has a purpose; but when we find its beauty we can also find and pull on that thread in ourselves to see where it leads.

In much of my work I bring together wondrous natural woods and metals. They appear to contrast starkly. The metal is brutally hard, melted, and molded by powerful man-made machines.

However, metal is still natural. Its tendency to rust is an expression of vulnerability but also the way it blooms into color as rich as a flower. The ever-present forces of entropy are always giving and always taking. They sing the eternal song of change. Once these colors show themselves, either through time or a gentle nudge, I often apply gold as a symbol of enduring permanence in all this entropic chaos; a constant, to radiate and illuminate.

I create this art so you might see yourself reflected in the beauty, the change and the permanence that are the essence of nature. To remind us that we are part of it, playing with it, destroying it then nurturing it back to life. As many contradictions as a species can bear. Where our role as people is acutely undefined, even as we tell our story.

INQUIRE NOW

530 West 25th Street, Ne w Yo rk , NY 2 1 2 - 2 2 6 - 4 1 5 1 Fa x : 2 1 2 - 9 6 6 - 4 3 8 0 W W W. A G O R A - G A L L E R Y . C O M W W W . A R T M I N E . C O M

© 2022 - Agora Gallery - All Rights Reserved The copyrights of artwork contained in this booklet are retained by the artists.

Reproduction of any published material (images or text) is prohibited without the written permission of Agora Gallery.