Bio
Josh Boyce Wright is an Australian-American painter born in 1992 in Miami Beach, Florida, and raised in both Pasadena, California, and Sydney, Australia. Wright grew up with much artistic influence from his family. With his mother a painter, his father a singer-songwriter, and his eventual stepfather an actor, he’s also had painters, musicians, and writers in his extended family spanning from the Australian outback to Italy. His dynamic story-telling in painting is shaped too in part by observing nature as well as reinventing nature, drawing from his active imagination from growing up an only child. His childhood was interrupted with an injury that required extensive recovery and eventually his relearning to walk. His solemn struggles at a young age and his determination to overcome are later reflected in the “pushing a painting as far as it can go” attitude. His appreciation of the human form was advanced further in his years working as Studio Assistant to Richard MacDonald, a renowned figurative bronze sculptor, where Wright recalls fondly contributing to such monumental pieces as “The Grand Coda”, and “Allonge”. True to his artistic nature, Wright makes beauty from nature and fantasy while doing so with deliberate realism, classical methodology, and a guiding principle in life that “one creates his own world and lives in it.”
Story of the Yellow Smileyface Lollipop
When I was 10 years old I had a rupture in my cerebellum known as an AVM. This left me paralyzed on the entire left side of my body (through lots of rehabilitation, I was able to fully recover). Before going under anesthesia for my brain surgery, Dr. Neil Martin, the Chief Neurosurgeon at UCLA, who I was fortunate to have as my surgeon, asked me to remember a word for when I woke up, I chose “Yellow Lollipop”. After the surgery was completed 9 hours later, while the anesthesia was wearing off, I woke to my dad standing there with a yellow smiley face lollipop.
Exhibitions
2024 “Fantasy” Juried exhibition, ARC Gallery & Studio, San Francisco, USA
2024 “Edwardian Ball” art exhibition, Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, California, USA
2023 “Magickal Masquerade Ball“, Sacred Fire Circle, San Diego, California, USA
2023 “Death and Ritual” group exhibition, Uma Gallery, Oakland, California, USA
2023 “Tiny Terrors” group exhibition, Dark Art Emporium, Long Beach, California, USA
2022 “Face to Face” Juried exhibition, ARC Gallery & Studio, San Francisco, USA
2021 Digital release of “Tale of the Great Iron Beard” exhibition on MakersPlace, https://makersplace.com/joshuawright/tale-of-the-great-iron-beard/
2020 "Arcadia" Solo Show, Geko Art Studio, Florence, Italy
2019 FAA's “Fruits of Summer” Exhibition, The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
2018 FAA's “Fruits of Summer” Exhibition, The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
Education / Scholarships
2018-2021 Advanced Painting (Diploma), The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
2019 Studio Assistant Scholarship, The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
2018 Work-Study Scholarship as Écorché Photographer, The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
Workshops
2020 One-on-One Studies with Octavio Palomino, Gecko Studio, Florence, Italy
2019 One-on-One Studies with Daniel Barreto, Academia de Arte Lima, Lima, Peru 2018 Figure Drawing with Glenn Vilppu, The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
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Studio Assistant / Technician
2015 - 2017 Richard MacDonald Studios, Monterey, California