Joe Waks

Joe Waks is a painter and printmaker who resides in beautiful Bayonne, New Jersey. He is also an attorney who for 18 years worked at the highest levels of local, state and federal government in his beloved Garden State.

Waks is an audacious commentator on the kooky times in which we live. Observant as a seasoned reporter who never leaves home without his “Little Pad of Ideas,” he doesn’t let a headline, artifact or late-night infomercial get by him. Waks is constantly unearthing the teeny-tiny things that go unnoticed in our mundane workaday world.

Waks’ mixed media creations serve as a commentary on the interconnected world we inhabit. Underscoring his passion for politics and popular culture, his work reflects our universal ethos of consumption by “recontextualizing” the icons and emblems common amongst disparate human civilizations. He seeks to temper contemporary reality with a heapin’ helpin’ of humor, a super-sized serving of irony and a couple of squirts of hope. Although acquisition and the ubiquity of consumer culture are at the heart of Waks’ works, there is a pervasive ambivalence that lies within.

Joe Waks is currently a printmaking resident at the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette Colle...

JD, Temple University School of Law, Philadelphia, PA, 1993

BA,cum laude in Anthropology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1988

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• Joe Waks: The Absurd World - R. Jampol Project(s) - New York, NY - May, 2013
• “New Works by Joe Waks: The Neo-Socio Absurdist Series” - The Slingluff Gallery - Philadelphia, PA - December, 2011
• “joewaks.com: McLandscapes” - Index Art Center - Newark, NJ - December, 2010
• “joewaks.com: A Kwalité Retrospective” - Solo(s) Project House - Newark, NJ - May, 2010
• “Kwality: Recent Works by Joe Waks” - 58 Gallery - Jersey City, NJ - March, 2008

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• “Three Artists: Piersanti, Hester and Waks” - Paul Vincent Gallery - Hoboken, NJ - November, 2015
• “2014 Juried Exhibition” - The Center for Contemporary Art - Bedminster, NJ - November, 2014
• “Original 58 Gallery Reunion Show” - Mary Benson Gallery - Jersey City, NJ - October, 2014
• “Emerald City” - The Gateway Project - Newark NJ - August, 2014 to January, 2015
• “Metro 30” - City Without Walls Gallery - Newark, NJ - November, 2013
• “New York Art Week” - Fountain Art Fair - Solo(s) Project House booth - New York, NY, March, 2013
• “PCNJ EDITIONS: Print Matters” - Gallery Aferro - Newark, NJ - February, 2013
• “Miami Art Basel” - Fountain Art Fair - Solo(s) Project House booth - Miami, FL - December, 2012
• “N...