Josh Pelletier explores the grotesque in new exhibition The Eyes Come First.

With his unique improvisational approach, Josh Pelletier warps traditional stone sculpture with figurative works that are alive in their strangeness.

MAY 18, 2024 (LOS ANGELES, CA) — The Persons Unknown gallery presents The Eyes Come First, a solo exhibition on display from June 8th to July 20th. The exhibition by Josh Pelletier features 10 sculptures complemented by 10 pen-and-ink drawings and plays on our need to humanize any objects with eyes, and, in the process, see ourselves in them.

“Typically, stone carvings are the fluke of a whale, or something that looks like a Noguchi knockoff, or abstract stone sculptures of women. But that shit is old,” Josh Pelletier states. “In my drawings, I draw quickly and subconsciously—I bring this sense of play and spontaneity to my working method in stone, which is not normally done because it’s such a labor-intensive process.

The exhibition presents the grotesque as a crucial, and potentially universal, anthropological device that societies have used to conceptualize alterity and change. Through his unconventional process of allowing the materials to dictate to the artist what form they should take, Pelletier allows his pieces to be as weird as they want to be.

Joshua Pelletier was an apprentice to the Maine Stoneworker’s Guild during his early art making years. He received his undergraduate degree from Bard College in 2000. After school, he remained in New York’s Hudson Valley, where he started Salt of the Valley, a small artist collective. Pelletier received his MFA from the University of California, Davis in 2010.

Joshua Pelletier lives and works in Los Angeles, California, where he works in stone, hydrocal and wax.

Information about public programming will be updated at Persons Unknown.

Opening Reception | June 8th, 7-10pm