Joshua Nissen King is a San Francisco Bay Area contemporary painter. King studied Fine Art painting, drawing, and printmaking, 

with an emphasis in education at California State University, San Francisco. King has studied rigorously since a young age in programs such as California Summer School of the Arts, and Oxbow, Napa Valley and has received awards for his craft including but not limited to the Martin Wong scholarship of the arts and the Mondavi Foundation Grant. King has participated in a number of group shows and has been represented by San Francisco and Oakland galleries with multiple Solo exhibitions.

 

King's work explores the detritus of our artificial world in relation to nature. with the departure from figurative and attempt at realism his new work abandons most of the literal and uses mark making, shape, and color to create abstract clutter whilst integrating reference to a familiar object. His work attempts to divulge the inevitable artificiality in the natural landscape. investigating the concept of all material objects eventually returning to the earth, that even life can come from what once was merely discarded debris. These color fields become ethereal and surreal in what can only be described as playful and joyous. even though the subject may have a dark and serious message,

his delivery is colorful and bright, his mark- uncanny and digestible. 

King does not sketch his works beforehand but rather approaches the substrate in pure unadulterated form, with a playful gestural underpainting, his works develop organically recounting everyday compositions of piles of garbage as the main foundation from which he builds. His works are created with predominately oil paint, as well as an aerosol, masking techniques, and acrylic underpainting.