Ian King is a mixed media artist and designer based in (East) Newark, NJ. Raised in Bergen County, he obtained a BFA in Illustration from St. John’s University in 2022. His work has been exhibited locally at the Montclair Art Museum (Montclair), Gallery Aferro, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Building (Newark), the Art Alliance of Monmouth County (Red Bank), Novado Gallery, Smush Gallery (Jersey City), the Watchung Arts Center (Watchung) and the Johnson Public Library (Hackensack). He has also shown at Eclipse Center for Creative Community (Lansdale, PA), St. John’s University’s Yeh Art Gallery (Queens, NY), and Eastern Kentucky University’s Fred Parker Giles Gallery (Richmond, KY). King has previously been an artist-in-residence at Gallery Aferro and Smush Gallery, a grant recipient of the City of Newark and Newark Arts’ 2022 Creative Catalyst Fund, and a founding organizer of the Radical Love Free Store in Queens. In addition to his fine art career, he also works as a graphic and publication designer for one of New Jersey’s leading pro bono legal aid non-profits.
Statement:
I am interested in recording visual histories through compelling, illustrative portraiture—both in the traditional sense and through depicting stylized bodies in their abstract forms. These paintings are scrapbooked with ephemera, writings, and layers of varied mediums, making each piece a preservation of memory that is sentimental to myself and my subjects. These subjects range from forgotten heroes of folk music to family members whose local roots I try to hold a firm grasp on in the face of loss and fading knowledge. In my self-portrait impressions, I attempt to make prevalent the pathos of living as a transgender man in a contemporary society in all of its joy and agony. Elsewhere, I strive to put others first, leading viewers’ eyes deeper into worlds left untraveled and human conditions often forgotten or ignored.
ian.e.kingart@gmail.com