NohJColey has been working studiously for 10 or 12 hours a day in his kitchen all summer. And his dining room. And his living room. Chain smoking hand rollies and cranking up the Thelonius Monk, pacing and staring and drawing and hand coloring and constructing. He is telling stories again and it will be up to you to interpret them at his first solo show, “In the Midst of Living”.

NohJ studies and presents the personal and the social throughout his work on the street and here also in the gallery. The webs of connective tissues that create a sense of equilibrium to seemingly disparate elements in the storytelling are metaphorical and visually (sometimes structurally) functional devices.  Portraits of faces full of expression are anchors in a small universe of rotating objects, each signifiers of greater interrelated subplots and story lines.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A graff writer turned street oracle, NohJ offers a continuous commentary and societal analysis of behaviors and stations of the actors he observes on the path, often with indictment or praise gently posited within. One of the new players on the scene in the late 2000s that produced highly personal time intensive one-off pieces that tell stories, NohJColey has presented work on the street that is always deeply personal and complex, open evidence of his thought processes. Hidden in plain sight, the significance of these symbols are usually known only to him. As wheatpastes and linocut prints turned to sculpture and interactivity, each turn in turn has been revelatory. This show’s revelation is the finer tuning, the clarification of line and confidence in a style that has been highly individual from the beginning.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Like cave writers and muralists, these are the symbols that tell a complete story, each element carefully selected and placed with the sensibility of a rapid fire montage video caught in freeze frame. Like a therapist or sociologist inferring the nature of relationships by analyzing body language in a family photograph, NohJ is observing carefully and presenting. Open mouth surprise and glee, shock, animated hands, eyes, electronics, personal objects, possessions, gestures and stances all matter to these stories.  With themes that touch on lifestyle, entitlement, personal politics, societal status and station, ignorance, poverty, privilege, poetry, disgust, adoration, and quite possibly longing – the stories are all here on display. If you have a minute to talk, NohJColey may give you greater context.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“In the Midst of Living” by filmmaker Christian Carroll (VIDEO)

“In The Midst Of Living” NohJColey Solo Show at Weldon Arts Gallery Opens this Friday. Click here for more information regarding this show.

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