Josh Azzarella

BFA, Myers School of Art, The University of Akron
MFA, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University

Azzarella's work reflects on moments in history such as the torture of Iraqi POWs in Abu Ghraib and the protest of a single man in Tienanmen Square against a column of tanks. Azzarella reworks these canonical images to omit the tragic, negative, or most disturbing aspect of these images. For example, a photograph of a smiling Lynndie England pointing to a prisoner forced to masturbate is altered to only contain the smiling soldier.[1]

In 2011, Azzarella released Untitled #125 (Hickory), one of the longest-running experimental films at 120 hours. Untitled #125 (Hickory) is an art work created between 2009–2011. The work is based upon the 6 minute and 30-second section in the film The Wizard of Oz, from the moment the viewer sees the tornado until Dorothy meets Glinda the Good Witch. This work extends a moment of transformative transition (Dorothy's journey to Oz) to envelop what the artist believes is the entire time of her experience.

The parenthetical reference refers to a deleted scene from the film where the farmhand, Hickory, is working on a machine to ward off tornados.

In 2022, Azzarella released Untitled #175 (... hitting an all time low...) in the exhibition Triple Feature at the City Gallery Wellington, in Wellington, New Zealand. In the work, Azzarella has removed all human, and animal, presence from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In 2008 Azzarella was scheduled to be included in the exhibition The Aesthetics of Terror at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City. The exhibition was cancelled by the museum. Azzarella's work was identified as part of the reason for cancellation as reported by Fox News. The museum board and director chose to cancel the exhibition as they felt "some of the works in the exhibition glorified terrorism".

• The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT.
• The Akron Art Museum, OH.
• San Jose Museum of Art, CA.
• Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, IN.
• Zimmerli Museum of Fine Art at Rutgers University, NJ.
• Montclair Art Museum, NJ.
• Torrence Art Museum, CA.
• UNLV Barrick Museum of Art, NV.
• University Museum California State Long Beach, CA.

• FOX News.com – New York Museum Cancels Terror Exhibition After Controversy
• The Brooklyn Rail – Josh Azzarella and Fresh Kills
• The New Yorker – Short List
• Interview with the Artist

• Artist website

• Fox News article on The Aesthetics of Terror exhibition.