Joshua Ferry is a painter based in South Portland, Maine. He received a BFA from Maine College of Art in 1994 and MFA from Rutgers University in 1999. During graduate school he worked as a studio assistant for Donald Sultan in New York. After 15 years in New York and in pursuit of a more balanced lifestyle, Ferry and his wife, Karen, returned to live and work in Maine in 2012.
Ferry’s paintings consist of heavily worked surfaces that are sanded and scraped to arrive at simple, pared-down images. This process yields works that are constructed of many layers of paint. He draws inspiration from his surroundings in Maine, especially the islands of Penobscot Bay, childhood memories of iconography in his father’s Episcopal church and the sheer exploration of color and form. In every painting, the painting process ultimately takes over and becomes the focus of the work.
His work has been exhibited in Juried Exhibitions at the Portland Museum of Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, University of Maine Museum of Art and ICA at MECA. Statewide he has also shown at Aucosisco Gallery and June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland, Thos. Moser Gallery in Freeport, Freeman Gallery in Cape Neddick, Perimeter Gallery in Belfast, Parsonage Gallery in Searsport and Ocean House Gallery in Cape Elizabeth. Beyond Maine, he has shown at Colman Burke Gallery in New York through an invitation from Katherine Bradford and internationally at KPK Gallery in Switzerland.