Patrick Turk is known for his innovative ability to transform found, printed media into dynamic, collages. Utilizing original source material only, Turk thoughtfully selects and hand-cuts imagery from encyclopedias, scientific diagrams, black-light posters and more. Spiraling, kaleidoscopic compositions make up four dense works in Chromesthetic Bardo, each derived from a single printed source, the canonical survey, Overspray: Riding High with the California Kings of Airbrush Art. Turk meticulously and cleverly re-appropriates fragments from these highly realistic, 1970’s pop images by artists David Willardson, Charles E. White, III, Peter Lloyd and Peter Palombi. Utterly devoid of their original context these visual arrangements become complex visual journeys of discovery.
Patrick Turk was born in Galveston, Texas and lives and works in Houston. He was awarded an Artist Grant by the Houston Arts Alliance in 2017 and was an Artist-in-residence at the Lawndale Art Center in 2013. His works have been exhibited throughout Texas in Dallas, Houston, Galveston, Kingston, and Lubbock in addition to Los Angeles, California. He has had a solo museum exhibition, Higher Planes, at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, TX. He was one of 60 artists included in the 2016 book, The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists (Texas A&M Press), authored by Robert Craig Bunch. His works have been published several times and include commissions such as the 2009 Houston Art Car Parade Poster, the Philokalia album cover by Golden Cities, and album cover and artwork for the namesake album, Friezes.