Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Bussell.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m a contemporary painter and multi media artist and long time AIDS and gay activist currently based in Kansas City. I have maintained a professional contemporary art practice for over 50 years. In that time I received a BFA in painting at Kansas University, two MFA’s in painting and ceramics at Washington University in Saint Louis. I’ve exhibited widely in the US, the UK and Europe. Including solo shows in galleries in New York, Rome, London, Santa Fe, and most recently at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. My work has been reviewed in the New York Native, US News and World Report, New Art Examiner, New American Painting, and Herald International Tribune.
My visual language took on new heights while living in London, Boston, Tucson, Los Angeles and various cities in the Midwest. When I worked in an AIDS hospice for five years, my autobiographical work the Apartment Series was shown nationally including the exhibition “AIDS: The Artists’ Response”. This was one of the first major academic exhibitions to analyze the impact of the crisis on American culture and artistic practice.
The experiences at the hospice are forever seared into my always expanding queer abstract language. This recovery of identity keeps my abstract art rooted in the rich soil of my personal history.
For more information Google Joe Bussell Artist and contact the Spencer Art Research Library in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Miller Nichols Library on the University of Missouri Kansas City Campus,
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I guess what’s smooth for some might be rocky for others. I’m grateful for the lucky hand I’ve been dealt and at the same time I learn form the hard bits. Life is a marathon not a sprint. Staying motivated and healthy, mentally and physically, are part of that journey. Keeping my glass half full is a philosophy I live by.
I’ve learned dwelling on the disappointment is destructive. I’ve seen the collapse of many of my colleagues because they were eaten up by their own anger. I look around now and I see I’m one of only a few of my age group still making art. How artists learn to navigate time is an amazing thing to observe.
I’m currently curating a series of exhibitions of artists that are in the “over 65” phase of their lives. Many “over 65’s”, against all odds, are making the best work of their careers.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have been described as a multi media artist. I paint, draw and sculpt. I also make large outdoor and interior installations.
I’m currently showing a series of paintings titled “Scrape” hanging in the Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial and an installation of sculpture from my Frag Series in a traveling exhibition titled Calls From Home. Google callsfromhome.cargo.site for the catalog.
I am most proud of the solo shows I had in New York, Rome and London. But not long ago I had a solo show at the Nerman MoCA, after a lot of paper work, was extended for a year. That was very special.
What sets me apart? I knew what I wanted to do with my life after my first art camp in 4th grade. In the meantime I got through every road block and detour to get here with the same level of joy about art making intact.
How do you think about happiness?
Going to my studio ever day to work. It’s my sacred place.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jbussell
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joe.bussell.2025
- LinkedIn: @Joe Bussell
- Youtube: @Joe Bussell artist
