Joseph Canger (born 1956, Saugerties, New York) is an American

contemporary artist Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

Biography

Canger began his art career as a painter, painting portraits for classic rockers like Leon Russell. He later became a lifecaster, creating sculptures for punk rocker Iggy Pop and funk rockers Johanna Stahley and Spredhaus. Canger graduated from the

Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art (NSFIA) was a city-run vocational and art school in Newark, New Jersey. Opened in 1882 as the Evening Drawing School, its name was changed in 1909 to the Fawcett School of Industrial Arts, and changed agai ...

in 1982, where he studied realistic drawing under instructor

Leo Dee Leo Dee (July 8, 1931 – November 22, 2004) was an American artist and teacher. A native of Newark, New Jersey, he achieved first regional and then national prominence for his "incredibly detailed" and realistic silverpoint drawings which convey ...

. His artwork was displayed at the

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, A ...

as a part of NSFIA's Centennial Show. Canger later earned his degree in

The Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

from the State University of New York, where he studied

hyper-realism Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily app ...

in sculpture. Canger's ''Dali Skull'' sculpture is displayed in the Fine Art Gallery of the International Life Cast Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It was created in 2005 and is made of painted fiberglass-filled plaster on wood.

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

Playmate

Helena Antonaccio Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * H ...

appeared in Playboy Magazine standing beside her sculpture created by Canger, and Playboy model Michelle Diamond was featured with Canger in a life-casting segment for "The Living Edge" television show. In 2005, Canger received an International Humanitarian Award from the Association of Lifecasters International and received a second ALI award the following year in the "Most Outrageous" category.

Religious reflection

The Center for Worship Resourcing from the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

General Board of Discipleship offers "Worship Planning Helps" to help engage thought-provoking dialectic within their congregations. They explored suffering using art as a source of reflection. "

Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

" by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

was the featured painting, but they also found Canger's work to be even more provocative and disturbing. "Labor Pains", by Canger, is very physical and graphic. The GBOD felt it might be useful and provocative if the people were up to engaging art of this intensity. Canger's work has found a home in various churches regardless of domination. Whether they are traditional religious paintingsGrace Church Lutheran Church, Perth Amboy, NJ – "The Transfiguration", "Christ with Children" Paintings - http://www.josephcanger.com/paintings-christ.htm and stained-glass windows or his unorthodox sculptures, his art is appreciated for its unique spiritual message.

References

External links

Joseph Canger Website

The Association of Lifecasters International

The International Life Cast Museum

Joseph Canger Sculptures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canger, Joseph 1956 births 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American male artists American male sculptors 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists Photorealist artists Sculptors from New York (state) American surrealist artists Living people