Joi Murugavell
Finding Mikey

The first thing you need to know about Joi Murugavell is that she doesn’t like putting her work into words, because today’s truth becomes tomorrow’s lies. So just remember that what you read below is only one perspective, and probably isn’t true.

The exhibition’s title, Finding Mikey, is a reference to Joi’s relationship with Mikey, who scans and documents her paintings. Over time Joi began leaving hidden messages and clues in the paintings specifically for Mikey to find. Consistent throughout her body of work, every inch of these new paintings beg examination for a hidden message or symbol. Only Mikey knows which tidbits were left specifically for him.

However, as a viewer you will never be able to tell which parts of the painting are for Mikey, or which are nods to the network of people in her life, or coded for someone to find as in a treasure hunt. Each quote, toon, toy and shape is a potential clue, though there is no hierarchy among the colorful din.

We are allowed to love each brush stroke, pompom, and pun equally. The words, toys, and cartoon symbols often land like an inside joke you have been let in on, a message hidden within the painting hoping to be found and to resonate. In this we locate the voice of Joi’s paintings–not their universality but their specificity. In their playfulness they speak to anyone. But as a viewer standing before it, a Joi Murugavell painting speaks to you. No one is excluded from the fun.