Artist Statement
Award winning, world renowned artist Joshua Nelson has been creating works of art ever since he can remember. However, this passion and desire to create was divided with his love for sports.
Throughout school, art had been sidelined to bashing heads on the football field. It was not until hanging up the cleats at the University of St. Thomas that art took center stage. A degree in journalism with an emphasis in advertising and a minor in business brought him to a graduate program at Miami Ad School. This advanced program presented global creatively driven opportunities in countries throughout Europe and South America.
When a creative brief for a Brazilian coffee brand came across his desk at Olgivy, São Paulo, he knew that it was necessary to explore various mediums using them in ways that had never been done before. After brainstorming over used and mundane ideas of illustration, photography and claymation, inspiration struck. He began to sculpt using the materials most readily available in the office; Elmer's glue and computer paper.
After getting rave reviews about the stop motion short film featuring his paper sculptures, the ideas and concepts kept coming. Everyone wanted to see more paper sculptures and he wanted to see how far he could push this new technique with an old school medium.
Now based out of his hometown of North Minneapolis, Minnesota, Joshua continues to create paper sculptures and push the limits with bigger, better and more challenging ideas.
