*SNAKE ATLAS (serpent lightning leads to water; for my father who was bitten, so the rattler also resides in me) was commissioned by Addison Gallery of American Art and included in the exhibition “Wayfinding: Contemporary Artists, Critical Dialogues, and the Sidney R. Knafel Map Collection” (October 17, 2020 – February 28, 2021) curated by Allison Kemmerer and Stephanie Sparling Williams. Musician Chad Turner created a 5-track album (20:01 total) to accompany Snake Atlas following a camping trip with artist Franco in West Texas. On loop in the gallery, it is intended to serve as a sonic landscape for the installation experience which is based on the centuries of rock art found at Hueco Tanks in the high desert outside of El Paso, Texas. Each track in this album represents a type of “character” in the history of this special place: The Rattler, The Vaqueros, The Shaman, The Bandaleros, and The Antepasados. Hear the album HERE.
Josh T. Franco
Born: Odessa, Texas, 1985 Currently based: Hyattsville, Maryland Josh T Franco is an artist with an art history PhD. His forthcoming book, Marfa, Marfa: Minimalism, rasquachismo, and Questioning “Decolonial Aesthetics” in Far West Texas is under contract with Duke University Press. His graduate work was supported by the Clifford D. Clark Fellowship, the Ithaca College Predoctoral Diversity Fellowship, and the Imagining America PAGE (Publicly Active Graduate Education) Fellowship. From 2013-2015, he was an Artist-Guide at Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, the New York home and studio of Donald Judd.
As an art historian, Franco has presented scholarly and critical work in venues including Stanford University, College Art Association, Utrecht University, HEMI Graduate Student Initiative (Hemispheric Institute), zingmagazine, The Frick Collection, Third Text, Latino Art Now!, Joan Mitchell Foundation, October, and Independent Curators International. He has contributed essays to catalogs for Joshua Saunders, Theaster Gates, and Zoe Leonard, among others.
As an artist, Franco has produced and exhibited one artwork annually since 2009. This practice ensures that his scholarship is constantly informed by the processes of making and exhibiting work. These works have been hosted by Co-Lab Projects, WorkSpaceBrussels, NurtureArt Gallery, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, DePauw University (Carol Bowers Norris Visiting Artist), Elsewhere Museum (Southern Constellations Fellow), and Zygote Press. Franco was a 2019-2020 Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence at Addison Gallery of American Art. In 2021, Franco will be a Virtual Visiting Artist at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History and a Riso Residency artist at The Future MNPLS.