“Culture jamming” is the mocking or flat out rejection of social trends or pop culture. That’s all great, but we’re not here to judge. Joel Trussell’s first solo show, “Culture Jelly” is neither a satire nor celebration of our culture’s herd mentality. Instead, Trussell gives us a unbiased examination of his fascination and antipathy with the culture that surrounds him.
“Culture Jelly”, in essence, taps into the culture of Trussell’s mind, where we get to see an array of eccentric characters. With a love of the 2-D world, Trussell is deeply influenced by masters such as Gene Deitch, Rene Gruau, Jim Flora, Ward Kimball, Erich Sokol and Takashi Murakami. His work concentrates largely on characters which sometime reflect society, and other times become an exercise in composition and aesthetics of the design alone. The show presents a full range of content from personal experience to experimental ideas with the lines often intersecting.
Joel Trussell is an illustrator/director/animator who has worked in television, commercials, music videos and print since receiving his B.F.A. in Drawing from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1998. His illustrations have appeared in publications such as Print Magazine, Alternative Press Magazine, New York Press, Houston Press, San Diego’s City Beat, and The Portland Mercury. In recent years his characters were collected for Pictoplasma’s Character Encyclopedia, he was commissioned for a painting by Fox’s “Family Guy”, and he created shirt designs for the clothing company Gama-Go.
Trussell has also directed several music videos for artists such as M.Ward, Morcheeba, Coldcut, and Jason Forrest for which he won a number of awards. His music videos have been featured in dozens of film festivals including the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the San Francisco International Animation Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, Platform, and Resfest. They have also been featured on StashDVD, OneDotZero’s Select DVD and Pictoplasma’s Characters in Motion DVD, and shown on MTV2, MuchMusic, CMT, MTV Europe and other music programs.
Trussell made his television directorial debut with four segments for Nickelodeon’s “Yo Gabba Gabba!”. He also directed animated commercials for Esurance and Nicorette.
Before his work as a freelancer, Trussell worked as an animation director in Seattle, animating online projects for clients including Disney, Napster and the band Devo.
Joel Trussell currently lives near the mystic hills of Dollywood in Knoxville, Tennessee, with his wife and two young sons.
About the Gallery
The Grassy Knoll Gallery specializes in the work of innovative illustrators and animators. The gallery is adjacent to Fashionbuddha Studio, located in the historic Merchant Hotel in Old Town, Portland Oregon.
