Frosted horse breath in the misty Belgian countryside, the morbidly obese enjoying KFC while taking in a centaur hunt, a lovingly rendered portrait of Jimmy Carter.  These are some of the images the listener is called to imagine in The Present Group’s nineteenth issue by Joe Hardesty.  Audio/Visual is an edition of 100 white vinyl records containing 44 spoken vignettes performed by the artist.  What began as immaculately executed text drawings are transformed  into an intimate auditory journey through the sublime, the grotesque, and the fantastical.

JOE HARDESTY is an artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008.  Primarily making drawings on paper, Joe’s recent work has begun to investigate the use of sculpture, film, and recorded sound.  His drawings have been featured in a solo exhibition at Western Exhibitions in Chicago and a wide range of group shows in the US, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and China.   Joe was the 2008 recipient of the Gelman Travel Fellowship, which provided support for him to live and work for 1 year in Berlin, Germany. His drawings are included in the collections of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University.