T.J. Oslund

Lives and works in Boston, MA, USA

Artist statement

T.J. Oslund’s works in wood take inspiration from some of the first art that ever spoke to him as a child. Bored in church, looking up at the stained glass, he would imagine the abstract colored panels becoming the toys he wished he could be playing with, or strange vehicles that could carry him off to somewhere exciting. Today those early explorations of form and color have become a foundation for T.J.’s work using hand-cut plywood tiles to construct vignettes and icons that draw from popular culture, fine art, and personal experience. Through the process of designing and bringing these pieces to life, T.J. wrestles with both the internal and external experiences of living life against a backdrop littered with signals of impending doom. His recent body of work, titled Hell is a Garden in Bloom is a reflection on curiosity that blossoms in the face of existential impotence, snapshots of realities both confined by perception, and set free by imagination.

Artwork