joe willis - e.s.r

e.s.r

Joe Willis

October 25 - November 22, 2025

" We are thrilled to announce our third exhibition at e.s.r.

The world in these works feels paused, as if they’ve been unearthed from a half-remembered dream. Or a scene of a kitchen table, a space of multitudes, an epicenter of storytelling, or stories told about. Lively and hectic, left behind. Found again.

Joe Willis’ collages move between image and object, holding a tension between what feels guided and what feels accidental. His work begins in a place of surrender, allowing forms to surface through condensation, repetition, and quiet instability. Scraped and scratched, smoothened and attached. You palpably feel your finger caress the scribbles and lines, as if each piece were tracing the moment before something takes shape.

Then comes the shift, light breaks open into color, the ordinary becomes myth. A jar, a cup, a few cherries, each rendered with an intensity that borders devotion. His work drifts between tenderness and unease, between what fades and what insists on staying. Willis draws as though to prove that everything still hums, that memory can be tender, slow, electric, and full of grief. A grasp for air letting out a sigh, it’s still humming." source