John Roy

Roadside Plant Portraits

John Roy is a multidisciplinary artist and socially engaged curator from Boston,
Massachusetts. Roy received a BFA from New England School of Art and Design, a MFA from California College of the Art and currently lives and works in North Providence, RI. Roy formerly co-directed The Howard Art Project, an artist-run performance venue once housed in Fields Corner and directed the alternative art space “How’s Howard?”.

Within Roy’s studio practice, common occurrences are recreated with emphasis on out-of-place recontextualization. Roy’s approach to art-making relies on observing social constructs while establishing a counterpoint to question their institutionalized and problematic position. The thoughtful situations Roy (re)creates establishes a queer anthropomorphic visual vocabulary. No longer are these mass-produced ubiquitous objects, but individual and unique in their own way—full of Roy’s personal experiences and political perspective.