Art | Photography | Design

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jrroykovich [at] gmail [dot] com

JR Roykovich (JRR) is a conceptual and research based artist working In/Between New York, Washington DC, Minneapolis and now the Houston Metro area. JRR received a MFA in Visual Art from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2014, having been awarded the Ray Stark Film Prize and the Brovero Photography Prize. Prior, JRR received a BFA in Art and Visual Technology cum laude and with departmental honors from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in 2011. JRR’s current practice investigates the geographic and metaphorical spaces created at the intersections of Mystery, Queerness and The Sublime. In that, JRR explores relationships with one's specific location, intersected with the psychic history that resides in that site. This happens primarily through lens-based research that explores the spatial exchanges between existing entities at those locations while documenting geo-spectral networked and system based transferences. This research results in immersive installations using photographs, drawings, performances, video and found objects. JRR’s work has been shown throughout the United States, internationally and is the collections of various private and public institutions.

Artist's Statement:
I work in a wide and varied manor in response to a conceptual, experimental and research based practice. I utilize photography, video, performance and installation to document and explore psychic environments of intersections, systems, networks and experience through time using myself as a queer-coded conduit. Experimentation is key in this work. I explore locations - both the geographic and the liminal - to expose and document how the layers of history, mythology and psychic scars of a site can affect the phenomenological intersections of current physical, mental and emotional experiences within that place and time. This happens primarily through lens-based research that explores the spatial exchanges between existing entities at that location. These explorations result in large installations and mappings based off environmental recollection which serve as a nerve center to explore, document and connect these various histories - both personal and collective - through photographs, video, found and made objects, print media and sculpture.

Again: Time. Through basic physics, we know that time depends on motion, and motion depends on having mass, even if infinitesimal. Our perception of time is also dependent on how much attention our brain pays to it. Some of the questions I seek interpretations for are: what are the implications of time for things that are supposedly mass-less - like thoughts or consciousness – and especially the very idea of “being” something or someone? Are these things bound by the same natural laws, and what if they are not? These perceptions about our own realities reflect back in my work to investigate the wonder surrounding these knowingly unanswerable and sublime questions. Yet, it is through these attempts at grasping for the materially intangible that leads me on a continuous exploration of our existence within what we see as reality. I catalog and document these attempts through the lens, installation process and the interdisciplinary nature of my work.

The distance of physics-defined-locality between objects is thoroughly explored, as is the spatial and tangible memory that those objects hold in relationship to one another. I move beyond just the found or made object and into the information and personal history embedded within that material. I look to the properties of light and I ask what the unknown networks of the cosmos might be or the hidden systems of the multiverse, or where we may be connected through filaments of space-time - and how to provide a theoretical and visual connection to that. I wonder about the documentation of uncertainty, doubt that may happen on a psychic level, along with where and how our ability to no longer believe becomes embedded into the cornerstones of our psyche. I have since become ingrained in systems theory, social abstraction and basic physics. I am in dialog with other contemporary artists that deal with these broad ideas of humanity, perception, integration, and environments - both real and imagined.

In the end, all the various components of my practice come together to abstract and interpret time, experience, existence, and show how random bits of data can make up personal and cultural realities - or, in essence, our lives when taken through a specific site. I think of this in terms of spatial relationships and how to fold down time to access all those layers at once. When we explore these personal sites, we are able to better relate to each other through found connections. So far, I have documented this process in my own hometown, two areas of upstate New York, an old World War 2 weapons facility in Alexandria, Virginia, the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and now in Galveston, Texas.

These pursuits grow out of these existential yet qualitative questions humanity faces about itself – (broadly speaking) why are we here, how are we here, what makes “us” physically and spiritually “us” - and how to interpret that data in a socio-political way. Primarily, these interests stem from an integral and formative site in my youth: my haunted childhood home. While growing up, the odd things that go bump in the night seemed normal to me, like they were the explanations of the noises and happenings backstage behind a thick, dense, velvety curtain of reality of which I could never really find the edges of to slip myself through. I now try to peal that curtain back to decipher how our unseen universe works and to try to tether what seemingly has no strings; to research peripheries of unknown experience, all while allowing what exists beyond that boundary the space it needs to continue to remain extraordinarily queer.

The trajectory of my work continues as I myself move through space, documenting my own movement through time, and exploring the web of intersections that happen as we all flow from one state to another. 

JRR 2024

Deep Dive:
JRR’s childhood home was haunted, and they were seemingly predestined to involve themselves in areas of the sublime & uncanny: JRR’s biological father was born in Amityville, New York, site of the well known house in which an alleged demonic possession and subsequent murder took place; JRR’s maternal grandmother was born and raised in Sleepy Hollow, New York - the location known for the folklore of Washington Irving, who embedded into the American psyche a pervasive and ghostly cultural identity with his Headless Horseman; JRR was born in Aurora, Colorado, the site that would become infamous for the 2012 movie theater shootings where 12 people died. JRR was subsequently raised in northern New Jersey, in a small, rural town that Weird New Jersey Magazine once coined the epicenter for "weirdness" in the entire state; in that hometown, JRR frequently traversed what some call one of the most haunted roads in America*. JRR now lives adjacent to the Texas Killing Fields, where, since the early 1970’s, numerous murders - many still unsolved - have taken place on the I-45 “highway to hell” corridor, from Houston to Galveston, Texas.

*More spooky. And even more (starts at 06:30). And yet more (#2).

What's your sign?
JRR is a Virgo that shares a Leo cusp, with a Libra rising sign; JRR boldly likes order with a healthy balance of chaos.

Feel free to reach out!

As a conceptual artist with no gallery representation, it is often very difficult to make money off of my work, as it does not always result in art objects of a traditional sense. However, I do offer small editions of my work, either in print or video form. Please simply inquire about editions and availability by sending a note through the form above. Also, I am openly looking for opportunities to travel and spend time in various sites across the world in an effort to continuously document and research these psychic histories that are embedded within geography and landscape. If there might be a location suggestion or request, again by all means, please get in touch. 

Similarly, I most gratefully welcome any donations that would help support and continue the scope of my practice. 

If you need to make a payment for a work that you may have ordered, or if you simply would like to make a donation, please click the button below to do so. 

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