Location: Sebastopol, CA
Medium: Painting, sculpture, installation
Website: joeferriso.com
Joe Ferriso (b. 1981) is a painter and sculptor known for work made from recycled and reclaimed materials that explores how color relationships shape perception. He is based in Sebastopol, California, in the North Bay.
Ferriso grew up on Long Island, New York, in a Dominican, Honduran, and Italian household during the 1980s and 90s. He earned a BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2003. In 2009 he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he co-founded Anzfer Farms with Jonathan Anzalone, a studio and project space for creating unique objects and installations. He later earned an MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University in 2018. Ferriso now lives in Sebastopol with his wife, two children, and a dog, and works as an adjunct lecturer of painting and sculpture at Sonoma State University.
Ferriso’s work explores the relationship between architecture and nature “in the language of color,” building compositions from construction waste, driftwood, abandoned house paint, and other found and reclaimed materials. His practice centers on the emotional and perceptual impact of color relationships, often produced through series-based bodies of work spanning painting, sculpture, and installation.
Ferriso has shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions since 2010 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and internationally. He is represented by Qualia Contemporary Art in Palo Alto, which has featured his work in exhibitions including Solace (2022–2023) and A Living Room (2025). Other notable exhibitions include One is Two, Two is Three at Pacific Saw Works in Oakland (2025) and an upcoming solo show, Lost & Found, at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco (2026). In 2018 he completed a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and in 2014 he was an Artist-in-Residence at Facebook in Menlo Park. His work was also the subject of a 2019 KQED feature on contemplative art-viewing practices.
More information is available on the artist’s website, joeferriso.com.