Troy Passey is an interdisciplinary artist who merges idea with image in his text-based art. He creates conceptual pieces through playful, elemental compositions that utilize words as a visual–in addition to a written–language. In these works, words operate in many ways; some words or phrases become figurative, emerging as horizon lines or objects themselves, while others whimsically name, or intuitively explain and narrate the objects drawn by Passey. He considers the titles of his works the key texts to be read, crediting writers ranging from Emily Dickinson to Leonard Cohen, from Rainer Maria Rilke to Robert Frost, to The Cure.
Troy Passey grew up on a farm outside of Paris, Idaho, an avid reader never without a pen or paper in his pocket. In these early years, he religiously jotted down quotes and ideas, ever-gathering what would later become his principal medium. Passey always wanted to be a writer, but “would never call [himself] a writer” because it “was way too precious.” He continued, “I thought, when I write a book, then I’ll call myself a writer.”
While studying English in college, Passey also delved into art history and, later, when writing his master’s thesis on Andy Warhol, he came across words by Warhol which shifted the course of his career. “He said something that changed my life; he said, ‘People are often better at their second love than they are at their first love because you’re way too close to your first love, but, with your second love, you have some distance.’ So, I changed my paradigm and called myself an artist.” His childhood habit of collecting texts, thoughts and simple words, and his appreciation of poetry and prose, unintentionally had been the consummate preparation for what would become his life’s work. Even today, this habit of second nature has become an integral part of Passey’s artistic practice, as he continues to record the words and phrases that he encounters on a daily basis.
Although most often based on the scholarship of past writers, Passey’s works are as physical and emotional as they are cerebral. A self-proclaimed “anti-calligrapher”, Passey does not expect viewers to read the entirety of words he uses to build his works (which are often repetitions marked with an intensity that approaches asemic writing); rather, he hopes the words and compositions, as a whole, speak to people on an intuitive, elemental level. His scrawled words are contingent parts of works that are best summed up by their titles. When speaking of his own work and life, Passey once again turns to the gathered words of others: “My work is not autobiographical, rather it is more reportage of the human condition. It is kind of odd; the neon work is some of my most personal work in some ways; ‘Beautawful’ is almost like a Rosetta Stone for me. You know, Joni Mitchell said, ‘Laughing and crying, you know it’s the same release,’ and I hope that my art is about that. That the world is amazing and beautiful, but it can be awful too. You have to accept both.”
Troy Passey lives, teaches, and works in Boise, Idaho. Passey received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Utah State University, where he also studied Art History, in 1993. Passey later received his Master of Arts degree in English from Boise State University in 1997. Passey’s work has been included in four Idaho Triennials. He was a recipient of an Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship, and was an inaugural Artist in Residence at the James Castle House in Boise, ID. Passey has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout the American West, including at the Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID; Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY; Boise Contemporary Theater, Boise, ID; Herrett Center, Twin Falls, ID; Eagle Performing Arts Center, Eagle, ID; Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, ID; and the Ogle Gallery, Portland, OR. Passey’s work has also been shown in group shows in Jackson Hole, Los Angeles, Boise, Ketchum, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, and Miami, among other locations. In 2023, Passey completed Is Where the Angels Are, four site-specific memorials to those lost during Covid-19 at St Alphonsus Medical Centers located in Boise, ID; Nampa, ID; Ontario, OR; and Baker City, OR. He also has completed KITH & KIN, a collection of sculptures at the James Castle House.