Joseph Leroux: All Eyes on You

Joseph Leroux’s 2016 sculpture, All Eyes On You, is an arresting exploration of memory, identity, and collective history. Towering at over ten feet tall, this imposing structure features 42 ghostly portraits—each meticulously created through layers of black spray paint and resin—encased in circular aluminum frames. The individuals depicted are Leroux’s high school classmates from the small town of Star Lake, NY, including himself, forming a seven-by-six grid that looms like a freestanding billboard of the past.

Leroux, a Philadelphia-based mixed-media artist, is known for deconstructing and reassembling objects, transforming industrial materials into evocative works of art. With All Eyes On You, he constructs a monument to personal and communal nostalgia. The muted, almost spectral portraits resemble vintage photographs, their presence both familiar and enigmatic. Viewers are left to wonder: Who are these people? What stories do they hold?

Fabricated from nickel-plated steel, aluminum, wood, and resin, the piece merges architectural strength with ephemeral imagery, emphasizing the tension between permanence and fading memory. It’s a testament to Leroux’s sculptural language—one rooted in material experimentation and his upbringing in an upstate New York mill town.

Beyond its personal significance, All Eyes On You resonates universally, prompting reflection on the passage of time, the fleeting nature of identity, and the way we memorialize those who shape our past. This haunting and evocative work stands as a powerful meditation on the intersection of individual and collective history.