Thanks to everyone who came out to see the show! Here’s a few installation shots and my statement for the exhibition…
The large-scale paintings in this exhibition are all influenced by my experiences living and travelling through different regions of the United States. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I grew up mostly in suburban central Florida and have spent my adult years between the Midwest, North Carolina, and east coast cities like New York and Philadelphia. I’m interested in the cultural differences between these geographic regions, and how different members of my extended family, all seeing themselves as “American,” possess conflicting worldviews. Each painting is based on a small collage, made from photographs of the different places where I’ve lived or spent time.
On one level, the paintings offer a dystopic reflection of America. The compositions are fractured and disorienting, and are shot through with the artificial colors and slick affect that I associate with toxic consumerism and advertising. The paintings also speak to my anxieties around mainstream American culture’s domineering attitude toward nature. Yet plenty of passages are painted with tenderness; the work doesn't flat-out condemn America so much as it grapples with my love for a homeland that’s riddled with systemic problems.
On another level, the paintings move beyond reflection and reckoning with what is, and they begin to imagine what could be. They play with reconstructing a new world.
The exhibition also includes a selection of my recent drawings. I made these works intuitively throughout the pandemic, negotiating controlled marks with the unpredictable movements of ink and watercolor. Like the paintings, they play with inventing space and evoke a sense of possibility.
