Particular Histories

This new body of work is alphabet-like; with individual pieces existing has both fully realized objects and building blocks. Within these individual pieces is a giddy potentiality, a state of flux between part and whole. This fluidity informs both the making of the objects and their subsequent arrangement and assemblage. The work, which includes large-scale oils, informal pop-up drawings, standing floor paintings, paper cut-outs, collages, watercolors and spray painted drawings, is typified by a casual handling of material and scale. This offhand nature is anchored by a mindful engagement with modern painting sensibilities, although at a remove. By sampling the modern canon indirectly, through the lens of memory and through the vagaries of digital representation, the work progresses like the children’s game of telephone. The distortion and misquotation of the original yields fresh imagery, surface and palette. Bits and pieces of paintings never meant to occupy the same picture plane or context bump up against each other and jockey for space. Fragments from iconic paintings appear and reappear - iteration after iteration - the most recent in response to its immediate predecessor. These art historical references are transparent but their legibility is muted by the imperfection of my hand. This body of work revels in accidental and inadvertent gestures. Experienced piece by piece, it celebrates moments known and unnoticed. Taken as a whole, it is an ode to the modern canon and to painting’s rich present.