February 19-22, 2020
Opening Reception: February 21st, 6-8pm
After Hours Painting, 2019, House Paint and Oil on Canvas, 72 x 78 "
Intermodal Painting, 2020, House Paint on Canvas
Artist Statement
The paintings in People Trying to Enjoy Things are reflections and reminiscences on my time in Philadelphia.
Using blunt, often heavy-handed visual language and narrative elements, these works hover around themes that have colored my life over the past few years—themes such as the clumsiness and confusion of growing up; the slipperiness of memory, time, and relationships; and the nervous, unfulfilled energy that saturates American youth culture, particularly in an age where reality often seems less consequential than the fictional.
Through reconsideration of elements from genre painting, cartoons, tapestry, and monumental figure painting, these pieces memorialize and soften tense, silly, paradoxical, or mischievous moments between friends or strangers. They reflect on our bodies in moments of waiting and in moments of action, to explore some of the nuances and difficulties in trying to situate oneself in a world among others.