Gray Gardens
The paintings depict environments and objects related to the world of childhood and play, based on simple cellphone photographs of residential backyards. The painting process involves the disassembly and reassembly of the images, work with the material and engagement with color, line, and texture. The places, compositions, and objects appear abandoned and deserted, evoking a sense of absent presence or perhaps reflective contemplation of the past.
The series deals with a visual world that seeks to connect personal memory, everyday objects, and abstraction of landscape and space. The works establish a dialogue with childhood experiences, memory, and public or private space that changes over time. Through ongoing exploration of composition, color, and texture, the works raise questions about the nature of imagery, the impact of time on memory, and the relationship between object and narrative. By combining nostalgia with the deconstruction of the image, an experience is created, wherein the viewer is invited to fill in the gaps.
Many of the paintings are shown as multiple panels, the compositions emphasizing fragmentation and disassembly. Each painting stands alone and presents a slightly different perspective or approach to color and texture within the same scene. Together, they form a painted collage and a complete composition of images, colors, and scenes that interrelate with each other. The viewer is exposed to a multidimensional space that fuses time, material, and memory. The result is a mysterious scene, partly familiar, partly foreign; an emotional mosaic between abstract and figurative, between the personal and the quotidian. Perhaps these peripheral, stereotypical, and everyday scenes most honestly capture contemporary life and urban landscape.