Previous Shows: 2014: The Thing of It Is (curated by Steve Gibson): John Mills
In my paintings I attempt to create an unstable field of meaning through the break down of an image into its various component parts, including line, shape, and shading. I utilize a white ground which removes any extraneous artifice from the process and emphasizes an open plane of reference. The paint application in these works is often anemic but deliberate and preserves the look and feel of the initial utterance or gesture, obtained from preparatory drawings. This purposeful “awkwardness” of the paint application speaks to fragility, both in the act of constructing any image as well as the instability of meaning in visual and written language.
In all the works, representation is alluded to but never realized. Forms are mirrored, touch, coalesce and disappear. The result is a makeshift catalogue of signs decontextualized and placed within the aesthetic frame where they appear familiar yet disorienting due to their largely abstract nature.
