Landscapes

2017 We live in the world comprised of and described by the opposites. Good and bad, life and death, right and wrong, pure and corrupt are all a part of one, two-sided coin that is the currency of truth. All those polarities, however divergent, are necessary elements of defining a complete whole, an accurate account of the nature of existence. In a visual language this juxtaposition of elements extends itself to the preposition that any image-driven artwork comprises of top and bottom, “sky” and “ground.” This applies not only to an image of a landscape but, equally, to all other visual representations including still life, figurative, portraiture, abstraction, etc. The works in this series deal with this idea on a literal, conceptual and formal level. The use of the images ranges from appropriated and classical — Michelangelo's drawing or Nike Samothrace — to objective, incidental, imagined. They’re pointedly personal, political, socio-cultural. The images are overlaid on painterly landscapes that are reduced to simplest definition of ground and sky. They are landscapes evocative of a fog at sea, quiet at night, heat of the day, a memory or a dream. In contrast, the line images over them are impatient, bold, quick. The background landscapes offer introspective calm while balancing it with a hint of something hidden, a promise of something joyful, or a hint of ominous. They are influenced by the North America’s southern coast, its air, light and space. The images described over them intercept this and violate it while introducing a narration, a story.