My paintings combine photorealistic images and mannered texts. The text is oftentimes humorous and sardonic, commenting on current events, pop culture, sexual desire, commodity fetishism, and cognitive dissonance. I am inspired by my own feelings of guilt, greed, and shame. These negative emotions point to ideological paradigms that I have inherited, internalized, or reflect. I make the values of society visible by underscoring my own embarrassing thoughts.

My paintings point to an ambivalent relationship between the subject and the ideological conditions that produce the subject. The “I” in my paintings is confused and abject, slipping between a desiring subject and a sexual object, between a political subject and cog in the capitalist machine. Is the voice of the “I” the voice of the artist, the viewer, the painting, or the celebrity? The ambiguity of my paintings points to a world where subjective desires are produced by racist and capitalist structures.