Continuing my exploration of painting, these works depict existing artworks layered and recontexualized through museum display. My paintings exist in a state of artistic purgatory. Purgatory not in the sense of suffering or punishment, but as a perpetual state of a physical and conceptual in-between. My works are positioned between the practice of slow, purely handmade painting while mimicking the instant image capture of photography. I am interested in the manner in which contemporary culture consumes images. There is a profound difference between looking, the superficial way we digest most images, and seeing, a deeper vision that calls for a closer reading and contextual understanding.

The sources for this ongoing series are taken from Joseph Beuys’s Arena–dove sarei arrivato se fossi stato intelligente!, 1970– 72, on display at Dia:Beacon. I am intrigued by the legend, history, and mystery surrounding Beuys. In these paintings, Beuys is revealed through the silhouette of my reflection, layered with the illusionistic space depicted in the photograph, the surface stains and imperfections of the original surface, and ultimately the reflections of Dia’s iconic space.