Before five years ago, I had never made art even in a casual capacity. Following a work experience as an electron microscopist in 2019, I taught myself a specialized and intensely laborious method of ink drawing which involved my childhood toys as subjects. After exhibiting this work in a solo show in March 2024, I made a complete shift towards painting, gradually abandoning my old subject matter in concert. My most recent works are completely abstract. I intend to continue in this direction for the foreseeable future.

Despite the abrupt shift in style and technique, I believe there is continuity across the entire body of work. The shapes present in my works and their arrangement within the picture space is generally very ambiguous, which makes it difficult to apprehend these paintings as pictures. This effect is often compounded by precarious color relationships, as well an uncanny warmth of texture and form. My use of traditional materials and techniques (gilding, gesso, tempera, relief) in idiosyncratic contexts is deliberate, and is intended to make reference to established tradition. In a somewhat circuitous fashion, it is through this estranged reference to tradition that I intend to highlight the alienated content of the works themselves. 

Many of my works are framed, which may seem unusual in a contemporary context. For the sake of argument, it is worth noting how frames can express something important in certain cases: a contrived naivete, that cloying flavor of quaintness that we see in pictures designed for children. On a similar level, the extremely deep paintings with rounded corners assert themselves so blatantly as objects that they might appear downright rudimentary at first glance. I make these decisions consciously, and within these decisions we can see the dialectical conflicts which pervade the work. As pictures, these works often appear rather stilted and uncomfortable, whereas their overt physicality draws the observer in. Together, picture and object form a wholly conflictual totality: a painting, which in a single moment, can be both austere and affectionate, both diffident and brash. Even the names of my works follow this thread: while the titles are obliquely literary, their relation in meaning to the content of the painting is always relatively obscure.

Aesthetic considerations aside, it should go without saying that this is, and always has been, deeply personal work. I do it mostly for myself and my own peace-of-mind, but I am always happy to share the work with people, and speak about it as candidly as possible. Thank you for looking, and feel free to reach out anytime if you’d like to speak more or view the work in person.