from the series ‘Supermassive Black Hole’, created between 2017 and 2018 and the subject of a solo show at Art During the Occupation in Bushwick (Brooklyn).
oil on unstretched linen, approx 70 x 55 in
Double exposure painting based on a photograph I took on Bedford Ave in Brooklyn. It occurred to me as I worked on this that the rapid gentrification of my neighborhood in North Brooklyn gave me a kind of double-exposure-vision of the place: each storefront I look at, I also see the half-dozen or so businesses or residences that were there before.
Oil on unstretched canvas, approx 36 x 60 in
As I was starting to work with double exposures, I noted that double exposures are all around us in the city, due to all the transparent and reflective surfaces of urban life that interact with one another. Although this painting is based on a single exposure, it was the process of completing it that set me on the path thinking about how much of what we encounter in our daily lives are reflections or the real.
oil on aluminum composite, 30 x 40 in
Based on a double exposure photograph taken at an art opening in Brooklyn. This is one of the first painting is did on aluminum composite and I was really getting into the magic of painting onto a reflective surface.
A painting based on one of the first double-exposure photographs I took, on lower Broadway in SoHo. The storefronts and restaurants in this section of downtown are evaporating so rapidly that it’s hard to keep track now - every other storefront is vacant or has a pop-up shop in it. Crowds of would-be shoppers still wander around though, mingling with impatient commuters and bewildered residents.
This painting depicts an intersection near my home and alludes to the beginning of a journey - one that is begun in the dark to an unknown destination.
I’m kind of an art materials nerd and the paint used here is very special to me - I made a lot of it with my friend Jacob Ouillette in his studio. We both used to make paint professionally and I find it really rewarding even now to manufacture some of my materials. We made some of the nicest ultramarine blue that I’ve ever dipped my brushes into.
oil on unframed canvas, approx 54 x 70 in
My heartfriend/soulbrother Yiannis and I took a trip to Las Vegas in the spring to see Cher and Britney Spears concerts. The Las Vegas Strip bristles with life at every hour of the day, but it really comes alive at night - layers of neon-soaked reflections on heat-softened asphalt, sweat and glitter smeared smoked glass and Lucite, the chime and the roar of endless sales pitches all combine into something like the sound of a river to my eyes. I went to Vegas as a high schooler and I’m old enough to remember what it was like before the Disney-ification of the strip, and yet that seediness is never more than a short cab ride away from the manicured and polished main action.
oil on canvas
A double image from the West Village in Manhattan, where gentrification has vacuumed up all but the toniest gay bars and most active beer-pong parlors. Even the once-vibrant street life is mostly just rides for hire and a few drunk college girls looking for a nightcap.
This painting depicts the approach to the Bedford Avenue subway station, very near to the first loft I lived in in Brooklyn. This neighborhood of Northside Williamsburg is a palimpsest to me now - like the ghosted and torn posters stapled to the plywood construction fences, I see past the surface to what came before and even before that.
The artist at the opening reception, Sept 7 2018, Art During the Occupation Gallery in Bushwick (Brooklyn). Art work in background is ‘I’ll Never Let You Sweep Me Off My Feet’. Dress by Carri Skoczek. Photo by Eva Mueller.
view of ‘I’ll Never Let You Sweep Me Off My Feet’ , and ‘If I Cant Find You There, I Don’t Care’ at Art During the Occupation Gallery, Sept 2018.
Many of the paintings in this series were created on unframed, unstretched canvas. For their premiere exhibition, Ms Neidhardt and Mr Stout decided to exhibit them without frames or stretchers. The energy of the paintings vibrates out from the unrestricted center. Wild brushstrokes reach past the point where a clean edge might hem the image in. A raw canvas edge evokes the white edge of a printed photograph, while the palpable fold and texture of the material recalls political banners and more immediate forms of communication.
