The pieces eExhibited in this show are part of an ongoing series called Transitions and more scars, which I began last year for my senior thesis. SBut since I exhibited that work in Flux, a group show at The Whitebox Gallery in Oakland CA, I have continued to work on this series as a sort of meditative process, and expression of my identity.
I am nonbinary, and a lot of this work was produced in a time of my life where I did not have words to express my identity or my experience, instead I made paintings. Of course paintings can be highly convoluted, and using them to communicate concepts runs the risk of misinterpretation by those happy to project their own meanings as they analyze a work. These works very much focus on synthesizing my identity into tangible objects, and to also expel toxic energy like my dysphoria, and the internalized otherness of my queer body. I am not a painter. I do not paint because it is something I want to do with my life, or particularly like doing. Painting is more of my medication for this case of existential torment. Painting is also a way for me to ground myself, and transmute toxic energy out of my body, and entrap it in layers of hardened acrylic. Painting is something I have to do. |
IG: @drewtuna
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