River Children opens February 16, 2022 at TAG Gallery, 5458 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036. TAG is open 1pm-7pm, Wed-Sun
In Zen Buddhist tradition, the circular brushstroke, called Ensō, symbolizes the universe and absolute enlightenment, but also emptiness and the Void. These aspects of its nature are often thought to be at odds from a Western perspective, though I find myself more and more enamored by how naturally they flow through one another, not as opposites but as facets of the same diamond.
River Children, named after the mythical Kappa of Japanese folklore, are a meditation on the act of painting and the nature of abstract mark-making as evidence of an action. Like the Ensō, each work is intuitive and singular, relative to one another but impossible to reproduce. Minimal and monochromatic, these works are deceptively simple in their nature and invite contemplative meditation from the viewer.
Though their indigo palette and liquid forms suggest a calm and almost organic process of becoming, a closer inspection reveals the immediacy and urgency with which each painting is created. Their surfaces are dragged, scraped, sanded, and left to settle into compositions that are just as much a result of the material and process as of the artist's hand.
There is a physicality to this series that is unlike how I have worked before. I now feel almost as though my hands have become an extension of some arcane machine, carving systems out of the painting's surface. Like the Kappa, imp-like denizens of ancient Japanese rivers and cisterns, these works remain mysterious even as I begin to unravel their nature.
About the Gallery: TAG is a fine art gallery located on Museum Row in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1993, the gallery represents award-winning contemporary Southern California artists working in all mediums and styles.