Biography
A curtain is a promise for surprise. Whether covering a prize, a shameful truth, or simply a view of a serene meadow, the mere presence of a curtain agitates and steers anticipation, a desire to be fulfilled. As an interface of light and shadow, curtains control our privacy but also metaphorically determine our access to knowledge acquired through vision.
My paintings inhabit veils, curtains, and blankets that tragically fail to keep a secret, if such was ever worth keeping to begin with. They barely cover what lies beneath, be it a glaring white ground or illegible graffiti on a dilapidated wall. Conversely, the material of paint is much more prone to profit from tactics of concealment and exposure. Hence my use of multiple techniques such as spray-painting, stenciling, and stamping in a process that makes evident the traces of hidden layers. In it, each layer hides the underlying but at the same time leverages its luminosity and thickness.
Folded and crumpled, the cloths lend themselves to visual pleasure achieved by ornamental patterns and painterly illusion. The desire is not yielded by a theater of absence and presence, but rather by the object itself that almost invites the viewer to caress it. I am fascinated with draperies because they exhibit a charged interplay between vision and touch as well as truth and deception. Seductive and lush, the patterned cloths that share the same space with the viewer reminisce a revered past and add a symbolic aspect to the work. In this allegorical choreography of time and space, I try to hint at the pitfall of nostalgia: how our conceptions of the past help to shape our views on the world, however limited in the first place.
