Psychopomp - Annual Visual Art Open House

   On March 14th, York's Visual Arts program held its annual Open House, where it exhibits and adjudicates senior art work throughout several of the arts buildings.  I had four projects on display during the show, including two printmaking projects, one large installation, and two paintings. 

Consumer Politics Installation

Accolade West Stairwell - Between Floors 1 and 2 - March 14th, 2012

"Harpocracy"
Spray Paint, Stencil, Screen Print on Rag Paper

"Consumer Wasteland"
Spray Paint, Stencil, Screen Print on Poster Paper

"Pepper Spray Cop"
Spray Paint, Stencil on Plastic Sheet

"Child Worker"
Spray Paint, Stencil on Cardboard, Screen Print on Japanese Paper

"Dumb Phones"
'Stop Looking at art and go buy stuff'
Screen Print, Paint Marker, on Newsprint

"Edward Bernays"
Spray Paint, Stencil, Screen Print on Rag Paper

"This is my brain on..." and "Evolved"
The Gales Gallery - Accolade West - March 12th to 23rd, 2012

The "Precipitant" art show ran during "Psychopomp" open house.

"This is my brain on..." won the "DisplayCult Purchase Award - $200"

Read more about "Evolved" here.

Read more about "This is my brain on..." here.

Public vs. Private Paintings
Goldfarb - Third Floor Studios - March 14th 2012

 

Read more about these paintings here.

Wicked.

2 to 3 Dimensional Painting

   This semester I was enrolled in Two to Three Dimensional Painting, where I completed several works from found materials, spray and acrylic paints, and a lot of cardboard.

Project One - Painting with a Partner

   The first painting assignment was a partnered assignment, where we engage with lyrics from a song, and piece together a collective painting.  My partner choose some very poetic lyrics from a Tool song, while I choose the most mind-numbing lyrics I could find: I'm Sexy and I Know It, by LMFAO.

"Fragile-Do Not Drop"

Acrylic and spray paint, unstretched canvas, cardboard, found material.

3.5x3.5 Feet

    This was the result of combining a very deep song, with the most objectively awful song known to man.  My partner created the skull and shaded it with lyrics from her song,  while I juxtaposed that with cardboard panels depicting brains melting, phallic wiggles, and a pile of crap.

  

 

 Our painting is a reflection on the current state of popular culture, meaningful music is being destroyed by mindless, auto-tuned, sexist, misogynistic pieces of unintelligent crap.

Project Two - Public vs. Private

   For this project I was inspired by billboards at the Yonge and Dundas intersection while exploring Google street view.   I created works that could reflect my general feelings about public vs. private life; these paintings express a lack of privacy in the lives that use transit and consume in malls.

"Yonge-University-Spadina Line"

Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas, Found Material

5x2.5 Feet

 "Eaton Centre Information Map"

Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas, Found Material

4x3 Feet

 Detail from "Yonge-University-Spadina Line"

 Project 3 - Painting without a Canvas

   This work is created out of beer case cardboard inserts, double sided tape, garbage bags, white glue, acrylic and spray paints.  It is inspired by Canadian riding distribution through party colour.

"Canadian Federal Riding Distribution Map - May 2011"

Cardboard, Found Material, Acrylic and Spray Paint

4x5 Feet

 B.C. Green Party Riding in B.C.

A view looking through orange Quebec into the blue Prairies.

An overall awesome course.

False Idols

     For my final assignment in abstract painting I had to create a small sculpture and paint it in an imagined landscape.  My sculpture was a cross made out of a broken guitar; crucified on it was a person with a barcode face and a bieber hair cut.  The painting is a surreal seascape with a small island, on it is this guitar cross with a faceless dude rocking a bieber hair cut, and surrounding him is warped images of pop culture floating in space.

 "False Idols"
Oil paint, acrylic paint, spray paint, cardboard, rag paper, bar codes, broken liquor bottles, and scrap clothing.
60 x 40 inches.

 Barcode face with Justin Bieber's hair.

 #WINNING, Snookie, 

Steve Jobs with an iPad, Rebecca Black, 

Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen.

Original Sculpture.

My Abstract Map Painting

This was my second project in Abstract Painting, and the assignment was to abstract the experience of a trip from point A to point B.  This is my car ride between York University and Pickering on the 401 in the evening.

 "401"
Acrylic, spray paint, scrap paper, scrap canvas, and aluminium tape on canvas
60 x42 inches

These are details of the painting:

 I tried to represent the aggressive dissociation of my environment that I feel while driving on large slabs of concrete; the 401 always seems to have some new development along it, large concrete and metal structures, and it is this constructive nature that juxtaposes the organic environment that should exist.  This painting is my 'aggressive dissociation'.

Harper Nation.

For my materials and techniques painting course this year I had to create a multimedia piece that used more materials then paint. At the same time the assignment was to recreate or contradict a famous painting from the past. Harper Nation was inspired by Eugene Delacoix's Lady Liberty Leading the People (1830).

Using mostly cardboard, egg cartons, old clothing, and newspaper clippings I commented on the direction I felt Canadian democracy was headed in the heat of prorogation and writing the budget. The piece is 4 by 3 feet, my largest painting on a canvas to date.


Putting some perspective on the piece.

.
The orginal, a French revolution epic.