Photo by Daniel Garcia
Bio: I create images that combine symbols of American mid-century nostalgia, in particular the suburb, with today's mood of anxiety and impending apocalypse.
I have always been interested in using art as a way of understanding and reflecting on history and society. When I was nine, I obsessively reenacted Reagan’s assassination attempt with my Star Wars figures and I suppose in some way I haven’t grown out of that stage.
In 2013, after getting laid off from a financially rewarding but spiritually deadening corporate job, I returned to making art. Namely, I started painting portraits of every U.S. vice president with an octopus on his head. (Like you do.) Veeptopus proved to be surprisingly popular and was featured on BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and the New York Times. I even funded a book of the series on Kickstarter.
I have subsequently transitioned away from cephalopod-themed artwork. In 2018, I started teaching myself to paint in oil. Since then, my work has been featured in multiple galleries, including Arc Gallery in San Francisco, New Museum in Los Gatos, Marin MOCA, TAG Gallery in Los Angeles, and the DeYoung Museum.
Artist Statement: I create oil paintings that recall the vibrancy and optimism of America during the Cold War, reframed to reflect the anxiety and uncertainty of this current era. I draw inspiration from vintage snapshots culled from the 1950s through the 1980s and use them to create compositional tension between positive and negative space.
I’m drawn to images that seem to be small parts of a larger narrative, images that raise more questions than they resolve. My paintings are fragments of mid-20th-century suburban life, where disaster seems to lurk just beyond the frame.
Exhibits:
Joy, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, 2024
103rd Anniversary Exhibition, Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, 2024
Tiny, Studio Gallery San Francisco, 2024
Boundaries, New Museum in Los Gatos, 2024
Showstoppers, 2358MRKT Gallery, San Francisco, 2024
Salon at the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, 2024
Water and Wine (Solo Show), Lo-fi Wines, Los Alamos, CA 2024
City Streets, Studio Gallery, San Francisco, 2024
Interiors, Studio Gallery, San Francisco,2024
Tiny, Studio Gallery, San Francisco,2023
Salon at the Triton Museum of Art, 2023
Delicious, Studio Gallery, San Francisco, 2023
Summer Program, Shoh Gallery, Berkeley, 2023
Land on Fire (Solo Show), Lo-fi Wines, Los Alamos, CA 2023
Tiny, Studio Gallery, San Francisco, 2022
Colors, Marin Society of Artists, San Raphael, 2022
Pure Paint, Art Benicia, Benicia CA, 2021
Big Show on Big Art, JCO’s Art Haus, Los Gatos, CA 2021
California Open 2021, TAG Gallery, Los Angeles 2021
All About Women, Marin Society of Artist, San Raphael, 2021
De Young Open, De Young Museum, San Francisco 2020
Justice, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato CA 2020
PANIC, O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley 2020
2021?, ShockBoxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA 2020 • First Prize
California Open 2020, TAG Gallery, Los Angeles 2020
Celebration of Art 2020, Marin Society of Artist, San Raphael 2020
Cul de Sac, Solo Show, Kaleid Gallery, San Jose 2020
Expressions, Marin Society of Artist, San Raphael 2020 • First Prize
Left Coast, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato CA 2020