Collagenikov Collage

I work from a place of playful spontaneity making objects whole formed in a single go based mostly around the circular dialog that exists between the viewer and the viewed. This process is largely unplanned and is as much a mystery to me as anyone. My life and art making are two aspects of a single thing wherein I make a deal with myself: when I feel the urge I drop what I’m doing and go make things. Sometimes this is inconvenient for people around me. I’m okay with that. Because of this oddball set of priorities I find myself making things in unconventional places and often out of normal hours. And, because of my life as art as life thing, I sometimes appear strange to those I’m not well acquainted with: like I might ask a grandmother in a Mexican grocery store in East L.A. if she thinks chrome is more powerful than sadness. Her answer might swerve my boat and then things get interesting: they get funny. Funny is very important to me. If I’m not laughing at stuff then I drop it: life is way too short. Sad things are funny: World War II was an absolute riot and the next one will be even better. I am agnostic about materials and techniques. I am as happy painting with marble or sculpting with oil paint as I am with making a pencil drawing. For me it is the ideas that are interesting: what remains afterword are the ashes of my thinking. They are what is for sale here and elsewhere. For many years my work has explored the social narrative through an easygoing figurative realism, word play and object misinterpretation. More recently, my work, paintings in particular, have set off in a new direction capturing immediate emotional responses to painting through pure color work. I was born in Oakland California and now my partner and I divide our time between Los Angeles, London, Verbier and Provençe.