Self-Portrait in Oil and Flower Petals Painting

Evan Paul English is an interdisciplinary artist, born and raised in Meridian, Idaho, and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Artist Statement: "My main influences stem from my childhood growing up in rural Idaho. My mother was an antique collector, so I was surrounded by things like vintage floral textiles, cross stitches, and paint-by-numbers. I would spend a lot of time with her at thrift and antique stores looking around. At the time, I didn't care for antiques because they possessed a sense of traditionalism that I despised. But now, I'm constantly thrifting, scavenging for objects that resonate my past in Idaho. Most of the materials in my sculptures are found, and I have developed a visual language by borrowing certain aesthetics. My work serves as a celebration and critique of their embedded ideologies. "I hope to provoke a dialogue around the issues in my work relating to gender and domesticity. My work often investigates the construction of self through the dualistic perception of one’s public and private identity. Confronting the various forms of traditional, often heteronormative, domesticity, my work is intended to challenge the gender ideologies associated with the mythos of The American Dream. Utilizing found objects, I examine their metaphorical qualities as stand-ins for the human body. As a result, much of my work conveys the unity of dualities and notions of ambiguity, questioning what is disguised and what is revealed."