'X'-Factor Painting

Secondhand images filtered through media exert a powerful influence on our perception of reality. The distinctions between model/copy, mediated experience/tangible reality are all but blurred. This is where my journey begins. I exploit painting’s resilience as a medium to convey the multi-layered experience of contemporary life. It’s more an intellectual practice than an instinctive one, where texts and puns have vital roles. I deliberately leave my canvases white or off-white to underscore the objecthood of the canvas, but ultimately the conceptually framed images become more important than the conventional figure-ground relationship. I build on the legacies of pop, minimalism and conceptual art in a post-colonial milieu, where truth and reality are not as truthful and real as they may appear.