Artspeak

The “Artspeak” series is about the observation of art manifested by the syntax or prose that are used to define art.  The descriptions in these paintings are culled from art reviews, press releases, and biographies.  “Art speak” has become an elite vernacular in the art world that creates an abstract language to distance themselves from critique themselves.   By placing these “artspeak” descriptions on top of the painting, it forces the viewer to engage with these narratives and the painted background.  The viewer is seduced into making the same narrative for themselves.

The works communicate on several layers. The first fashions a narrative for the viewer to immediately accept what they are seeing.  The second throws a script from a source that was intended to describe another artwork but is abstract enough to apply to whatever it is describing.  The last reveals the challenge of words to describe what is a visual language. This is the way in which art speak spins the meaning in a vernacular reserved for anyone but the non-believers.  This coded language tries to elevate the meaning and value of what is being observed.