I make drawings to explore man’s relationship with the urban environment he has built, juxtaposed against his tenuous relationship with nature. I am intrigued by the unlikely beauty of urban decay and constantly search for images which convey this disparity both visually and conceptually. My goal is to create work which communicates the continual state of decay and reclamation by nature that I experience living in the city. For me, the urban landscape appears as an endless grey-scale. Due in part to this absence of colour, I choose to work with charcoal on paper. The sooty feel of the medium conveys a sort of fading corrosion. I look for opposing themes of beauty and ugliness, despair and hope. The inconsistency of allowing our created urban environment to decay leaves us without a place to be in the world, alienated from both nature and ourselves. The precise, detailed technique emphasizes the contradiction between our place in nature and the disintegration and gradual decline in soundness of the place we have built. My current work has grown out of the diversity of my own experience. Having lived near wilderness, in rural, suburban, and urban areas I clearly see the struggle to find a sense of belonging in the city. I want to challenge the ideas of urban life being simply glamorous or decrepit and show the everyday, slow failings we constantly live with.
Private Collections
Edward Miller and Monina von Opel
Laurie David
Dr. Francis Camillo
Larry Bell
Pierre Beaufils
Elisabeth Wilmers
Nicolas and Phoebe de Croisset
Richard Cunniff
Oren Tatcher
Marc de Croisset
Permanent Collections
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Michigan
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Massachusetts
Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, Massachusetts
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
Solo Exhibitions
2021-22 — Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Gallery (Municipal Art Society of New York City) - People & Places: Portraits of a City
2017 — Emma Peel Room, New York, NY
2008 — Brooklyn Art Space, New York, NY
2000 — Spring Studio, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
2023 — 19th annual “Small Works” Show - 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2023 — “Structures” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY
2022 — “Warm Wishes” - Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2022 — 18th Annual “Small Works” Show - 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2022 — “SCAPE” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY
2022 — “Below a Brooklyn Sky” - Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2022 — “The Big Duck” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY
2022 — “Detour” - East End Arts, Riverhead, NY
2022 — “The Tower” - Arts Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
2022 — “The Color Yellow” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY
2022 — “DRAW” - Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery, Southold, NY
2021 — “We’re Still Here” - Arts Gowanus, Brooklyn NY
2021 — “There’s no place like…” - Artsy, Online
2017 — Immersive Art Experience - Industry City, New York, NY
2017 — “Street Wise” - A Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MV
2016 — Member Salon - Trestle Gallery, New York, NY
2015 — “Compositions” Show - Trestle Gallery, New York, NY
2010 — Gramercy Neighborhood Association Annual Exhibition, New York, NY
2009 — Spring Studio 11th Anniversary Show, New York, NY
2007 — National Arts Club, New York, NY
2005 — Craven Gallery – Martha’s Vineyard, MA
1990 — The Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
1990 — Michigan Artists Competition, Battle Creek, MI
Education
Western Michigan University, Honors College, B.F.A. Painting
Awards
2019 — Martha’s Vineyard Drawing Prize - First Place
Publications
2021 — Create! Magazine Issue #24, Curated by Christopher Jobson @ Colossal
2023 — The Best of Drawing Magazine: 14th Annual Strokes of Genius Issue, presented by Artists Magazine and American Artist
Interviews
October 2023 — CanvasRebel
January 2022 — The Municipal Art Society
March 2021 — Create! Magazine
March 2020 — Hyperallergic
October 2018 — Hyperallergic
March 2017 — Western Michigan University
January 2017 — Artist Daily
Events
2023 — Gowanus Open Studios
Brooklyn, NY
2022 — The Municipal Art Society of New York LIVE Zoom Gallery Talk [YouTube] with Chris Weller
2021 — The Glen Hansen Studio and Gallery “DRAW” Artist Talk
Southold, NY
2017 — Château d'Orquevaux Residency
Orquevaux, FR