DAVID STRAANGE
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ARTIST STATEMENT

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​​ARTIST STATEMENT

I'm a painter working in a diverse range of media embracing the intersection of Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Abstraction, Street Art, Neo-Geometric Conceptualism and Fauvism. My work explores the subconscious through intuitive abstraction. I explore the idea of the repressed subconscious through abstraction. Drawing from a diverse range of African-Polynesian mythology to the psychology of Jung and Freud, I am interested in externalizing the interior experience of the mind and the factors that shape it. I see art as a looking glass into the future of the human consciousness and how it effects our actions. When I paint, I experience prophetic visions and experience deja-vu within the first 5 minutes I often wonder about our bodily reactions under intense pressure, and to channel that into a calm exhibition of grace and class. I experience this through rigorous painting or extreme lengths (moments) of solitude. These moments of solitude give me insight on when the anima becomes consciousness. I bring a visceral communication of southern hospitality coveted in a hourglass of self-reflection. My work conveys cyclical everyday chaos of city-life that is likened to be perceived as order when the sun falls and rises. My study of Numerology, Latin and various etymology recombines the primal and civil; The unsophisticated urges and primordial flesh that we often suppress in the regular rush of worldliness.

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As I’m working I can see my vision materializing with no time to think only feeling the weight of gravity. I like to begin my paintings quickly without any preparatory drawing or planning. I have a strong spiritual connection to the paintings and am at my best when I can enter a silent flow state, allowing myself to move across the painting uninhibited by preconceived ideas. I see the act of painting as a form of alchemical magic. Through paint I am able to materialize my subconscious intuition. I start painting to reach meditation. Through chaotic painting that is unique to my hand my work confronts the idea of imperfection, bringing realism, tragedy, and life into my art work. Human nature only has their primal mind, intuition, and unique interpretation to define individual outlooks on creating. I think something that is glitchy in a painting shows the limits that are being challenged.

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I'm inspired by philosophers such as Heraclitus, Nietzsche, Marcus Aurelius, and Octavian Caesar. I appreciate the stoic outlook of civilization and it gives me a foundation to objectively look at the indulgence in modern society and how it relates to my work. I paint references to emperors. I often wonder if painting is my own hedonistic indulgence acting out rebellion against the shrewd and stoic teaching I’ve read. I think it is. I'm also interested in bringing forth a more realistic portrait of Africans who are descendants from the oceanic, Polynesian, I tend to focus on personifying emotions like passion into Gods to explain the impact of intuition on the human consciousness for creation and emotions like pride that can make a more so destructive god. I think myths can carry seeds of wisdom without spoiling it. Growing up in a monotheistic culture I find it interesting to include polytheism in my work and ask why are there multiples gods describing similar traits. I ask if multiple gods come from the same source and how it relates to my own Identity as I’m painting. I paint about the archetypes, mythological figures, living figures, and gods of different African-Polynesian religions. I think the human consciousness needs something powerful to believe in to challenge the limits of its current reality.
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  • Bio
  • About
  • Artist Statement
  • Shop
  • Gallery
    • Paintings >
      • Drawings
      • Concepts >
        • Neocaca
        • Makes
      • Street
    • Music
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Archives
  • Contact