overview — may 2024
since start of representation — engage projects gallery chicago — in 2020:
artforum ‘must see’ in chicago — both solo shows to date.
2 solo shows, 5 group shows, and 3 art fairs (chicago, new york, london).
the gallery places two to three pieces in established collections each year.
next solo show — 2025 chicago.
cv + press + statement — please contact gallery.
areas of practice
oil painting
personal writing systems
legible texts
abstract texts
new cave paintings
conceptual
image texts
video + sound + theory
installations + performance + happenings
early 2024 updates
artforum — ‘must see’ chicago — first two solo shows 2021 and 2023
mousse magazine (milan) — selected best shows aligned with expo chicago 2023
most recent show — THIS IS TEXT BASED ART — artist’s descriptions .pdf
more information below
about the gallery
engage projects (fka aspect ratio) is a commercial gallery in Chicago with a nat’l + internat’l reputation in multidisciplinary conceptual art (painting, photography, video, installation, sculpture).
the gallery currently represents roughly twenty artists from a dozen countries + continents.
gallery artists have exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, and La Panera Art Center.
current interests
2024 — i’m interested in human theories so far and ones that are coming … more below
about the studio
i live and work in my studio. it’s in portland maine. i use my hallway, 27 feet long, 3 feet wide.
scale
paintings are ~ 4 to 10 ft w and ~ 5 to 8 ft h. works on paper are ~ 18 x 24 in.
artists i’ve shown with
since representation in 2020 i’ve appeared in shows with Alec Soth, Alberto Aguilar, Nick Cave, Bob Faust, Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera, Chris Larson, David Leggett, Derrick Woods-Morrow, Edra Soto, Xie Hongdong, Hasan Elahi, Jovan C. Speller, Jean Alexander Frater, Sharon Louden, Morgan, and Nick Albertson, among others.
latest objective metrics — 2024
— the gallery has placed 8 pieces since 2020 in serious / prominent / established US collections.
— Artforum chose both solo shows to date (2021, 2023) as ‘must see’ in Chicago.
— Mousse Magazine (Milan) also chose the 2023 solo as one of the best aligned with EXPO Chicago 2023.
— the Senior Curator and Head of Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Harry Cooper, short-listed two pieces as the jurist of an international show (2021) (Species Anosognosia and We All Like To Look Away Sometimes (I Feel So Much Better Now)).
— the Berlin-based art advisory Artfacts (cf. NY Times, Le Journal des Arts, Le Figaro, The Guardian), which tracks verified shows of ~ 1m artists worldwide, now lists me ~ top 10% globally and top 1% to 5% for artists associated with:
post-conceptualism
postminimalism
conceptual painting
appropriation art
text based art
photo montage / photo collage
activist art
backstory
self taught. it started tumbling out a decade ago, at 42, after a meds change. (for about 20 years i’ve had a mild form of bipolar disorder, fka manic depression; my mind runs in a slight natural high.)
apparently, in these natural highs, parts of my brain connect things in unique ways. (except when i write appellate briefs in courts; i’ve practiced law for 20 years, including at leading international law firms based in DC and LA, with degrees from upenn and stanford law.)
combined art + law CV is here [pending update may 2024].
lithium signature
after 25 years on lithium, permanent tremors are in my painting hand. so there’s a one-of-a-kind brushstroke when i paint, if you look close — my ‘lithium signature.’
2023-2024 current practice
current mediums — oil paint, oil stick, charcoal, ink, photography, video, canvas, aluminum.
what i’m interested in —
— what human theories are — and which new ones might be coming;
— what lines and curves are in words, symbols, and abstraction;
— how and when meaning loss occurs between makers and receivers;
— how and when felt-body-experience relates to conceptual, abstract, and aesthetic;
— whether creation / making is performative in a mind, heart, and also body-felt sense.
2023-2024 current research, writing, theory
rsh — global histories + global theories of text art — draft monograph .pdf or webpage
rsh — somatic art, conceptualism, abstraction, minimalism — draft rsh paper .pdf
art theory — art theory, legal systems, and ai: whether interpretation theories that served us well now hinder what we want to be (pending 2024 for next show 2025).
criticism — first short-form art criticism nov 2023.
Closing night, 2023 solo show, Chicago.
Most recent installation, US collection, spring 2024.
Artist talk with artist Kelly Matthews, Chicago 2023.