About

Born: Johnstone, Scotland,

Lives: Lafayette Louisiana.

The Arena paintings, which he began pursuing in 2012-13, emanate from my long-standing concern with experiences of mass spectacle and spectatorship, from the perceptions of the urban stroller amid the crowd to large-scale sporting events. Without directly representing or illustrating such phenomena, the paintings at once affirmatively explore moments of spectatorship as instances of collective and even euphoric belonging and keep such forms at a critical distance, aware of some of the dangers, including the potential for mass delusion and manipulation, they can entail. Such work fluctuates between the act of the mass-experience and the individual encounter, provoking the viewer to have a simultaneous public and singular confrontation with the painting.

Christopher Bennett, Assistant Professor of Art History/Contemporary Art