Philip Livingston
Family, Ghosts, and Other Strangers
February 25 — April 4, 2021
Artist’s Statement
One artistic model I admire and try to emulate is the haiku poem. The haiku conveys its meaning through simple images. Its meaning can grow over time. It does not insist.
The figures in this exhibition are derived from photos of family and acquaintances. They can be understood as real or imaginary; fictional or historical; physical or ghostly; present or past. Therefore some are silhouettes while others are rendered in pencil or pastel. Each technique has its role.
I layer gravity-defying painted and drawn elements which might seem to detach from the panel and float toward the viewer. Instead of rendering three-dimensional space, I mean to evoke the experience of time. Among the figures, chairs, paint swipes, drawing marks, empty spaces, rocks and stenciled patterns, the question is not so much where as when.
This show is culled from works of the last two years and reflects some of the dramatic events we all have experienced. So here is solitude, sorrow, entanglement, rage, uncertainty; but also some hopeful gestures of light and color.
Philip Livingston
Washington, DC
2021