Taylor Chapin

My paintings examine consumerism and advertising to suggest the inherent comedy, and absurdity, of daily life. My work questions our mindless drive toward industrialized American consumerism, the contents of which fill and fetishize our interior spaces.

I deliberately obscure forms via covering, creating multi-layered, illusory facades. Human bodies and consumer goods are ensconced in pattern and color, emphasizing their inherent banality while simultaneously enshrining and transforming their visual structures of identification as a way of critiquing the perception of value. Through the lack of a reveal, it is left unknowable which cloaked forms contain commercial/societal value, challenging our perceptions of what is real/unreal, valuable/valueless.

I am drawn to the allure of what lies underneath. I drape, wrap, and cover with various fabrics to transform once recognizable forms into abstracted shapes, semi-composed inklings of what lies underneath. It is this illusory quality of implied volume and depth that bemuses and betrays the two dimensional space of the stretched canvas, allowing the painted surface to become an additional layer of the facade.

www.taylorchapin.com

@blackbearss

taylormchapin@gmail.com