Aaron Wexler

There’s something about elements in nature that are always surprisingly abstract to me. I’m interested in shapes in nature as they relate to abstraction in painting. In my work I investigate the curious, rich area of visual potential these shapes exist in. I question how we interpret what we see in terms of abstraction whether it is by chance or intentionally looking at a work of art.

I collect distinctly different representations of abstraction of nature and architectural networks. Utilizing prints, books, photographs and hand painted paper, I make drawings and collages from these source materials. They become cut and paste blueprints from which I build my surface layers, weaving a latticework of organic and angular forms.

Concealing and revealing in my work is an important form of visual play. I play with the back and forth between what is print, what is paint and what is just negative space. Collage is a form of sampling but for me it’s what’s in between those samples, which is just as exciting. My selection process of shapes, images and paint is based in poetic responses on how I respond to formal elements – it is in that act that I find profound meaning.

My work is collage based. It's physically constructed by layering collected print material, found photographs and hand painted paper. The painted paper is more akin to monotype printed surfaces and staining. In recent work, I've been pigment treating the surfaces of Japanese washi paper, Thai mulberry paper and Italian printmaking paper as collage material. I'm interested in the analog version of creating a sense of registration and purposeful mis-registration. The space between the two is energized by a vibrating visual distortion as a result. I work on both paper and wood panel surfaces, moving the image from table to wall to floor and back to table at times. The limitless process of collage based work is exciting to me as a truly malleable medium.