Askia Bilal

Region: Midwest

 My artwork is a search for meaning—a tool to make sense of the world and myself. My creative practice is one of layered techniques and layered meaning that attempt to weaves together the representational and the abstract. Combining gestural marks with fragments of historical, literary, and philosophical elements, I create a personal iconography that I am constantly arranging and rearranging. Collaged components, often residual of other paintings and drawings, conceal and reveal layers beneath, giving each work a unique physicality and sense of history. Recurring themes in the artwork include cycles, transformation, and paradox.