Joshua Thaddeus Rainer
Region: MFA Annual
I am a hyperrealist oil painter. I carefully apply thin layers of different colored paint the consistency of room temperature butter on top of and beside one another. Through this technique and by thoroughly scrubbing wet paint onto thin layers of dried paint, I piece together an image that can appear more photographic than painted.
In my work, I paint doubles of a single figure in conflict with one another, like Jacob wrestling himself in lieu of an angel; I paint my surreal dreams of carjackings or being stuck in a runaway elevator as clearly as I can remember them; I paint the hands of different people caught in moments of embrace, confrontation and reflection.
I am fascinated by the real and imagined boundaries that distinguish the self from both the unconscious and the other. I am fascinated by things’ unknowability and the ubiquity of the unknown. My work is at once a meditation on these phenomena, an exercise in self-transparency, and an invitation for us to better understand ourselves and each other.
