Lucas T. McMahon

Region: West

City / State: Denver, CO

In these paintings, I explore the limits of logic, knowledge, and understanding. The work deals with concepts of nothingness and infinity. I am interested in paradox and contradiction, as well as the overlap between the two.

In my paintings, I subvert the conventional roles of various elements by changing their material construction or traditional relationships with other elements. In this way, each work becomes a self-contradictory object that behaves like a Buddhist koan—a paradoxical statement or question that promotes enlightenment by demonstrating the insufficiency of pure logic and reason. The frames act as a stage for infinite contemplation and meditation.

For me, the frames are also a metaphor for the body, consciousness, or the universe. The blank and empty spaces are representative of what we can know as well as what we do not and may never know.