Michael R. Leon
My recent body of work concerns the idea of what might lie
between or beyond irony and sincerity. It seems that in our
present culture, irony has become no more than a screwball body
wash advertisement, and sincerity a pet adoption commercial
meant to guilt trip you into catharsis. Just as these ideas have
been prominent in society and popular culture, they have become
a recurring theme in contemporary painting.
I have addressed the question using personal narratives, family
stories, and the conversations of passersby. I am interested in the
structuring of stories and the restructuring that takes place as
they are retold. My paintings manifest these ideas by providing
a disjunctive narrative in which myths and anecdotes reflect the
dysfunctional harmony of beauty and brutality in the everyday.