Steven Wolkoff

Statement

 

My three-dimensional language paintings explore the properties and possibilities of paint as a medium while forging connections between formalist and conceptual art. Using acrylic paint extruded from tubes and the cursive handwriting I learned in 3rd grade, I transform words into three-dimensional paintings in which language functions simultaneously as image, material, and idea, balancing formal experimentation with humor, absurdity, and wordplay.

Many of these language paintings focus on the power of repetition and the variety of ways repetition can be used: as a mantra, as an educational aid, as a memory device, as a sign of obsession, as a method of torture, as the setup to a punchline, as a display of insanity, as an engine of efficiency, as advertising, as emphasis, as an instruction for proper hair care. These paintings invite viewers to move beyond passive viewing and actively engage with language as a physical and visual structure.

Extending my interest in the physical and conceptual properties of language, I have also developed a body of work responding to the recent surge in book banning in the United States. In my ongoing project Palliative Literary Replacements, I burn banned books and press their ashes into pill capsules, producing “safer” versions of these supposedly dangerous texts that have been sanitized with fire. The project imagines a dystopian library in which literature survives only in altered form.