[PAINTING]

Danny K. Dunbar’s paintings explore existential themes, encouraging introspection about the mental and physical spaces we occupy. Through contrasting surface textures, built from phone books and acrylic mediums, the works emphasize separation, evoking solitude and placelessness. Rejecting traditional landscape conventions, Dunbar’s large vertical geometric forms, resembling cement slabs, confront the viewer directly, occupying space like tangible structures. The voids within the compositions amplify a sense of emptiness, compelling viewers to reflect on the impermanence of modern environments and the transience of life, offering a profound meditation on what it means to exist.

Using a combination of observation from the life of mostly urban landscapes and digital photo manipulation, my paintings start by piecing together the composition through a process of drawing and collage. The paintings' surfaces are created by layering pages of phonebooks and newsprint advertisements saturated in acrylic polymer. The acrylic polymer was originally manufactured for use on masonry and is uniquely necessary to my process because of its durability and in turn fragility. After 24 hours of curing, each layer is extremely hard which makes it very brittle and flakey when subjected to the aggressive removal process that involves hacking, scraping, and digging away the layers to reveal color, and texture to create depth within the surface. The removal of these layers echoes the natural process of erosion that takes place on monuments and man-made infrastructure exposed to the elements. The lengthy process introduces an element of time into the paintings creating monuments that idle in juxtaposition between art and artifact.

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