Andy Sylvester United Kingdom

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As a studio-based painter I rely on photographic images. These are often those found on social media or then internet. As a gay man I am also interested in exploring the multiplicity of images and ideals we are presented with and redefining the idea of masculinity. My work explores narrative, colour, line, composition, and mark-making to evoke an emotion or develop the narrative within an image.

My artistic practise principally explores portraiture. I use found images form social media or the internet to make works that resonate with ideas of what nit is to be queer within contemporary culture. As a gay man I am also interested in exploring the multiplicity of images and ideals we are presented with and redefining the idea of masculinity. My work explores narrative, colour, line, composition, and mark-making to evoke an emotion or develop the narrative within an image. My working process can involve sourcing images and printing these to work from. This creates chance happenings to the colour through the printing process. I work in acrylic paint building images over a period, returning again and again to a work making changes to colour and mark sometimes destroying an image through sanding back to start again until I find the essence of an image.