Greg Santos

I
employ video and photography to create stunning, light-filled paintings
that transfix the viewer.  Recent works depict utterly improbable
images;  a man ruthlessly carrying his infant son by one arm, a horse
dangling upside down from a steel train trellis, and an indistinct,
black form clinging to the face of a glass skyscraper.  The experience
is disconcerting.  Although the situations depicted are incredible,
they feel strangely familiar.  This unnerving effect draws the viewer
in, and compels them to contemplate subjects on the brink of
devastation Working from my own photographs of the television screen, I
deal directly with contemporary perceptual experience.  The results of
these investigations are beautiful images of intimate proportion that
emulate the transience of video and photography, while retaining the
materiality of paint. The works are created by layering thin glazes of
oil paint to create luminous, translucent surfaces. Closer inspection
reveals gossamer figures interlaced to create an elusive and
incandescent abstract field.  Yet from the slightest distance, they
coalesce into a recognizable whole. 

These descriptions allude
to the tenets of Impressionism, but I do not carry on the traditional
study of natural light and shadow.  Instead, I focus on representations
of the electric light which emanates from the TV screen, a phenomena we
are all intimately and psychologically connected to.