Wiped

By wiping found or discarded vinyl banners with acetone, Kurtis Brand effectively invented a new form of painting. Preexisting industrially created color combinations are often used in Brand’s work and the result is often interesting, uncanny, and occasionally off-putting yet dynamic and original.

Conceptually, this work carries on the Buddhist concept of emptiness in that the original image presented in the banners can so easily be wiped away alluding to the ephemeral nature of all things.

Formally, the paintings are familiar in the sense that they are ab-ex in nature. Yet they are totally new, dynamic, and original works that express freedom from image-making considered in both abstract and representational work. They are more image-changing. Taking what exists and making it new is a concept carried out in much of Brand’s work and life.