When I started making these paintings, I thought of the connection between the ways a sedimentary landscape builds and the way these paintings build, and I began to see these paintings as a new way to make landscape paintings for this kind of moment that we live in – this Anthropocene, this moment of climate change. As they develop, they begin to develop these kind of horizon lines in them. – Terry Suprean
Houston-based Terry Suprean’s radiant, layered works are the result of an experimental approach to the material nature of paint itself. The artist uses nontraditional binders and pigments, including minerals such as mica, which contribute to a receding depth and reflective flatness. Pronkstillevens Vanitas 7-9-21 takes its name from the Pronkstilleven Dutch still life painting genre that featured ornate, densely populated scenes that functioned as vanitas paintings – reminders of both the opulence and fragility of our earthly, material existence. As in other recent works, the arched form recalls a chapel niche and adds a reverential quality to Suprean’s ideas. Before graduating with an MFA from Texas Christian University, Suprean collaboratively developed activist communities in his hometown of New Orleans. His work has been shown in galleries throughout Texas.