“Through this work, I want to confront that place inside of myself where that fear, hate, anger, insecurity and dysfunction resides…”
Meet Paul Cristina. An Ohio-born, South Carolina-based artist. Paul is primarily interested in exploring ideas and images of human behavior that go underneath the familiar exteriors of everyday life. He wants the work to deliver an experience that is unavoidably human. Cristina likes the idea of building up a surface that is very physical and intense that has this hidden underlying congestion of material.
“You have all of this stuff hidden underneath that we know is playing a roll and contributing to that surface layer, yet most of it remains unseen and outside of our direct observation.” Cristina states.
Through this work, he wants to confront that place inside of himself where that fear, hate, anger, insecurity and dysfunction resides. Paul wants to explore what might be below the surface of those things – in a place where truths can be found, regardless of how disturbing or unpleasant they may be.
The artworks we will take a look at today, are combinations of oil, charcoal and paper mounted on panel. It is a process of both deconstruction and reconstruction. While the foundational practice of these pieces of art is drawing.
“In this recent body of work, Cristina was influenced by the idea of how we are often indoctrinated in various ways throughout our childhood, adolescence and into our adult life,” Beresford Studios said about his work. “Some methods of indoctrination are more obvious and have become normalized or trivialized within daily routine, while others remain rather harmful and discreet.”
More of Cristina’s work below
