Free Paintings

2024-ongoing

 

These paintings are made with house paint on panel, canvas, or board and are each inscribed with the word “free.” The word conjures up notions of autonomy, self-determination, money, and release: concepts that have recently become points of contention within American politics. These paintings are intended to be given away as part of their exhibition and are themselves available for visitors to take with them from the gallery. I’m interested in how that word can declare itself unrestricted by the transactional rules of capitalism and function as a catalyst to bestow freedom onto other objects by their proximity to it.