Dominic Musa

Region: Northeast

Website: http://www.dominicmusa.com

City / State: Paterson, NJ

The human condition mirrors that of the painter, and my paintings allow me a space to suspend, dismantle, and uphold this contradiction. With paint I am both architect and observer. Throughout each painting, I seek to learn the limits of the medium. I scrape and tighten, wipe down and build up, stain the surface and drag the brush; figures are rendered, erased, then restored anew. Paint is unique in its ability to contain such polarities, and it allows me a formal channel to describe the contradictions of trying to answer existential questions. Paint can mean nothing, or mean everything.

My paintings are a vehicle for navigating the world I inhabit. It’s a world that is grown, built, dictated, and performed, and I aim to capture that in my work. Fleeting scenes intermix organically; they are observed, recollected, and reconfigured. Questions of desire and need, guilt and honor, greed and obligation are answered in moments of pause. Each painting is a mirror; each painting is a window.