
Spotlight Artist
Michel Modell
South
Artist Statement
My paintings investigate how humor facilitates the exposure of anomies, the social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values within a community. Cultural insight is layered behind comedic intent by way of archetypes built out of saturated transparent forms. Humor is not the end, but a means to afford access to topical issues and provides a fulcrum point between two simultaneous but oppositional viewpoints. This dichotomy of disposition is ever-present as I navigate through issues of personal identity, contemporary crisis, art history revisionism, and globalization of information. Be disgusted, be appalled, laugh out loud, or snort in protest. I promise I won’t tell if you indulge in a secret laugh.
Artist's Additional works
Works shared by the artist outside of their featured New American Paintings selections


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