Peter Cotroneo
My recent works are tied up in painterly romanticism, while trying
to eschew all of it. Paint is substituted for charcoal and water.
Space is relegated to the distance between me and the wall. Touch
is limited to the smashing and scraping of dust. Figuration is used
only for depicting stomachaches, energy drinks, and skepticism.
I fill the studio with cartoon monsters and ghosts of myself.
Slipping between drinking and singing, wincing and bowing—
they are the antiheroes of their own pictures. Filled up on energy
drinks and shaken up to the point of nausea, they move from
celebration and exuberance to discomfort and regret. Animated
by repeated efforts, these paintings gesture toward their own
failure—clumsily taking up their positions, ready to smash the
can into their own faces or to crumple against the wall.