Cuauh, 2019

With roots based on drawing, this collection of abstract work explores solidity, texture and form, produced using a limited palette allowing focus and direction. Set within the context of social and political instability, and using that as starting point, the paintings depict forms that at first glance appear quite solid, some even being walls of black paint, but on closer inspection give a sense of their fragility and impending collapse.

The paintings are physical, both in technique and presence, but ultimately attempt to communicate on an emotional level. Composed largely intuitively, it is in the fundamental components of vitality, drive and feeling, the things that epitomise being alive, that are being conveyed in these pictures.

From Nahuatl, Cuauhtémoc meaning "falling eagle". Cuauhtémoc was the name of the last Aztec emperor, ruling until 1525 when he was captured and executed by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.