Galen Cheney

b. 1962 , Northridge, CA

Painting is a sort of heartbreak. Initially there’s the seduction—the painting seems to paint itself and everything is working. Then, the veil slips and all the flaws are revealed, one by one, and I have to undo everything that I at first thought was so beautiful. This plays out again and again in each painting until something new pushes forward, hopefully stronger, stranger, unanticipated. And by flaws I don’t mean mistakes, for I think any strength my paintings may have is born of the accumulation of shifts in direction, which manifest as surfaces that are built up, scraped off, carved into, and built up again. The painting is a record of its making.

That physicality is intrinsic to these process-driven works. I have long been drawn to abandoned city walls given over to graffiti as well as the peeling frescoes of Pompeii and ancient cave paintings. I relate to them both aesthetically and emotionally. I find nothing more compelling than the mark made by a human hand. My current work addresses the intersection of street art and the grit of the city with Abstract Expressionism.

Mark by mark by mark I am compelled to get at some thing through painting which may very well be unattainable. And honestly, I hope to never get there.

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Cotton Hollow

Artist

Wake Up Call

Golden Age

Galen Cheney, "Fledgling," Fledgling

Fledgling