JOSH RAZ

Josh Raz’s oil paintings play on our instincts to reinterpret landscapes through our own experiences, collective folklore and unreliable memories. The works made on the residency reference expansive bodies of water; the pond and the frozen lake. The horizon, often seen as a symbol of stability in navigation, is a recurring feature in the paintings, as the works follow a consistent horizontal plane that teases at infinity.

Thin layers of diluted oil allow the artist to build up texture within the works, as mark-making references familiar scenes. A certain bleed of paint on the canvas shifts an abstract mass into a familiar blustery day or a summer sun just kissing a stretch of water. Raz’s introduction of figures to these scenes is careful as he draws them in and out of the landscape until at points they become indecipherable from one another and at others, they are starkly cut against the ice. Assumed relationships and storylines begin to colour the interactions between these figures. We utilise our own experiences in similar landscapes, pulling on unreliable memories and desired futures.