Emerging Artist Profile :: Austin Power

14 May 2009

Current Exhibition: KNCTRNL
1 May, 2009
8 – 10 PM
70 Wooster Street, New York, NY

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Austin Power, Jovelyn, 2008 11”x 8.5”, Watercolor on Paper

Artist Statement:

I am interested in showing the difficulty and discomfort in fully understanding a person. I leave my subjects incomplete to highlight their limitations, as well as my own inability to see the subject beyond the influence of myself.

Austin Power, Self-Portrait, 2008
6’x4.5’, Oil on Canvas

Personal Statement:

I am just one person, but many people see me. Each person sees me differently. I am an infinite amount of people. Therefore, so are you. I can never know the “you” that someone else sees. I can never paint a comprehensive you.

Austin Power, Missing Toronto, 2008
15”x11”, Watercolor on Paper

When I paint myself I am sorting out how I feel about the versions of me existing in the world. I wonder what people see, and so I guess. I guess out loud through paint. Or I instruct and I try to reshape who I am. I try and tell the world something they might have never known about me.

When I paint someone else, I paint what I know about them. I paint you plus myself, because that is my truth about identity. If I paint you hollow, but with volume, it is not because I think you are empty. It is instead that I think you are full of things I may never know about you. I paint incompleteness because I live incompleteness. I can never know for sure what happens when I’m not around. The purest limitation is time. I can only be responsible for the time that I spend with you. It is impossible to know everything about any one person. So for me, it is unimportant and untruthful to paint a whole person. Though truth itself has many versions, many people see one action and from it come many interpretations. I just want to be honest. I want to be honest about you, and myself. I just want to be honest with myself. I just want to be honest with you.

--Austin Power

Austin Power, Amy, 2008
15”x10”, Watercolor on Paper

Biography

Austin Power is a southern gentleman and fine artist living and working in New York City. In 2008 he graduated from Parsons: The New School for Design with a B.F.A. in fine arts with departmental honors.

Austin explores the complexity of representing others in his work through a highly subjective, introspective style. He paints what he describes as personal letters, one-sided reflections on his relationships with friends and loved ones. Austin acknowledges the personal truth of identity and the limitations of his relationships with his subjects by leaving his figures incomplete. To Austin, his portraits are neither the subject nor himself, but rather the intimate emotional space between them.

His work has been exhibited in multiple group exhibitions in New York and Paris, France. Notable exhibitions include “Raunch” at the Parsons Paris Gallery, Paris, France; “Senior Citizens”, Gallery MC, New York, NY. Upcoming exhibitions include a group show “KNCTRNL” presented by Leonard-Tourne Gallery on May 1st, and a solo show “HEY FACE” at Satsko (245 Eldridge St, New York), may 6th (opening: 6 – 8pm) – june 5th.