SYNC Gallery presents Chad Henry

Chad Henry: Artist Statement Chad Henry presents collages on wood and canvas panels that use imagery along with found and appropriated materials. Each piece has a story to tell, but it is up to the viewer to fill in the details according to their responses. In his work Henry portrays religion, sex, mystery, nostalgia, personal history, longing, regrets, alternate realities, and unfinished business. His aim is to make a pleasing and esthetic surface, fronting lots of submerged, possibly disturbing elements, like half-seen creatures in a tide pool, or seaweed-covered skeletons in a sunken ship.

Henry’s paintings come through improvisation and intuition, painted freely with acrylic and interior latex paints, graphite, oil stick, pastel, and collage elements. His work is a continuation of the art play of childhood, when working with paper, finger paints, crayons, pencils, edible glue, canned dog food, and pure color, including black, was a response to available materials—as much a physical activity as an aesthetic one. Current canvases may evolve from a spontaneous initial gesture, or might grow from a seeded idea, such as his paintings “Tanka” or “Demon Festival” for example. Other paintings may contain collage elements, single words or phrases chosen at random as compositional elements—visual koans that sidestep literal labels.

Image attached: Chad Henry, Palimpsest, acrylic and paper collage, 24” x 36”