he/him
Dylan Foster Mintz
My paintings often freeze-frame moments of things I see in nature. Many of these paintings are based on encounters with strange yet natural forms, specifically those found in the coastal ecosystems of North Carolina. While the paintings represent subjects from reality, they are often relayed from imagined perspectives.
This body of work is devoted to the psychological revelations that occur when noticing small things in nature that feel larger than life. From a panpsychist worldview, my paintings behold compact sites of consciousness in unexpected places. This outlook is located in the presentation of figures, ranging from trees and flames to insects and mollusks. The paintings are struck with vivid interior illumination and shadowy recessiveness, which elicit dramas. Elements of the paintings coalesce like actors, making symbolic references to human relationships with nature.
My choice of subject is prioritized by a rediscovery of the familiar rather than an overvaluation of the novel, yet the image remains otherworldly. The figures in my work exist in a supernatural state of suspense. When rendering forms, I describe the character of a subject rather than the likeness of that thing. For example, I’ll emphasize the aura of a surface, a gleam of light, or a pocket of sensorial fluttering. This offers a more visionary or metaphorical representation, conjuring the mystical, sometimes cheesy, qualities that are evoked when noticing the subtle aliveness of everything.
Paper Wasp Nest, 2024.
Oil on canvas, 40.5 × 30 × 2.5 in.
Paper Wasp Nest (Interior), 2024.
Oil on canvas, 14 × 8 × 2.5 in.
Scallop’s Gaze, 2024.
Oil on panel, 16 × 48 × 2.5 in.
The World is Your Oyster?, 2024.
Oil on panel, 22 × 48 × 2.5 in.
Gallery Beetle, 2024.
Oil on canvas, 48 × 24 × 3 in.