Drawn Curtains is a solo exhibition of artworks by mepaintsme, the pseudonym for the artist and curator whose personal and often dark imagery evokes the existential fears and anxieties associated with mortality, technology, and the unknown.
Working primarily with pencil on aged surfaces culled from book covers, end papers, catalogs and coloring books, the artist creates visual epitaphs from vestiges of a dying media, signaling our increasing disassociation with the physical world via developing technology. The artist states, “I’m interested in exploring both reasonable and unreasonable fears, and how they affect our collective psyche.”
Alongside the fourteen artworks presented in Drawn Curtains is an ongoing series titled Vatis Species whose Latin to English translation is Phantoms of Quality. In this series of portraits, the artist presents a grouping of ghosts from a bygone era, when the use of the hand had yet to be replaced by the computer. Drawn on antique notebook papers, book covers and stamp-saver booklets, each of the thirty-nine portraits are mounted to postcards, and presented in a format akin to trading cards.
Mepaintsme remains anonymous, living and working in the United States. He received a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and attended artist residencies at AICAD, New York Studio Residency Program (New York, NY) and the Santa Fe Masters Program (Santa Fe, NM). For the past 30 years, he has worked as an illustrator and painter. He currently runs the online gallery MEPAINTSME with his partner, and is the sole curator behind the @mepaintsme Instagram account.