“in Milan, Italy: in late 1995, I painted 4 "SadTree" paintings, for four exhibitions that opened later in 1996. "MORE THAN REAL", Palazzo Reale, Caserta, IT, "TRAFFIC", CAPC,Bordeaux, FR, SPRING COLLECTION, DESTE Athens, GR and ANALIX GALLERY, Geneve, CH
“The first painting of Existence was the Sad Tree. Invited to participate at "Traffic", the exhibition that launched Nicola Bourriaud's "Relational Aesthetics", I decide to paint a picture that was stuck in my mind from the days of art school. That was three trees, two strong ones and a weak tree, curved as if the wind blows it. As I had no idea of how to paint realistically, I called a friend and he gave me a few instructions that later became content for FrancescoBonami.com (Neen Painting Manifesto). I decide to paint four versions of the SadTree and send a copy to every exhibition that I was invited to participate at that very moment.
“In Milan, Italy...
“Just before painting the Sad Tree, I looked on the screen of my laptop and there were things written on it... There was a progress bar. A sign saying "Stop" and another saying "Continue". Another sign would say "Game Paused"... I decide to project those commands on a canvas and paint them. Quite a few years later, in 2010, I looked on what was written on computers again. That was in Bogota, Colombia while I was preparing my first one-man show. I"ve found stuff on Google written about me (and painted them) and then someone start asking me if I had any resources about Multiple Universes..
“in Dijon, FR at "Le Consortium"
“During the Traffic exhibition I was invited for an one-man show by Xavier Douroux, Franck Gautherot and Eric Troncy. After seeing my "Sad Tree" at Bourriaud's exhibition, they wanted paintings! "What shall I paint?" I asked Vanessa Beecroft- my partner of those days.. She had no idea either but she was reading a book about Andy Warhol. "here it says that Warhol also didn't know what to paint so he asked a friend of his. "What do you like the most?" the friend asked. "Money"-said Warhol. "so just paint money".. At that moment, what I liked most was computers so I decide to start painting them...
“"We want to make an one-man show with you" said Xavier Douroux, Franck Gautherot and Eric Troncy,"we want paintings!". OK I said-although I had no idea what I should be painting, (in my mind there was just a single picture, the "Sad Tree"...). Andy Warhol had the same problem and finally he just decide to paint what he loved most. For Warhol, that was money, for me it was my laptop computer. That laptop was an APPLE PowerBook,when kept closed it was all grey-with just a spot of color on it. It was so abstract and at the same time so perfectly realistic: "the perfect subject" I decided, "I should just simply keep painting this until I die.."
“"There's something wrong.. I don't know what exactly.. We all seam suffering from something, we look like PATIENTS"
“ in NYC, where else?
“in NYC...
“painting cables in NYC
“I looked at my floor in NYC
“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC
“I noticed there's a new point of view so I start painting "Point of View" in NYC
“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC
“"Playing Videogames" Paintings in NYC
“I start painting "Internet Paintings" in NYC
“ little canvases depicting images that are already covered or will ber covered by other images
“ as they are happening..
“I start painting "Looking at Screens" in NYC
“ in NYC I start painting "Screens"
“ in NYC "My Floor" Paintings
“in New York: I start painting the series "TWO"
“"Two" Paintings in New York and France and Greece
“ in Los Angeles: I start painting "Women"
“"Women" in Los Angeles
“in NYC: I start painting "Point of View"
“"Groups" Paintings in Paris
“in France: I start painting ""Navigator" PAINTINGS"
“ Are we lost? No, there are all those GPS with us..
