We’d like you to meet Justin Bean, an artist partner and painter whose geometric work is created as a powerful nonverbal form of expression.
Justin uses abstraction as a vehicle to think about his relationship to the world around him. Through his work he contemplate the underlying networks upon which social reality is built. He feels that we are each nodes of subjectivity within an ever-expanding network of dizzying complexity while on the one hand, we are accelerating toward a digital singularity without tactility, a social sphere that is digitally mediated, smooth and without texture. Yet we crave analogue experiences, objects that we can feel with our eyes, materiality that is more than pixels of projected light. Justin finds the mutability of symbols, patterns, and abstract designs to be a source of endless inspiration. Even the most “abstract” or nonobjective image carries meaning, and the challenge of abstraction is to find a mode of picture-making that resonates with his lived experiences.
A LOOK INSIDE THE ARTIST’S STUDIO
What inspires you to make art?
“I am inspired to make art, particularly abstract art, in part because it is a powerful nonverbal form of expression which we experience visually, not unlike how music is experienced by the ears. Unlike, say, reading a work of fiction, abstract art resists easily articulating a clear “meaning”, the process of which necessarily involves translating something nonverbal (the optical experience of looking at visual art) into words. Of course, my work is permeated by references that exist in the “real” world of external experience, some of which would be diagrams, infrastructure, patterns and permutations, and so on. Thus, I am inspired as well by my experience as an individual living in a world of rapid physical and technological development, and also by the alienation one experiences in such a world. Making art helps me to make sense of my experiences, to channel them into forms-without-names that nevertheless resonate with my own lived experiences.”
Who or what influences your style?
“My work certainly exists within the continuum of modernism, in particular the geometric abstraction of a century of practitioners from Mondrian to Al Held and Peter Halley. My influences also include the books I read and the films I enjoy, in particular science fiction and more specifically the subgenre of cyberpunk, which images the future not as a technologically advanced utopia, but as one in which technology and global capitalism have only exacerbated the currently existing problems of the contemporary moment. Another artist whose work I deeply admire both for its technique and its source material is Terry Winters. His paintings often incorporate diagrams and scientific imagery, and as an artist who is more interested in looking at a schematic of an electrical power substation for inspiration than I am a sunset, I can relate deeply to his work.”
Thus, I am inspired as well by my experience as an individual living in a world of rapid physical and technological development, and also by the alienation one experiences in such a world.
Can you explain the different stages of your process?
My paintings begin first with mapping a grid onto canvas which I use to build the composition. The grid allows me to mirror shapes and build symmetry. Once I arrive at a composition that works, the colors are mixed and added intuitively introducing alternative colors to build unpredictable relationships. My paintings are created using a sense of an “object” and a ground on which the object sits.
Embrace Creatives hand-picks artists that rise to Andrea’s high standards. In what ways do you feel your art business is professional?
“I ensure every transaction is smooth and seamless. I’ve never had a disappointed customer.”
Describe a “great” studio day.
“A great studio day is one in which I am working all the time across several paintings, allowing the paint to dry on one painting while starting another. I’ll listen to music or a podcast while I work, and the hours can fly by.”
TELL US SOMETHING FUN ABOUT YOU!
“I play drums and have recorded several albums in the metal and punk genres.”
