VICKIE BYRON

Inspired by graffiti-charged NYC and the neighborhoods along the J train between Brooklyn and Queens, these architectural paintings combine wordplay, tracks, subway platforms, and fast moving cars into a rhythmic whole. Text is layered into the architecture of the city, embedding its culture and social history. Painted words are made up or found, bold and obscure, tucked into cracks, advertised, political as in “Watch the Gap” or “TURN LEFTist.” The work is marked by a realism at once steely and expressionist, forming a canvas in which contrasting elements, observed and imagined, geometric and organic, classical and industrial, are arranged  with bristling motion.