Andy Moses

Each of Andy Moses’ paintings can be seen as a scientific inquiry into the physical properties of paint as it is manipulated through chemical reactions, viscosity interference, and gravity dispersion. This meeting of the technical and the natural results in a painting that mimics nature and its forces. Moses’ signature style consists of pearlescent pigments applied onto concave or convex canvas before being placed onto geometrically shaped wood panels. The works consider the relationship between space, shape, and light. The painting process is dependent on a back-and-forth series of reactions between the paint and Moses. He begins with a choice of colors that come from nature. Once a loose plan is formulated, the paint determines how Moses proceeds. Each work has a unique commencement and completion point. Moses walks around the canvas and pours paints from each side, attempting to fabricate the sensation that they are all moving toward the center of the composition. However, the paint does not always behave according to plan so Moses must constantly act and react to how the paint moves, the paint then shifts, reacting to this action, Moses reacts once again, and the process is repeated until a sense of completion is achieved. Moses draws inspiration from a variety of sources including J.M.W. Turner, and Mark Rothko, as well as California and the dizzying, infinite, shifting space seen where the water meets the horizon. His intention is not to literally translate that view but to create an image that acts upon the audience as that view has acted upon him. The beginnings of Moses’ signature style were pearlescent white paintings that merely hinted at the horizon. He then began to shape the canvasses into convex and concave forms to increase the hypnotic sensation he was searching for. Those first shaped paintings, completed in 2003, have inspired all the works he has created since.  

Andy Moses was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended the California Institute of the Arts where he studied performance and film before beginning to paint in his third year. Postgrad, Moses moved to New York where he worked for the artist Pat Steir. He later moved to his studio where he developed an approach to process painting that was equal parts abstract and representational. Moses’ works have been exhibited extensively in New York, Los Angeles, and abroad. They can also be found in numerous important public and private collections. Andy Moses currently lives and works in Venice, California.