Bio
Cameron Spratley's paintings attempt to capture the schizophrenic nature of being young and black in America. They are visually in reference to the street culture that black entertainment is built upon and the danger of the street in regards equally to black on black crime and police killings. The works are purposefully hard to unpack, putting the viewer who is unfamiliar with the presented images into the space of the other. Having to ask what they are looking at and invest into the thought process rather than visual stimulation to begin to enter the work. This forces the text and image to function as a metonym, and the relationships between the two to be negotiated through past experience in the world or images presented to them on a daily basis. For the familiar viewer however, the paintings pose melancholy suggestions of self-defense and self-care as strategies to survive in the world. The paintings attempt to portray the collective sadness of the black community as well as a deeper sadness with the state of humanity as a whole.

Website
https://cameronspratley.com/