Xico Greenwald

Fruit Basket

Artist Statement My paintings of everyday objects are born out of a belief that the commonplace is rich subject matter and that there’s poetry to be found in the things that surrou...

My paintings begin with a serious sense of play, both in the staging and the creating of the compositions. It is at this beginning stage that I operate under the Dadaist dictate that “anything can be art”, and at the same time I seek out a balanced and harmonious composition by way of line, shape, and color. I work according to my whimsy, sometimes seeking to assert some form of narrative however personal or ambiguous, and other times I am simply satisfied with the hint of a human presence. Once I have my compositions the paintings then very quickly become about work, a very labor intensive work that forces me to focus my mind and slow things down (which I feel is relevant especially in this day and age of high-speed everything). A great amount of effort is spent on trying to get to the highest level of finish that is possible according to my current skill level. For inspiration I have drawn from the past four centuries of object specific paintings, from the ontbijtjes (laid tables) of the 17th Century Dutch masters such as Willem Kalf, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Abraham van Beijeren...

Alatza paints dynamic and energetic portraits of people, tongue-in-cheek scenes and vibrant still lifes. With forms contorted in a full-tilt, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall assault,...

Illegible signature Work on canvas