ONE TASTE | LEIDY CHURCHMAN
American artist Leidy Churchman (Pennsylvania, 1979) explores various thematic and stylistic fields through painting. His subjects range from natural landscapes to domestic interiors, abstract compositions, animals, and even reproductions of smartphone screenshots. The heterogeneity of his work reflects an ever-evolving artistic practice that explores everyday life with a keen eye, open to changes, whether they be abstract or formal.
One of the most striking characteristics of Churchman’s practice is his ability to capture the deeper aspects of the subjects he portrays, combining their intrinsic meaning to generate new synapsis.
An element that influences Churchman’s work is Buddhism, a practice the artist has cultivated for years, and which emerges in many of his artworks. Buddhist philosophy asserts that there is an interconnection between all things in this world and, at the same time, that life is impermanent, meaning that is subject to evolution, modification, and/or destruction.
A fitting example of this is the artwork One Taste (2020), in which a lush vegetable garden and a vast starry sky coexist together. This natural landscape, bordering on the surreal, shows us a dual aspect: on the one hand, life in full bloom, and on the other, spectacular colorful explosions of planets and galaxies, light-years away from us, that have likely already faded by the time their image reaches our eyes.
Life and death, past and present—with some hints of the future, suggested by the fruits in a full ripening phase—coexist in this painting, offering us a reflection on the passage of time and on the perception of reality.
Therefore, Churchman’s work is not simply a figurative art exercise but often goes beyond that, transforming landscapes and objects into points of reflection, inviting the viewer to deeply observe the world around them and take the opportunity to explore consciousness and the transient nature of existence.
Leidy Churchman
One Taste, 2020
Oil on linen, 201 x 260 cm (79 x 102 1/2 inches)
© Leidy Churchman, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
25/09/24