Driven by an interest in history, language and the emancipatory potential of art making, my work has expanded into parallel practices of painting, sculpture, writing and music. My art critiques institutional modes of presentation through playful irony and abstraction of familiar forms, specifically those associated with capitalism and Christianity. I reference antiquated educational idioms, such as the classroom wall map and the natural history diorama, omitting the text normally associated with these didactic forms. These, along with other modified readymades, present as pre-digital artifacts of banal functionality. They feature buttons, keys, and telephones that can be manipulated, but ultimately deny any ability for true interaction—mimicking how authoritarian institutions impose arbitrary values and constructs upon society, disguising them as immutable truths. The painted imagery, by contrast, engages with questions of the sublime and speaks to art as being a force of creative liberation, something that has the power to transcend these constructs.

With these institutional undertones imbued into my work, I present a mélange of objects that are both familiar and unusual. Through questioning past and existing systems of authority, I am also, by extension, asking if contemporary institutions are truly compatible with the goals of a democratic society.

Abe Shriner’s Website: www.abeshriner.com

Instagram: @bovinerevolt