We introduce you to the work of London based painter Cain Caser. Cain is another graffiti artist in his youth turned established artist as an adult. Working in an abstract collage like manner Cain destroys old sketches and paintings to recreate new works. The bright colored deconstructed forms move between intense color and the old texture of spray paint. What seems to be non-representational images are in fact mostly painted portraits that move between figurative and pure abstract. You are left to decipher between what you think you are seeing and what the artist intended you to see. This unconventional approach to his portraits mixed with vibrant colors create some intense images. Cain Caser has established a unique approach to painting that utilizes his past experiences in graffiti music culture. This mix of influences establishes an impressive and honest body of work. We hope to share more from Cain with future updates.
GF
“As a kid growing up I was obsessed with graffiti. I lived near the end of the Metropolitan line so everything that was going on in London was delivered straight to my doorstep. The people, style, mystery and adventure of it completely fascinated me. By twelve years of age I had started writing graffiti and at sixteen it was dominating my life. Shortly afterwards like many others around that time I got side tracked by rave culture which then proceeded to provide an altogether different form of distraction. This body of work represents a reflection and distillation of both periods. The visual shock of seeing a newly pieced train on my way in to school filtered through the peculiarly lucid experience of my late teens. The paintings have been conceived as portraits. Occupying the gap between figuration and abstraction they exploit the tendency to see faces where none exist and in turn be interpreted according to an individuals own unique visual hierarchy. The motivations of my younger self, ego and excitement, are the same cues that I paint by today. My working method currently is to cut up and photocopy sketches with paint on paper creating a collaged drawing which then serves as maquette for a painting.”
