A self-trained Philadelphia-based artist, dxg employs mixed media – specifically, analogue text collage coupled with photographic image transfer – to explore the relationship between “text” and “image” as they are brought to bear from the past upon the present. The primary sources for his text collages are fin-de-siecle texts such as children’s spelling books, scientific textbooks, and travel guides. These source materials are revealing of the prevailing beliefs of the time in which they were written and published. The juxtaposed images, meanwhile, are contemporary photographic portraits and self-portraits of artists with whom he collaborates.
As a given piece evolves, large portions of text and image are often obscured – if not hidden altogether – by layered text, oil pastel, and period ephemera such as postage and ink stamps. In this manner, the works mirror and critique the process by which given ideas are “received” from the past, albeit in a highly filtered manner.
