SoiL Thornton

In their mixed-media paintings, SoiL Thornton creates abstract, crudely rendered forms to explore the picture plane as both a spatial field and a medium for conjuring images and sensibilities. The Brooklyn-based painter rejects the canvas, instead preferring the textural possibilities of paper, found wood, and slatted panels, all of which serve as the grounds for spray and acrylic paint, as well as collaged objects. The paintings exhibit various influences, from color field and monochrome painting to biomorphic abstractions. Certain elements suggest recognizable forms—cars, the sun—while others are more cryptic, such as the repeated appearance of perpendicular lines. “For me, it’s a game I play with myself about how to shift the familiar but keep things recognizable enough that you think you know what you’re looking at—almost this tracer image buried in the picture,” Thornton has said.