
Andrew Dadson
Mugwort (Chrysanthemum weed) Violet, 2020

For a number of years now, Andrew Dadson has employed the act of painting to consider the marks …

Andrew Dadson’s paintings push the physical parameters of the medium such that they become almost like sculptures. Dadson’s practice is characterized by his thick handling of paint. He often begins with undercoats of bright colors, and topcoats of black or white. These layers are scraped, pushed, and dragged, then piled on again. In his recent series “Re-stretched” (begun 2012), he scrapes layers of paint toward each of the four edges of a stretched canvas. He then removes the canvas from the stretcher and mounts it on a larger frame, such that the excess paint forms a ridge in relief. “Everything has boundaries,” he says. “In my practice, I search for the spaces and opportunity to then question where such boundaries begin and end.”


For a number of years now, Andrew Dadson has employed the act of painting to consider the marks that humans make on their environment, from the incidental to the communicative to the catastrophic. In recent years, he has become known for works in which he paints plant matter with biodegradable earth pigments before …

Andrew Dadson’s paintings push the physical parameters of the medium such that they become almost like sculptures. Dadson’s practice is characterized by his thick handling of paint. He often begins with undercoats of bright colors, and topcoats of black or white. These layers are scraped, pushed, and dragged, then piled on again. In his recent series “Re-stretched” (begun 2012), he scrapes layers of paint toward each of the four edges of a stretched canvas. He then removes the canvas from the stretcher and mounts it on a larger frame, such that the excess paint forms a ridge in relief. “Everything has boundaries,” he says. “In my practice, I search for the spaces and opportunity to then question where such boundaries begin and end.”