Mixed media painter Bex Wilkinson channels what weighs on the collective subconscious using symbols and iconography to guide viewers into what she sees as the “unending cycle of karma.” Often, the subjects of Wilkinson’s contemporary works reveal themselves as archetypes
from Jungian psychology. 

Bex’s paintings are dark comedy, juxtaposing humorous collaged elements from pop culture against expressionistic imagery – not cleanly portrayed, but rather, projected onto the raw canvases. 

Photo by HIM Creative

She examines the dichotomy of existence: the balance of light and dark. There is a sarcastic and jovial mocking perspective of a culture that values shiny objects in the face of daily atrocity, horror and genocide. Influenced by Robert Crumb and Art Spilgman, Bex’s paintings invite the viewer to engage with the catastrophic daily headlines – and their own demons – from a distance
and with  light-hearted cynicism. Other notable influences are Judy Chicago and Joan Snyder, both of whom tackle seismic devastations – oppression, famine and extinction – across
mediums and dimensions. 

There’s a sort of tongue-and-cheek, all-knowing, self-aware and reflective quality in Bex’s work, demonstrated by the acute and advanced technical skill intentionally shrouded in sparkle and farce. The loose use of paint, glitter, varnish and stencils represent the overt and abundant imagery that bombards Western society: newspaper headlines, magazine advertisements, billboard campaigns, sex, drugs and Rock and Roll! The multimedia presentation of the stenciled letters is simultaneously universal and unique to the viewer -- the rough and broken borders reflective of just that, the rough and broken parameters of archaic power-structures.

Bold brushstrokes and purposeful free-form application speak as metaphor to the chaos that is the human experience. Bex’s  training and pedigree are central to each piece in her still-life series, demonstrating order and decorum. Neons and words conjure fantasia, fun and frivolity while
oils and lacquers taste of fine-art and epochs past.

 
Photo by Ray J. Gadd

Photo by Ray J. Gadd