Playing Hands is the second solo exhibition of the Miami-based painter Michael Clifford in Gallery Diet’s gallery projects room. Incidental, laboriously quick, and preciously considered, Clifford’s work is executed with levity, amassing elements of sexuality, loss, and sentimentality.
Clifford investigates abstract mark making through the implementation of symbols. The notions in the symbols become bittersweet in their familiarity, yet are rooted in faint memory.
The use of familial materials in his work suggests a proclivity towards childhood prophecies and intuition. Whether mark making with paper towels, drawing with his fingers, or painting with smoke bombs, Clifford’s practice is an ode to the frantic romantic in a collectively aware and domestic setting.
It is the memory of the extension of a lover’s hand, a last word that still dances on the lips, or softness in the breath of the one who desires to leave a message. We are all faithful observers, unrehearsed players on a stage whose intent is to bring to surface that cyclical narrative. In this way, Michael Clifford finds a common thread between the dualities of the sweet and sour, the serious and the silly.
Clifford is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago who currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. He has recently shown at the El-Saieh Gallery in Port-au-Prince, the Material Art Fair in Mexico City, QT Gallery, and Courtney Blades Gallery. This is his first solo exhibition at Gallery Diet.
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