Morgan Blair comes up with some of the best titles for paintings of anyone in contemporary art. A swirling, psychedelic, bleeding-with-color painting is dubbed: Yes. Basically. Well, No. Not Exactly. It’s Complicated. For the Most Part, Yes. For All Intents and Purposes. Simply Put, Yes, I Am in the Position I Am in Today, as Spiritual Advisor to Celebrities Like John Hamm and Cher, Because of the Social Currency I Levereged After Defecting From Mitchell Solieri and the Holy Rollers in 2012 and Selling My Story to Us Weekly, but, No, I Don’t Feel I Have Profited From Solieri’s White Nationalist Agenda. But, Yes, Naturally I Have Benefited From White Supremacy in General by Virtue of Being White. How Else Could I Have Gotten Paleo-Enron Into Princeton? That is the title of a painting. And there is something very genuine about it. 

The NYC-based Blair just opened a new solo show, I'm Holding a Sword. And an Axe. I'm Gonna Do Nothing., on view at The Hole NYC through October 20th. Working with airbrush and sand or a matte medium, Blair layers abstractions and rearranges material almost like a sculptor preparing work for 3D, and yet the elements bend and blend onto a canvas as if coming to life. And, what to make of those titles? They feel like ruminations from the artist, who possesses a healthy sense of humor, but also a subconscious discussion that artists have with themselves in the studio during the creative process. Whether overhearing a podcast, reading a bit of text or even song lyrics, the works come to life as an ongoing dialogue between artist and finished work. It feels honest and playful, and with the density of the work already on display, Blair continues to make abstraction a fascinating process to delve into. 

Images via The Hole and Juxtapoz