Ned Vena

Ned Vena defines his Garvey ink pieces as an attempt to 'make two separate paintings with one gesture'. Combining his love of graffiti and the paintings of Frank Stella, Vena employs the products of commercial art to move beyond the confines of abstraction. After gradually developing his method through trial and error, Vena arrived at a process that balances reproducibility with an element of chance. The final works are made by stretching two canvases over the same support, layering them with a geometric stencil, and dousing them in industrial ink. Once the vibrant pigment has set, the vinyl is removed roughly and the two canvases separated. The result is two distinct works from a single gesture.