My name is Gavin Sand. Painter and graphic artist. Abstract painter.
For me abstract art is seriously on its own terms. I choose an abstract form for my work, organic or conceptual, the first being more expressive, the second more minimal, non-objective.
I choose this modernist mode, abstraction, because I believe that, historically, modernism was the last moment when art wasn't about negation or futility;  that reflects the inherent optimism of the abstract tradition(I will come back to this subject).
My work is not a picture of modernism, or a pastiche of it, it is an exploration of formal relationships with the aim of creating a synthesis of differences. In formal terms, my painting, etchings and prints, are about vibrant colour contrasted with muted colour - light versus dark at some points, elsewhere a tonal similarity. Plus it's all done with a painterly application, so there is a constant play within geometric divisions of broken, slightly scrubby surfaces contrasted with flatter ones.