Avi Saliman

Mimetic Aces, 2020

~10” x ~11”
graphite, vellum
rubbing of the artist’s lucky charm (a small metal Ace-of-Spades he found on the floor of Circus Circus in Las Vegas in 2004)

Gradual Sudden, 2019

~4” x ~20” x ~2”
concrete brick, plastic wrap, eyebrow jewelry

Noise Island, 2021

12” x 9”
graphite, charcoal, oil stick, and embossing on bristol

Untitled, 2021

9” x 12”
graphite, charcoal, oil stick, and embossing on bristol

10 20 10 (WWTIFTR), 2021

~15’ x ~9’
xerox copies
repeating pattern made from taking a rubbing of the underside of a section of paint pulled up from the artist’s studio floor, xeroxed and tiled in 3 different orientations along the lines of where the artist’s partner’s bed sat in his now-uninhabited-not-yet-re-filled bedroom. This piece is currently still sitting on the floor as people view the apartment, I will try to retrieve and preserve it before the end of the lease.

Artist Statement

My work is mainly compiled of drawings and sculptures.  A key focus in my work is on contrasts and in-betweens; I attempt to create objects and images that seem to fall in between or outside of opposing concepts such as representation vs abstraction or preservation vs decay.  Repetition (as a technique as well as a concept) plays a large role in my work; I see it as being paradoxical, repetition creates all things yet is bound to repeat and often compound its faults as well.  Many of my drawings are created through a process of rubbing various objects/surfaces.  I’m interested in the histories, whether “real” or imagined, of the objects, and multiple of my works, aim to spark narratives unique to each encounter between the object and the viewer.  While I inject many personal stories and varied symbolic language, I aim primarily to propose other types of relationships to objects and images.