Gage Hamilton, a fine artist and muralist living in Portland, Oregon, seeks to capture the detachment of the modern human experience. Voids, walls, ropes and drops figure prominently in his work, as do themes of falling, restraint and letting go. In the series B.Y.E., Hamilton responds to a year of collective spiritual death with a vibrant, joyful absurdism, representing the cognitive dissonance of the current American psyche and an embrace of positive nihilism. 

The works were created immediately following the artist’s own bout with Covid-19 and extended isolation, amid messages of low case numbers, increasing vaccine access, and miraculous progress in social and political unity. Paradoxically, this messaging was mixed with alarming news of racial, institutional, public health, and economic crisis. Hamilton responds with an exploration in toxic positivity. 

A clear departure from years of dark monochromatic work, B.Y.E. juxtaposes a blue period of objects meant to block and contain, over warm gradients of a glowing haze beyond. Structured in a simplified cell narrative, the viewer is confronted with obstacle after obstacle in the effort to escape isolation and satisfy their desire for human connection.  Ultimately we discover that the only communities that remain are cheerful doomsday cults excitedly awaiting your arrival. The viewer is left to consider which is worse, solitude or these people. 

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