Tad Greenwald was born in Dallas, Texas in 1999. He received his BFA in Drawing from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Spring of 2021. His first solo exhibition Marathon, Texas was held in the MICA Student Space Gallery Virtual Exhibition Space. Greenwald has also exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including Ephemera(lity) at the Ro2 Art Gallery in Dallas, Texas and Art.Write.Now.2018 National Exhibition at the Parsons School of Design in New York, New York.
Statement
Through sensitive renderings of the American West and the solitary vehicles that define its landscape, I seek to give these transitory scenes an opportunity for observation. With fierce objectivity, I create portraits of decrepit cars and trucks I find across Texas, interested in the fractured narratives that develop when a singular moment is suspended in time. The isolated vehicles are in overgrown driveways, tucked inside garages, and at the edge of fields, devoid of any human presence. For me, they act as signs of habitation — with them one imagines the people who own(ed) them. As lonely as they seem, these romanticized figures are at home in their environments that echo their existence; monumental yet ephemeral through the contrasting depth and frailty of watercolor. Oftentimes, the work walks a line between intimacy and distance, reinforced by its small, postcard-like size which brings a sense of meditation and voyeurism. Yet, there is still an undeniable distance provided by the unobtrusive perspective, appearing at once private and abandoned, warm and isolated. While the paintings are based on photographs of specific locations, I am equally grappling with the psyche of the greater landscape; the poetic dilapidation of a country touched by man but ruled by nature. I believe that these cars — monolithic land-yachts rusting across the countryside — are what’s left of the American cowboy mystique.