Photo by Nick Fancher
AARONTROYER82@GMAIL.COM
CV
Bio
Originally from Mansfield, Ohio, Aaron Troyer earned a BFA in painting from The Ohio State University in 2006. He has most recently displayed his paintings at Tin Whistle Gallery (Austin, TX), Telefonica (Tijuana, Mexico), Teros Gallery (San Diego, CA) and No Place Gallery (Columbus, OH). Aaron currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, daughter, and dog. He is represented by Brandt Gallery, also in Columbus.
Statement
I am interested in exploring themes of desperation and confusion through a playful, and slightly humorous lens. My aim is to create naturalistic spaces that feel both familiar and fantastical. By defying traditional perspectives and color schemes, while simultaneously embracing and distorting many well-worn landscape tropes, I can present a living world that is free from the restrictions of objective scenery. I seek to depict plants and biomes that embody moods and traits that are usually reserved for human subjects. Flowers are often presented as symbols of natural beauty, or in many cases, as benign decorations meant to "tie the room together". My work challenges this notion by placing an emotional weight onto the plants that centers them as the protagonist in a surreal conflict with both natural and unnatural forces. By pushing ourselves to assign human emotions to plants, we can better understand the devastating toll that we often unknowingly inflict upon the natural world.