Yarrow Slaps
A Picture of Me, acrylic on wood panel, 18″ x 24″, 2017
Casino, acrylic on canvas, 40″ x 50″, 2017
Fanism, oil and acrylic on canvas, 50″ x 55″, 2017
Escapism #1, acrylic on wood panel, 25″ x 25″, 2018
Escapism #2 (The Desert), acrylic on wood panel, 25″ x 25″, 2018
Girbaud Series #1, acrylic on paper, 8″ x 12″, 2017
Artist Statement
I am focused currently on “escapism.” I feel that now more than ever people just want to escape. Time is moving fast, and everyone is on the grind. My upcoming body of paintings, each coming with a short story, aims to put everyday people into environments that might seem foreign. My hope is that people will see these works and be able to take a fresh breath, contemplate, and be inspired to pursue their passions.
About the Artist
Born in 1990 into a family of artists, Yarrow Lazer-Smith, a.k.a. Yarrow Slaps, looked at an early age for ways to express himself in any way possible. First finding inspiration in music, he eventually gravitated to what he’d once turned away from: art. Through his paintings and drawings, he says, he strives to show the positive or good side of people.
A resident of San Francisco, exposed to multiple lifestyles and ways of thought that find outlet in his work, Yarrow Slaps paints portraits of people whom most others look down on—and paints them in a glorious, peaceful manner. “I am not trying to make people think a certain way about my art but to just show another way or side” of the individuals who engage him.
Intrigued with color, Yarrow Slaps thinks there are never enough colors to paint with and so uses in his art as many color schemes as possible, ordering them in an un-orderly way. He also seeks to approach art through his senses, drawing inspiration from, for example, his experience of weather or the sounds of nightlife. His work is a mix of high and low culture; it depicts not only diverse lifestyles but also a street aesthetic that makes his style unique and wholly his own.
Acrylics are Yarrow Slaps’s choice of medium, although he sometimes uses gouache, spray paint, and watercolors. He likes to work on canvas, wood panels, foam, and whatever else seems interesting or catches his eye.
Yarrow Slaps has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, primarily in San Francisco and Los Angeles. A show of his new paintings is scheduled in May 2018 at State Space Gallery in San Francisco. Also a curator, he plans to present “The Love Show” at San Francisco’s retail outpost and art gallery Park Life in July.
Among other activities, Yarrow Slaps is working on a cookbook, Ramen Forever, that will feature approximately 60 artists’ illustrated recipes.
Yarrow Slaps Feature at Juxtapoz
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