JAY MCDERMOTT

Jay McDermott’s work primarily explores the graphic qualities of hard edged abstraction. He is concerned with the formal aspects of a painting - color, gesture, shape, balance, and line - which guide the piece into something he could not have fully planned.

Each painting evolves through a kind of conversation, where emotion anchors the work but rarely in a singular way. Images shift, overlap, and settle into forms that are often abstract. Human figures sometimes appear, with some ambiguity of interpretation. Abstraction allows him to hold onto that ambiguity. It creates space for both himself and the viewer to engage more freely, to find meaning that is not fixed but felt. Ultimately, the work has to carry a sense of energy and openness. There is a kind of joy in making, an element of play that feels essential.