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Black & White · 2024
Mapping the Abstract Cosmos
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
The cosmos mapped in monochrome — black and gray carrying the whole cartography, with red, yellow and blue surfacing only where something needed marking.
“Cosmos' gathers fragments of the moment and renders them eternal in layered abstraction.”
Cosmos (2024) is a painting about vastness — not of space, but of thought. Created in oil on a 60 x 60 inch canvas as part of the The Pulse of Black collection, this work uses restrained monochrome to gesture toward infinity. It is both meditative and charged — a silent hum across darkness.
The surface appears at first glance to be black — but closer inspection reveals a galaxy of texture: deep blues, ashy gray streaks, soft chalk lines that float and vanish. A faint circular motion guides the eye inward, like a distant planet emerging from the void. It is a painting meant for quiet rooms and quiet minds.
I painted Cosmos as a response to inner silence — the kind that doesn’t feel empty, but alive. The kind that holds questions rather than answers. Its darkness isn’t despairing. It’s full of breath.
This piece resonates with the sensibilities of Vija Celmins and Pierre Soulages, who both treat darkness not as absence, but as presence. Like them, I trust that black can be more than final — it can be the beginning.
Cosmos doesn’t try to explain the universe. It tries to mirror the space within it.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 8 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 9 ft or more
- Light
- Any lighting — monochrome palette is lighting-agnostic
- Daylight
- Charcoal and spectral gray carry it, so the color holds in any daylight. Bright direct sun can flatten the darkest field; the smoky red and teal accents surface best in soft, even light.
Lives best in
Hotel lobby 5/5
The dark gloss surface catches lobby light from any angle, and the inward-turned expansion of the cartographic field gives arriving guests something to read slowly, then read again.
Office 5/5
The monochromatic discipline of the palette holds its ground under fluorescent or LED light alike, and the cartographic structure gives a focused mind something purposeful to rest on between tasks.
Details
- Size
- 5 × 5 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Oil and Acrylic on canvas
- Year
- 2024
- Collection
- Black & White
- Palette
- Dark Gloss · Charcoal Gray · Spectral Gray · Smoky Red · Teal · Metallic
- Weight
- About 45 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 6–8 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Spur
- Texture3
- Form3
- Colour range3
- Palette2.8
- Contrast3.1
- Abstraction Quotient2.5
