Trystan Bates: Creating Harmony in Chaos

Painter Trystan Bates has what many would consider a backwards process of creation. He will construct paintings only to destroy them upon completion, ripping fragments from canvas or other mediums to later put them back together. He has drawn attention in the art world for this unusual style of visual deconstruction and consequential reconstruction.
At first glance, some viewers are confused by his work — is it a collage or painting? In essence, it’s both. The fragments from paintings he’s done are again collected, taken from piles to be put back together again.  His collages are meticulously constructed from these pieces, and often Bates uses tweezers in order to place the scraps directly where he needs them on canvas. Bates specializes in both abstract and portrait work. His abstracts vary in patterns and shape but all share the same bright splash of colors. Likewise, his portraits combine unusual mixes of color to create faces and bodies that, while disjointed, still give off the feeling of being imperfectly whole. His creative decision to leave negative space, patches of blank, white canvas, helps to better fill in interrupted congruencies in their stark appearance. The lopsided features and use of color are additionally reminiscent of 20th century painter Pablo Picasso, as one of the originators of cubism. The cubism style also relies on analyzing figures in a work as individual entities with particular focus on shape. As a later offshoot of Picasso’s style, synthetic cubism was formed in the early 1900’s, a development that would create the first use of collage in fine art. Bates obviously borrows from his predecessors in this sense by using collage as a means to translate his pieces into fine art. His reasoning for doing so is to challenge the viewers to find a moment of solidarity in the disorder. He offers this explanation on his personal website: “My work and progress is centered largely around the construction of something new out of something which has been destroyed. It is about the possibility of creating something coherent out of a pile of otherwise unconnected and useless fragments.

For me, the process of creating a painting only to destroy it and then later reassemble it into something else is a journey of discovery and an organic process that mirrors the necessity for humanity to look for and focus on moments of beauty, clarity, positivity and light within chaos.” This specific theme unifies his work, creating a sense of uniformity in what otherwise may seem like a disorganized collection.  Bates originally found work after graduating from Parsons School of Design in his native New York City. His professional career began as a sales associate for Salvador Dali prints and watercolors, after which he spent time working as the Creative Coordinator at the Felissimo Design House. Throughout this time he continued to create his own pieces as a freelance artist. After working and selling internationally for years in New York, he decided to relocate his studio to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2005. The distinct change in scenery and energy prompted him to form a group of local, exceptionally talented artists to create an urban and contemporary art collective known as Honeycomb. With Bates serving as the Creative Director, the group specializes in cross-cultural exchange and artistic experimentation. According to Honeycomb’s website, on which twenty eight artists are now featured, it strives to, “do its part to counteract the negative effects of contemporary art on the environment while promoting extraordinary artists.” Bates now spends half of the year working in Buenos Aires, with the other half devoted to his studio based out of New York City. Trystan Bates’ dedication to create unique pieces while paying homage to the likes of Picasso is a refreshing take on contemporary art. And with his ability to balance his inspiration between Argentina and New York, viewers will always have exciting pieces to look forward to.

– Melissa Cruz