Coast Of California

Josh M. G. Yates is a difficult artist to pin down. His body of work is as varied as Coast Of California’s brushstrokes. He ranges from pop-art skulls that bring to mind Andy Warhol's work of the 1970s, circular meditations on the cyclical nature of existence, and highly gestural and frenetic abstract painting like Coast Of California (which still has traces of cryptic figuration peering through the abstract mark-making). In the spirit of this aesthetic diversity, the present work is more unique than universal. He does not choose colors or forms that immediately evoke the beach. He translates his experience—the emotional and visual impact California’s coasts have on him—into an abstract reverie that sweeps up the viewer and immerses them in calm and complimentary colors. It grabs one's attention without being demanding, and it does so in a permanent way. Coast Of California is a painting that does not ask much from the viewer but gives them long-lasting satisfaction.