The main theme found in my artwork is community. I am interested in how people use their relationships with one another to build on their own identity as well as to influence the behaviors of those around them. I use the aggravated playfulness of my large-scale oil pastel drawings to create archetypal portraits of specific individuals which when put together in groups portray segments of communities and their relationships with one another. I accomplishes this by using an accessible visual language along with refined organic forms, text, patterns and costuming to lure the viewer in and create a relationship with my work based on shared experience. I typically use a single pattern to unify a body of work and identify the overall theme of that community and then let the figures, objects and narratives define the individuals within that community. The humorous and empathetic allegories resulting from my creations may leave more questions than answers to these initial queries, but will surely offer entertaining comforts for my audience nonetheless.
Terrence Payne is a midwestern American artist residing in Minneapolis Minnesota. He has exhibited his work at galleries, universities and museums throughout the midwest and his work can be found in private, museum and corporate collections around the globe. Terrence’s artwork has received critical acclaim and recognition from Beautiful Decay, Juxtapoz, Dwell Magazine, Bust Magazine, It’s nice That, The Jealous Curator, Boooooom, and The Minneapolis Star Tribune to name a few. In the spring of 2002 Terrence founded what has become the longest running artists collective in Minneapolis called Rosalux Gallery. He has served as the leader of Rosalux since the beginning, helping many Minnesota artists realize their artistic ambitions and further their studio careers through their relationship with the gallery.