Colin Elmer is a New York-based artist whose work investigates how humans attempt to control and interpret the natural world. With a background in Communication Design (BFA, Parsons School of Design) Elmer works across drawing, painting and experimental publishing to deconstruct the boundaries between writing, image and movement.
Elmer takes apart image and form by leaving mediums exposed, utilizing transparent materials, and emphasizing process over resolution in artworks that engage with traditional art-historical subjects. By revealing the scaffolding of image making, he deconstructs it to its rawest form of communication. Central to his practice is the idea of mark-making as a form of language. He treats non-semantic writing, gestural line work, and the movements of humans and animals as interchangeable vocabularies. His visual language juxtaposes instinctive, organic marks with rigid structure, creating works that embrace tension and the instability of imposed structure. This contrast reflects his interest in how humans attempt to control the natural world, from the domestication of animals to the systems we use to assign meaning.