Through his paintings John Phillip Abbott explores the relationship between text and image, blurring the boundaries between both. Words or short sentences organize his compositions with a grid-like structure and function as images rather than mere concepts. Made primarily with spray paint, they spell out semantic fields with a calligraphic vocabulary. Initially inspired by his personal experiences and past memories his diaristic words take on a more general meanings and invite viewers to understand them as images as well as universal ideas.
The artist pursues an endless experimentation with numerous techniques. Combining the use of acrylic brush and spray paint, stencils and masking tapes, prepared and raw canvases, John Phillip Abbott constantly reinvents conventional ways of paintings and introduces unexpected shifts between his graphic intentions and process related accidents.