F of J

Mike Cloud’s F of J hangs from a wooden dowel, suspended by a pink leather belt. Constructed from broken and exposed canvas stretcher bars, the work combines areas of abstraction with painted and written text–letters, phrases, and names, including those of individuals who died by hanging. Part of the artist’s Hanging series, F of J embodies his approach to painting as both an object and a method of inquiry. For Cloud, the freedom to break the limits of a painting’s construction is interwoven with mortality. “Painting tends to resemble death,” the artist has said, “in its transcendent, portal-like qualities.”