Profile

Andrew Strassner is a multifaceted abstract contemporary artist born and raised in Los Angeles where he continues to work out of his studio in Los Feliz. He holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design and an MFA in Clinical Psychology. Much of Andrew’s work explores this relationship to our psyche and our own subjective reality. He investigates the dynamic between ones conscious and unconscious mind. This examination of the ordered and disordered parts of ourselves manifests in his work through the the containment of abstraction. On one hand he has elements of hard edge work reminscient of Frank Stella’s ‘Scrambles’ interwoven with distressed and colorful line work evoking a sense of order amongst the chaos.

 

The artist feels most of life is walking this balance between chaos and order. In addition to growing up in a busting city, he draws from much of his experience of feeling out of control as a child with a learning disability, and later an adult with substance issues, to eventually finding order and balance through sobriety and a steadfast meditation practice. He constantly tempts himself with the lure of perfectionism, but harnesses the inevitable reality that it is always out of reach, with the inclusion of many intentional blemishes and rough areas, he gives the work a rough, yet contained feel. His work aims to embrace the untamed raw nature of life itself, while paying tribute to our thin grasp of control over reality.