Frank Menchaca

Art authors worlds and worlds are made memorable through stories. Whether I am making a painting or composing music or writing, I try to imbue each thing with a story that elicits a sense of something else: a pause, a change in expectations, what’s going on here? I draw from sources that are recognizable—such as from religion or mythology—yet radiate with strangeness: narratives that can never be entirely known; disclosures that become new secrets.

The work of other artists that inspires me speaks in private languages or sings old tales in new keys. These include John Cage, John Graham, Joan Mitchell, and Francis Picabia.

Literature and music inform my approach not only to content but to structure in visual art and vice-versa: the narratives of painting change how I think about sound and language. I shuffle rhythms and through lines as various as those of Hans Hofmann, Willem DeKooning, Miles Davis, Swans, and Terry Riley.