Filip Lav
Bio: Filip Lav was born in Vienna, Austria, with family roots in Macedonia. He received a BFA from Oxford University. Lav currently lives and works in New York and Vienna, making sculptures and paintings.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: In Evolutionary Biology the theory of the ‘meme’ postulates that ideas infect, spread, and morph across history in a manner similar to genes interacting within the human body. I feel that the most immediate way these ideas caught root and spread in the human world was in the form of symbols. These were ancient technologies that oftentimes contained a deep-seated potential to spread like wild fire throughout human lifetimes and ages, containing potential to cause both utter havoc or peace in the world. It fascinates me that these symbols morphed visually and meaning-wise throughout time. In using symbols and placing them inside the bodies that I create, I draw connections between the function of the meme and 1960’s counterculture, and further, between how something personal and internal can in fact be simply a blind product of Evolution’s natural selection.
L to R: The Hipster (88˝× 49˝× 25˝, Spray paint on plywood sheet, spandex tote bag, metal tube, cardboard, 2015); Untitled (50˝× 16˝× 93, Spray paint, acrylic on plywood sheet, pencil on paper, metal wire, candle, paper, bricks, 2015)