Alex Gross, Spores, 2014

When asked about the meaning he intended to convey with this painting, Gross says “I like to let the viewer make their own interpretation of an image.” Fair enough. I feel that as viewers we become more involved and attached to an image when we have to spend time with it to deconstruct it – to find its meaning. I personally read into the scene that in a world marred by human activities and climate change, people in the future will be elated whenever they find something ‘natural.’

Gross goes on: “What I can tell you is that the main image originally was inspired by a poster I saw in Japan. The four people in Spores were based on the smiling, happy Western-looking people in that advertisement. The shit-eating grins were just so ridiculous that I had to snap a photo of the poster when I saw it. The actual spores in this piece are simply pollen spores magnified tremendously, but I think that they appear to be something much more sinister.”

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