Northern Virginia-based artist Frank E. Ballato iii, together with skull blood (a family collaborative group) showcases two series of paintings: reMIXed and skull blOOd, Album I: WHICH-HOWL-EYEBALL.

reMIXed is a series based on exploration of childlike thoughts and images fused into adult concerns combining playful layers of cynicism and idealism. Each painting tells a story operating as a compressed system of meanings. Images stacked, interrupted, and recontextualized resulting in spaces where nostalgia and absurdity can co-exist.  The structure of the work is intentionally overloaded. They mimic the way information, history, and identity are fragmented leaving us in a complicated resolution. 

skull blOOd is a family collaboration series, formed from an imaginary band my oldest son created when he was five.  The band never came to fruition.  This body of work proceeds like the lost album from the band that never existed. Each painting a track; each image a lyric.  The paintings are fragmented from desire, discipline, and disregard for rules.  Rock-and-roll, where glamour is trained, chewed and performed. This exhibition asks: what does it mean to be well-trained in a culture of display? Like a song stuck on repeat, these images linger: seductive, grotesque, and strangely familiar.