In Theoretical Paintings, Syd Krochmalny turns painting into a space where language and image fold back on themselves to think—and to make us think—about the nature of art, authorship, and the agency of objects. The series begins with short, sharp phrases that function as theses: “ART MAKES YOU PERFORM,” “THE THING THINKS ITSELF,” “SHANZHAI.” More than illustrations, they are conceptual propositions embodied in color, texture, and composition.

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These works bridge the history of text painting—from Ed Ruscha to Barbara Kruger—with contemporary object-oriented philosophies, from Bruno Latour to Graham Harman, which dissolve the divide between subject and object, nature and culture. Here, words do not describe the painting; they are the painting. The canvas is not a passive support but an active agent that generates meaning, action, and affect.

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The project dialogues with conceptual art’s legacy while grounding itself in materiality and context: from the imagery of Chinese shanzhai—copies, appropriations, and reproductions that subvert the Western notion of originality—to the notion of art’s performativity as a force that shapes behaviors, roles, and scenes. In these paintings, language becomes color, color becomes thought, and thought becomes a visual device that, in the best theoretical tradition, remains open, unsettling, and generative.