Real Estate Paintings

Every decade a body of work emerges that completely embodies the spirit of it’s age – Warhol, Basquiat, Ruscha. David Florimbi similarly relays the sense of this time and this place in both literal and conceptual terms. For his new series he calls Real Estate, Florimbi has painted scenes that work ostensibly as pictures of land and houses for sale, many with ad banners that often accompany photos of listings in the real estate section. But they are also profound, often ironic comments on a vanishing landscape. “I have always been fascinated by real estate ads. They appear to offer little windows into the many different faces of the American dream”, says Florimbi. “Inside these windows are language and pictures that describe different realities. What often captures my attention are the little ironies between the language of the ad and the ad’s accompanying image. For instance, an image of a vast expanse of ocean and a banner that reads, ‘Available’ makes me wonder what exactly is available.” Florimbi begins with an original painting in oil depicting a house for sale or a field feauring three cows grazing in a pasture. He then copies his own work digitally on canvas or paper, painting over the digital copy -- in essence rendering the original a copy, and the copy an original. But what is also essential here, he alters the original image of the three cows in the pasture so that only one remains, the others linger as ghost-like pentimentos. This not only makes for a beautiful image, but it works as a metaphor for a vanishing  American landscape; land sold and transformed from pasture and farm to mini-mall and house tracts. “The idea that paintings have functioned to advertise the land is actually an old one dating back to the mid eighteen hundreds”, says Florimbi of the historical context of his work. “Emanuel Leutze’s painting and title“Westward Ho, the Course of Empire Takes It’s Way,” may be viewed as perhaps a giant billboard that advertises the ‘American Dream.’ Considering the US government commissioned the painting for that very purpose we could perhaps call it the first real estate ad, the romantic visionary accompaniment to the government’s ideology of Manifest Destiny. In my series, I playfully investigate the issues of what is in fact for sale. What is being bought and sold? What does one actually own when one buys real estate?”