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Richard Medina
Why has there been no revolutionary development of
abstract painting since the 1980s?
How can we resume (re-exhume) process-based
abstraction from its living death?
How do we rescue abstract painting from the Zombie’s
clutches?
The Zombie is un-killable and thus un-revivable; it is
undead, beyond life or death.
The Zombie achieved its immortality by advancing the
Modernist project of innovation in smaller and smaller
units (e.g. the first ever painting made with a fire-
extinguisher), effectively halting painting’s life/death in a
Zeno-like paradox of motion.
The Zombie ruptured painting’s linear historicity in a self-
negating, self-obliterating way that ultimately upheld
Modernist logic. It consumed itself: a runaway diesel
engine.
Is there a way to rupture the Modernist cycle of continuous
death and rebirth in a way that doesn’t ultimately return to
‘the tradition of the new’?
A new turn in painting: not just in the opposite direction but
into a new dimension. Instead of north, we head up,
refusing the Modernist dialectic altogether.
Since the Zombie is representative of the shambling,
slowing down, and overheating of Modernist innovation, I
have chosen the Phantasm as the figurehead of this
speculative future.
The Phantasm, or ghost, exists on a spectral dimension
and is able to phase through solid objects such as the
Modernist trap of innovation.
The Zombie and the Phantasm do not intersect as the
Phantasm glides on a higher plane of existence. The
Zombie remains earthbound, decomposing as it searches
for the remaining things that haven’t “already been done.”
The Phantasm is not driven by a hunger for innovation at
all. It only knows ectoplasm—and abstraction.
Phantasmic Formalism is an imaginary kind of painting.
It is unreal, spectral, fantastic.
It is hopeful — as opposed to cynical.
It is honest — as opposed to deceptive.
It is credulous — as opposed to skeptical.
It is genuine — as opposed to simulated.
It is mystical — as opposed to scientific.
It believes in paint and does not negate or disguise its
materiality.
It believes in flatness, and does not give into impulses to
sculpturize.
It is formalist AND sincere.
It is visually experimental AND faithful to its medium.
It is smart AND dumb.
It is the innovation that is the anti-innovation, the anti-
zombie, the ghost in the machine.
Phantasmic Formalism doesn’t exist right now, and may
never. It is an asymptote, an unreachable ideal.
It is an appeal for painters to think very carefully once the
art world swings back around to abstraction.
It is a demand to ghost Modernism: to leave it on read.
BOO
Richard Medina is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He has exhibited at Heaven Gallery, Union Street Gallery, Robert T. Wright Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. In 2016 Richard was awarded the Jeffrey Ahn, Jr. Fellowship. He served as the Biennial Committee Co-Chair for the nonprofit organization Terrain Exhibitions, and directed the Terrain Biennial 2019. He holds a BFA with Distinction from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2021) and is currently pursuing his MFA in Studio Art at New York University (2026). His work explores post-internet phenomena through process-based collage and abstraction. www.richardmedina.com
published May 22, 2025