ROSS BISBEE
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Title: (Non)Duality
Oil paint on six gessoed cradled panels
114 x 75 x 2 inches (W × H× D)
Forthcoming charity auction · Reserve: $100,000 USD
Supporting Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Auction dates and details yet to be announced.
About the painting
(Non)Duality is a play on the seemingly contradictory ideas of duality and nonduality existing simultaneously.
The painting invites us to consider apparent opposites: perfection and imperfection, beauty and damage, growth and decay, separation and wholeness.
These apparent opposites are not presented as mutually exclusive, but as interconnected aspects of the same experience.
The parentheses suggest that duality remains present within nonduality—and that what appears divided may, upon closer examination, belong to a greater whole.
Scale & Setting
(Non)Duality shown in a gallery setting
Maria Cristina, Ross’s exclusive sales agent, and Brian Lammi
at MKE Palmer Street, Team Lammi’s Milwaukee headquarters
A closer look
From a distance, this painting may appear clean, pristine, and nearly flawless. As the viewer moves closer, however, subtle imperfections begin to reveal themselves: small hairs or particles suspended in the varnish, unusual scuffs, uneven surfaces, and areas where the varnish has pooled.
These qualities were not overlooked. They were intentionally accepted as part of the painting.
The work loosely draws upon the spirit of the Japanese art of kintsugi, while departing from its traditional visual language. Rather than emphasizing damage with gold, I chose to leave the painting’s marks and irregularities exposed and unembellished.
For some viewers, these visible scars may be understood not as defects, but as evidence of a life lived—battered, weathered, and still beautiful.
What distance conceals
We often view people and their lives from a distance and imagine them to be complete, effortless, or perfect. Yet closer examination inevitably reveals complexity: flaws, struggles, private wounds, and experiences that may be deliberately concealed or simply go unnoticed.
Our imperfections and difficult experiences are not necessarily separate from what makes us beautiful. They may be precisely what gives us depth, character, and individuality—particularly when we are able to confront them, learn from them, and ultimately embrace them.
There will always be those who judge what does not conform to conventional expectations. Yet accepting what makes us different, or recognizing the growth made possible through hardship, can become an act of self-affirmation. What was once considered a weakness, a blemish, or a source of shame can instead become evidence of endurance and transformation.
(Non)Duality featured in Times Square, New York City — October 2013
Beyond Perfection
This painting has lived. It has been handled, altered, battered, and weathered. The marks of that life remain visible.
(Non)Duality rejects the pursuit of perfection as an impossible and often destructive ideal.
Life is not pristine, and the constant attempt to make it appear so can prevent us from experiencing it fully.
Some viewers may be unsettled by the painting’s irregular varnish, scars, and imperfect details. For others, those same qualities may be the very reason the work feels honest,
human, and worthy of love.
Ross Bisbee, Artist
ART & COMMUNITY
A painting with a purpose
Learn about the upcoming auction of (Non)Duality supporting Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
Interested in this painting?
Contact Maria, Ross’s sales agent, for further information or to arrange a private viewing.