Andrew Norris Brings ALL I EVER WATNED WAS TO KISS THE SUN to Bermudez Projects

In his debut Los Angeles solo show at Bermudez Projects, Richmond, Virginia-based Andrew Norris reflects on the spectacle of celebrity and the vicarious experience of loneliness and queer longing in All I Ever Wanted Was to Kiss the Sun. 

Norris’ work is primarily informed by his lived experience as a queer Appalachian, specifically the isolation he felt growing up in East Tennessee and the escapism he found in pop-culture and fantasy worlds. Norris often references imagery from The Wizard of Oz to evoke this isolation, as well as a way to explore the journey of leaving Appalachia.

In All I Ever Wanted Was to Kiss the Sun, Norris confronts his childhood ambitions of escaping his Appalachian home for a queer metropolis. Pop-culture icons Orville Peck, Trixie Mattel, and Lil Nas X serve as representations of queer success stories that reclaim Country Culture. Through rose-colored glasses and blue moonlight, these figures roam the poppy fields seen throughout Norris' paintings; traversing the pathless-path towards The Emerald City and all it represents for the artist.

“Treating his heroes as true legends from Hollywood's Golden Age, Andrew ‘dips’ each character in hyper-saturated, monochromatic landscapes worthy of any Technicolor film. The result is a reimagining of classical themes that run the gamut of aspiration, yearning, and acceptance,” says gallery director Julian Bermudez. 

Do these heroes find success or is the journey towards it far more important? Like Icarus, will they fly too close to the sun?

“I would say that they are still seeking success. And, that they are comfortable with not finding it,” says Norris. 

Andrew Norris (b. 1993, Tennessee) creates figurative oil paintings that explore how the often-disparaged forms of Americana and heartland kitsch can be recharged as instruments through which to generate and explore queer identities. 

He received his BFA in Studio Art at East Tennessee State University in 2016 and his MFA in Painting from the University of Florida in 2021. Norris is an Adjunct Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and Assistant Professor at Virginia State University. He has been in group exhibitions at Field Projects, NY; Harn Museum of Art, FL; and Miami University, OH. He has work in the collection of the Tom of Finland Foundation and has been included in New American Paintings, MFA Annual Issue #153. The artist lives and works in Richmond, Virginia.