20 x 20 cm When Basquiat's 'Untitled (skull)' painting sold for a record-breaking sum in 2017, it prompted me to look again at the language of his work: the crowns; fractured heads; text fragments; boxing references; and the raw urgency of his mark-making. One painting in particular resonated - it featured the comic book heroes Superman, Batman & Robin, and the Lone Ranger. As a boy, I was obsessed with Superman comics and constantly copied drawings of him in flight... so the urge to borrow Basquiat’s freedoms and reintroduce these iconic figures into my own painting was too strong to resist and I found that I revelled in the expressive licence he allowed himself... ...So much so that, from time to time, I've returned to the subject to channel my inner street-cool kid from the Upper East Side (Lochee)…
