Francis Offman’s paintings and wall pieces are informed by abstraction and the narrative use of a wide variety of materials. The artist layers and collages leftover papers, coffee grinds, Bologna gypsum, concrete, and fabrics to create complex surfaces. His works, sometimes in large formats, are not held by stretcher frames or other support structures, and so their intricate compositions are surrounded by an aura of fragility. The abstract visual idiom is defined by the imbrication of forms and materials, of irregular contours and planes that stand out from their surroundings yet are woven into them in diverse ways.

Offman works on individual pieces over extended periods of time. His creative process begins with collecting the materials which are gifted to him or which he finds, and includes a probing study of their various dimensions: the artist undertakes research into their manufacture, circulation, and historic contexts of use or explores their physical qualities and processes in hands-on experiments. Some procedures serving to prepare the materials for use even influence Offman’s timing of certain activities. For instance, given the humid climate in Bologna, where the artist works, the best time to apply the coffee grinds to the various support media is the summer.

In light of the manifold ties that bind the materials he uses to the individual people who were involved in their production and to the histories of their regions of provenance, Offman sees his mediums as bridges between places and points in time. As a vehicle of memories and experiences, Bologna gypsum, for example, attests to Italian painters’ centuries-old deep knowledge about their supplies; coffee, meanwhile, speaks to European pleasure and African production in (post-)colonial settings. Concrete, finally, is both the substance that separates us from the living soil under our feet and the surface against which victims of racist violence in Europe and the U.S. find themselves pressed.

Offman’s wall pieces and installations are quiet. Rather than shouting out the experiences, recollections, and narratives stored up in them as readily decodable references, they are an invitation to linger, to look closely and retrace interconnections. Material processes then become processes of engagement between work and audience that have the potential to leave a lasting imprint.