Xavier Baxter's canvases display abstract, iconic figures conjured through vigorous, textural paint marks - a singular approach to figuration, unique to the artist's visual rhetoric and his fascination with the swirling energies of expression. Tangled, anthropomorphic subjects transform across his paintings into pure, mesmerizing movements. Their knotted extremities seem tied to a strange centrifugal force, pulling arms, heads, and legs inwards, as figures attempt to defy the boundaries of the canvas. Cumulative depth ensures they dominate the composition, simultaneously grounding and suspending them in space.

Baxter's approach to painting begins by mark marking which evolves into line drawings of human forms and body parts, squeezed into the rectangular space of the canvas. These figures swiftly mutate into channels for an obsessive exploration of paint potentials. He encompasses all the intensities, materials, and mediums - the thickest and the thinnest lines, smashing strokes and gentle touches, spray paints, pigment sticks and chalks, scrapers, pallet knives, various sized brushes, along with hand smeared marks. The initial actions are continuously reworked until they exist merely as dynamic gestural postures. Many of these figurative poses are inspired by the old masters - Delacroix, Rubens, Titian. When observed closely, they fade away, merging into the bold colors. In a reversal of the conventional layering of a composition, Baxter's figures precede and even dictate the environment that they come to inhabit.

Baxter has described his position of engagement with his works as "innocently free": an experience of joy he traces back to the beauty of his childhood drawings. The intersection of his figures challenges the imagined and prescribed constraints of identity. Vibrant magentas, blues, greens, and yellows serve not as a means of describing reality, but as a way of actively resisting the viewer's instinct to assign established classifications to the figures, they are void of gender and race.

"My wish is to create a figure who is unique, my own, and to conjure an icon which I consider to be. mine", states Baxter. Fixed only by the limits of Baxter's arm span, figures merge, overlap, squirm, and collapse through movements that enable multiple readings. New elements, marks, and color combinations appear with each glance. We, as viewers, craft our own narratives, trapped into the abundance of Baxter's highly emotional material. He hits us hard from the distance and brings us nearer into his personal ordeal of color and feelings.

Xavier Baxter creates abstract, iconic figures on canvas with the texture of vibrant brushstrokes. The figures, created with the artist's mesmerizing technique, seem to swirl with energy. The anthropomorphic figures are in mesmerizing motion and seem to be intertwined with each other. The connected bodies seem to pull each other's arms, heads, and legs inward as if by centrifugal force, creating the visual effect of the figures moving beyond the boundaries of the canvas. The strongly applied lines create a sense of depth and stability, and the figures are closely integrated with the canvas.

Baxter's approach to painting begins with "marks" on the canvas, which are line drawings of human forms and body parts squeezed into a rectangular space. These shapes are then painted with different colors, revealing new forms. The thickest lines have a rough, strong brushstroke, while the thinner lines that contrast with the thicker lines have a softer brushstroke. Throughout the process, Baxter uses a variety of methods, including spray paint, stick pigments and chalk, scrapers, palette knives, brushes of various sizes, and hand smearing. Baxter continues to work until the figure is transformed into a dynamic gestural pose. Many of the artist's figurative poses are inspired by old masters such as Delacroix, Rubens, and Titian. However, he doesn't follow a traditional approach to composition. Upon closer inspection, the lines of the figures fade away and are instead overwhelmed by intense colors. By subverting traditional compositions, the artist's figures allow us to step back in time and encounter the figures of the old masters in his own way.

Baxter describes his work as 'purely free'. He experienced the joy of discovering beauty through drawing as a child, and his intersecting figures are a challenge to stereotypical images, normative constraints. The figures are depicted in bright, cheerful purples, blues, greens, and yellows, and the artist actively resists the viewer's instinct to assign pre-determined meanings to the figures; his figures are genderless and raceless.

"My desire is to create a unique, personalized figure within the work, and that is what I consider an icon," he says. The figures, fixed only by the width of the artist's arm, overlap, wriggle and collapse in movements that can be read in multiple contexts. Each gaze reveals new elements, marks, and color combinations. We, as viewers, are fascinated by the richness of Baxter's sensitive material, creating another narrative for us. He intensely draws us into his personal experiential world of color and emotion.