Typoe’s Latest Work Balances Childlike Wonder With the Macabre

A larger-than-life neon sculpture radiates light as cold raindrops hit the pavement. The piece features the outline of a hand with its index finger extended, holding up a bar where a pink skull and black raven rest. The artwork is displayed proudly at the entrance of Primary gallery in Little River, a remnant of the artist Typoe's last solo show at the space.

Gearing up to open his second solo show with the gallery on Friday, January 31, Typoe is hard at work at Primary. He stands surrounded by freshly hung pieces, while others lay on the ground awaiting their final placement. Off to a corner is a black plastic table with a leveler, boxes of nails, and a nail gun.

Titled "Living Form Dying Ground," Typoe's latest exhibition, featuring 27 new works by the 41-year-old artist, will remain on view through March 1.

The seed of the work began in isolation. For eight months, Typoe retreated to his studio — mere blocks from the gallery he co-owns and co-operates with Books Bischof and Cristina Gonzalez — and took pencil to paper. What emerged were hundreds of doodles and stream-of-consciousness designs that inspired what he'd ultimately put to canvas. Aside from the two sculptures in the show, the pieces are colored pencil or charcoal on wood or canvas.

"I'm using these mediums because I like the material to sort of match the idea a bit," says Typoe, crossing his leg as he sinks into a cream-colored couch, his all-black attire in stark contrast.

For the last decade, the artist has been inspired by childhood psychology and the work of German educator Friedrich Fröbel, who is credited for inventing kindergarten.

"The sculptures are made out of wood, referencing the wooden blocks we'd play with as kids," he tells New Times. "And the paintings are made with pencils because that's what I used when I was a child. I am just approaching it in a different way than when I was a child," he adds with a boyish grin.
Typoe is fascinated by the stories we tell ourselves to fill in the blanks. Much of his work explores what gets left behind. When you're driving down the street and see a pair of abandoned shoes, he says anecdotally, you may ask yourself what happened to the person who owned those shoes. "You're left with this sort of weird, eerie feeling," he says. "And, to me, that's a lot of what this show is."

Looking back on his childhood, the Miami native says he's realized that to remember the good, you can't forget the bad. "It wasn't just one of two things, it's all about the balance of both."

He first explored these concepts in his 2016 show, "Forms from Life," at the Faena, which featured giant building blocks. Since then, he's continued to produce art that lives in that same world, including his public art piece at the Underline and his site-specific "To Live is to Die" sculpture at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

He's been developing these forms for the better part of ten years, and with each new piece, show, and commission, he evolves the narrative and continues the conversation at a natural pace.

"You can sort of follow the work from the last decade from the beginning to now," he reflects. "There haven't been massive jumps, but the work just grows and ninja rolls into the next one."

In the past, he'd give himself parameters when creating, particularly with his building blocks — the work needed to be precise. For "Living Form Dying Ground," he allowed himself more freedom and flexibility.

"Nothing is pre-drawn, nothing is predetermined. I just start kind of building this world," he says. "As I'm doing this, I'm thinking about the world around me, and I start flowing and creating shapes...trying to get lost inside of that world and then seeing what comes out."

The show's largest piece, measuring 52x72, took more than 1,000 hours to complete. In the painting of what appears to be an old abandoned park, Typoe juxtaposes bright and happy colors with macabre themes of abandonment and death.

He walks up to the piece and stares for a moment. "A theme park was once a fun place, full of life and energy. But what happens once we're gone? It starts getting overgrown, there's vandalism, and then it becomes a whole new host of things — almost like a dead world."

Typoe's "Living Form Dying Ground." Opens 5 p.m. Friday, January 31 at Primary, 7410 NW Miami Ct., Miami; 954-296-1675; thisisprimary.com. On view Thursdays and Fridays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays 12-4 p.m., or by appointment through Saturday, March 1.