Positive Obsession: Drawings by Basil Kincaid

On view Mar. 28 through Oct. 26, 2025

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Join us at the Nerman Museum for our public artists talk and opening reception with Amy Kligman and Basil Kincaid on March 27, 2025, from 6 to 8 p.m. RSVP to receive livestream link.

Basil Kincaid, A Trail of Choices (detail), 2023, oil pastel, crayon, colored pencil on Arches hot press 100% cotton rag paper, 14 x 10 in. Courtesy the Artist

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Drawing is my artistic baseline.
It’s the primary instrument in the orchestra of my art practice.
From childhood, drawing has been my place of peace and the epicenter of my world-building.
Drawing teaches me how to see, while calibrating my inner eye, my hand, my heart, and my outer eyes.

Drawing is where I first remember feeling totally free.
It’s where I got validation as a kid. I was a quiet and reserved child. Within that silence lay a blossoming realm of abstraction, ethereal figuration, a potent reality of shape, color, and understanding.

Drawing is my mirror.
It helps me see and understand myself. Much like calisthenics, it is always with me. I can always practice my observational eye and my imaginative perception, even without paper record.

Drawing is my way of navigating reality and one tool I employ in manifesting future realities.
I think of drawing like praying. It’s an act of gratitude. It’s a space where I shrink and expand simultaneously, while time melts and the universe mimics my motion.

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I’m obsessed with the feelings: the pen, the oil, the pencil, dancing on the paper. The feeling of the paper on the blade of my hand. The patience, the trust, the visualization coming to life. I’m obsessed with how drawing feels, and how that feeling evolves.

The persistence to see what I’m capable of and what will come out of me is a development of my adulthood. As a kid, it was equal parts fun and frustration—the challenge to get it to come out, the desire to grow, and the willingness to play.

There’s also a curiosity. At 7, I remember thinking, “I wonder what my drawings will look like when I’m 21…”

My influences in drawing started with cartoons, 90s anime, graffiti, and concept design for my favorite games. I also remember fingering the encyclopedia and drawing things that caught my eye. I’ve always loved drawing flowers. My interests evolved to include observational drawing of nature and the human figure from life.

Historically, I’m most interested in the drawings of Ingres, Aaron Douglas, Remedios Varo, and the drawings of the ukiyo-e period. Philosophically, I’m aligned with what Octavia Butler details in her essay “Furor Scribendi.” Drawing is discipline, is resilience, is urgency, is expression.

And with this expression—this first exhibition of drawings since my undergraduate thesis, “Senutu” (see-new-too,) where I featured 108 black and white drawings—I’m presenting several of my most recent drawings from 2023 and 2024. Positive Obsession honors the 16-year path I’ve traveled that connects these presentations.

While I feel a deep personal connection to drawing, I do not think of it as a talent. The continual repetition is what animates the practice. 16+ years makes it a practice. Anyone can develop physical prowess through calisthenics; anyone can develop their eye through drawing. Few endeavor endlessly into the pursuit.

—Basil Kincaid