Clayton Pond (b. 1941) was among the first artists to employ silkscreen printing in a fresh, distinctly personal way. His paintings and limited-edition silkscreen prints are immediately recognizable for their bright, cheerful colors and their compositional balance. Over the span of his career, his work has revealed a fascination with vibrant color interactions, and the infinite possibilities that color relationships present. Deviating from the expected and rejecting the conventional, his particular use of color offers the viewer a charming, idiosyncratic interpretation of the world.Pond’s subject matter ranges from immediate, domestic, and everyday surroundings to the outlandish, surreal, and fantastical, including his imagined perspective of outer space. His interpretations of the human condition evoke his unique sense of humor.Throughout his career, the artist has enjoyed depicting both literal images and abstractions, or “section paintings.” In a section painting, Pond enlarges small areas from his larger works, creating a delightful exploration of detail. By recasting an otherwise recognizable object (such as a toilet seat), the artist suggests a whole new set of associations with the amplified image. In many of these works the original subject matter is not immediately discernable, and in this way the artist is interested not only in playfulness and experimentation, but also in the subconscious and its influence on the viewer.Pond has said in the past that he does not identify with one particular movement, though critics have suggested a connection to the Pop and Op Art movements. Life, he has said, is the main influence in his work. He transitions easily between making paintings and prints, and the influence between the two is apparent.Clayton Pond’s artwork has been exhibited and collected internationally. He has had over 60 solo exhibits. His work is in the permanent collections at MOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Art and many more.