label.

neutral gray n5.

"neutral gray n5. is a painting about the unity behind duality. It lives in a space where good and bad, birth and death, color and inversion, plus and minus merge into oneness – the neutral gray center between the extremes of black and white."

My intention with ‘neutral gray n5.’ was to create a painting that is ‘self aware’ in the sense that it steps back from itself in order to describe itself.


It feels as if the central painting has a message to share, so it expands beyond its own frame and uses a seemingly random assortment of sketches, words, realism, color theory, geometry, master copies, and illustrations to further this message of unity behind chaos. It is like a fractal version of itself, where each element reflects the whole.

'As I got further into this painting, it began to feel like a visual representation of everything going on inside my head. Just like my mind, this work is an amalgamation of words, visuals, concepts, desires and philosophies that I am constantly trying to understand by drawing connections between them.'

Introducing ‘Meta Art’

In 2020, I began formulating a new artistic style that is, in a nutshell, “art about itself” – characterized by works that cross stylistic boundaries and have a sense of self-awareness. I coined the phrase Meta Art to describe my new approach.


neutral gray n5 is the first of my meta paintings – a style that has since become my primary focus. I believe meta art is an emerging artistic movement, and I expect to share additional details as well as new works in this style over the coming months.

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    About the Artist

    label. is a contemporary artist whose work is driven by exploration across a range of mediums in order to find the connections between them. His paintings are a means of distilling disparate ideas, themes, and mediums into unified works of art.

    label. is Drew’s generic, anti-brand name designed to represent his core belief that we are limited only by our definitions. label. is undefined and therefore unlimited. His goal is that label. can encourage each of us to push beyond our limited identities to reach our creative potential.

    You can read more about label. on his website and YouTube channel.

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