Anderson Asteclines (b.1994, Brazil) is a Margate-based artist whose painting practice is rooted in instinctual and gestural mark-making. He holds an MFA with distinction from the Glasgow School of Art, and has exhibited at New Glasgow Society, The Old Hairdressers and the Glue Factory.

Revisiting his experiences of gay cruising in London parks, Astecline’s work navigates themes of fragmented memory, intimacy and desire. His paintings are populated by literal and metaphorical spectres of the past — distorted faces, disembodied anatomy, and the visual language of mourning. Emerging from plumes of high-key colour, these scenes allude to the heightened sensory experience of cruising, where anonymity and absurdity, violent and visceral aspects collide.

The material process reflects the multilayered nature of Astecline’s recollections. The ritual of layering paint, redaction, and starting anew mirrors the impulse to simultaneously represent and conceal subjective experience.

His forms waver between the abstract and figurative, occupying a ‘between-state’: rooted in both vivid, concrete experience and yet gesturing toward the magical. These ambiguous presences are a way to reconnect with the lives and stories of men who have cruised these sites over decades past. By elevating such narratives to the realm of mysticism, the complicated personal and political history of cruising is reclaimed, imbued with a rich inner and artistic landscape.