While chatting with Christian Michael Filardo, a poster of Kurt Cobain silently looms on the wall behind the artist’s shoulder. The poster prominently displays Cobain’s years of birth and death: symbols not only of the limited time Cobain had in this life, but also of Filardo’s artistic practice and ways of seeing the world. Over our conversation, topics of death, beauty, ephemerality, and permanence fade into one another, the distinctions blurring.

Filardo is a thoughtful, positive conver­sa­tion­alist, eager to engage with a curveball or tangent. Despite the content, the conversation is far from heavy. It is clear that they embrace the light alongside the darkness, making effort to maintain a balance in their work.