PATRICK LUNDEEN – GOOD FOR YOU SON
2012-07-16Lundeen brings together seemingly disparate objects-from flags to rugs to posters to keyboards to grocery store dailies and magazine pages-into cohesive works resembling anthropomorphic masks. Neon-colored, kaleidoscopic patterns embellish six-foot tall cut out canvas masks, speaking to the artist’s fascination with the exaggerated theatricality of Coney Island type characters, the Contemporary Macabre, and Outsider Art motifs. Borrowing from pop culture imagery and the neo-impressionists, the works hover between the humorous and sinister and the naïve and sardonic. Accompanying the exhibition is a 7″ vinyl record by the artist’s experimental three man rock band, The Oblique Mystique.
While Lundeen’s musical influences range from the lo-fi genre, and improvisational acts like Hound Dog Taylor to the schizophrenic sounds of Daniel Johnston-it’s a naggingly familiar tune by 80’s crooner Rick Astley that drones from an old Casio keyboard in the piece, Together Forever. In the lo-fi, lo-brow Genie Amp, a vintage Fender Silverface amplifier functions as both pedestal and audio source for a booming silver-faced genie trapped in a T.V. declaring, “Behold, I am Silver Face!” The nostalgic nod is twofold. Despite the purposely brazen use of intentionally awkward elements, the work maintains a sense of authenticity and serves as homage to earlier American culture from before the artist’s time.
Exhibition runs through to July 28th, 2012
Mike Weiss Gallery
520 West 24th Street
New York
NY
10011
