NEW YORK—One has a face in triplicate. Others are embellished with fringe and hair, have bold colors and patterns adorning their lips and eyes, thick eyelashes and teeth that appear bejeweled. Depending how you feel about masks, standing in a room surrounded by them—large-scale ones substantial enough to command a gallery wall—could either be an awesome visual experience or an eerie, unsettling one.
The masks are in the main gallery of “Patrick Lundeen: Good For You Son” at Mike Weiss Gallery. Hard to categorize, the six-foot canvas works look exaggerated and festive rather than referencing a particular culture. A fan of Coney Island, Lundeen’s creations were inspired by the carnival atmosphere and draw on contemporary macabre and outsider art motifs.
The gallery describes the masks thus: “Borrowing from pop culture imagery and the neo- impressionists, the works hover between the humorous and sinister and the naïve and sardonic.” The presentation is effective and dramatic, the masks both humorous and sinister, indeed.
Canadian-born Lundeen lives and works in Brooklyn. In addition to the masks, “Patrick Lundeen: Good For You Son,” features a number of other disparate works and is on view from June 21 to July 28, 2012.
All photos by Arts Observer
Above, Installation view. Top of page, from left, “Teenage Dog,” 2012 (acrylic on linen with hair) and “The Ex-Girlfriend,” 2012 (acrylic on linen with hair).
A couple of the larger masks are “three-headed.”
From left, “Three Headed Woman,” 2012 (acrylic on linen with hair) and “Sun Ra,” 2012 (acrylic on canvas with fringe).
Detail of “Three Headed Woman.”
Installation view shows masks exhibited in rear gallery.
At right, “The Lizard Man,” 2012 (acrylic on canvas with fringe).