Patrick Lundeen’s work currently on view at ThreeWalls gallery marks a continuation of his inquiry into the effects of pop culture icons gone awry. In his American debut show, “Sin Will Find You Out,” Lundeen focuses on religious crosses and Spider-Man’s mask as symbolic vehicles for his arduous technique. Painted on cut-out canvas and displayed on the wall as tarps, these icons serve as templates for the artist to explore his psychedelic painting style. Layered with intricate patterns of colorful dots and lines, Lundeen’s tarp paintings vibrate with an intensity mirrored in the show’s namesake and accompanying video, “Sin Will Find You Out.” Here the iconic Spider-Man character moves from decorative icon to demonic night stalker. Lundeen’s Spider-Man is not the friendly neighborhood kind—he lurks in the shadows of rooftops and dank basements and uncovers buried porno magazines in midnight forests. Spattered throughout with scenes of urban nighttime phenomena—a freeway at night, a church-bell’s toll, and the full moon above a city skyline, among others—the video embraces a disquieting tension between fantasy and reality, filth and beauty, and good and evil. Amidst his appropriation of pop-culture iconography is a personal struggle with issues of guilt, sex, religion and the fear of becoming a “dirty old man,” which Lundeen deals with somewhat cathartically in his work. This personal confrontation sparks a violation of pop-cultural comfort zones in this series of works, which resound with fear and intimidation mingled with aesthetic charm. (Jamie Keesling)
For Us: A Review of "Something from Something" at Engage Projects Kushala Vora and Adia Sykes’ collaboration "Something from Something" tells us as viewers that knowledge, art, creation, inspiration, love—really anything you can think of—has a place of origin.
Women Behind the Lens: A Review of "From Her to Eternity" Courtney Love curates on the street. Just west of Wabash on the corner of Eighth Street, there is a wall of stellar rock star images that includes a special collection made by women photographers over the years.
Civics Lesson: A Review of Sculpture Milwaukee Sculpture Milwaukee has returned for a fourth year, transforming downtown Milwaukee’s landscape with A-list artists exhibiting outdoor sculpture.
