Sean Kennedy
“Mixed Messages”
Mezzanine installation view
Courtesy of the gallery.

Currently on view at Thomas Duncan Gallery, Los Angeles is a solo exhibition, “MIXED MESSAGES” by Sean Kennedy.  The exhibition is composed of various large scale mixed media works that use the aesthetics of signage to create layered compositions that are rooted in collage and assemblage processes.  The body of work read as paintings and have a sleek appearance due to incorperatation of plexiglass that shine like the packaging to many of the commercially produced snacks seen at your corner store.  The pyramid scheme of the advertising world comes to mind as logos from numerous brands make their debut on the surface of the work, creating an interesting dynamic as they live on in gallery as art objects.  Below is a statement written by the artist further discussing his work in “MIXED MESSAGES”.

Sean Kennedy
Untitled, 2013
Acrylic on acrylic, wood, screws, polymer gel, PVC reducer bushings, plumber’s tape case
72 x 42 x 3 inches (182.9 x 106.7 x 7.62 cm)
Courtesy of the gallery.

“Lid paintings, sandwich paintings, window paintings, decal paintings, container paintings, graphic paintings, layer paintings, improvised paintings – all potential names for the new series of work in this show, but in the end, I think “graphic paintings” is the best shorthand descriptor, as the term “graphic” carries a multitude of meanings… I’m sure the work expands upon earlier themes such as framing, the conception of the picture plane, physicality vs. flatness, surface vs. interior, front vs. back, top vs. bottom, background vs. foreground, presentation as representation, etc… Mostly, the combinations are unrelated, but occasionally, they coalesce to reveal a latent potential meaning. The painterly becomes graphic and the graphic becomes painterly. All of this information is compressed into a flat arrangement that becomes surprisingly embodied as it hovers on a clear plane between the wall and the viewer. What the viewer is to do with it though, I cannot say.” -Sean Kennedy, 2013

“MIXED MESSAGES” is on view through October 26th.

For more information on “MIXED MESSAGES” visit Thomas Duncan Gallery, Los Angeles.