EXCLUSIVE: Lari Pittman painting Palace (2006) in his Los Angeles studio.
Inspired by commercial advertising, folk art, and decorative traditions, Lari Pittman’s meticulously layered paintings transform pattern and signage into luxurious scenes. Meditations on romantic love, violence, and mortality, his work demonstrates the complementary nature of beauty and suffering, pain and pleasure. In a manner both visually gripping and psychologically strange, Pittman’s hallucinatory works reference myriad aesthetic styles, from Victorian silhouettes to social realist murals to Southwestern kitsch.
SEE: More images, videos, and news for Lari Pittman.
LEARN: Lari Pittman is featured in the Season 4 (2007) episode Romance of the Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS.
DISCUSS: What do you think about this video? Leave a comment!
PHOTO | Lari Pittman, Palace, and detail, 2006. Photos by Douglas M. Parker Studio. Courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
VIDEO | Producer: Susan Sollins & Nick Ravich. Camera: Bob Elfstrom. Sound: Ray Day. Editor: Mark Sutton. Artwork courtesy: Lari Pittman.