Audience
Lari Pittman
Filmed in 2010 at Lari Pittman’s dual exhibitions Orangerie and New Paintings at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, the artist discusses the common misconception that his work is preplanned. Though he understands how audiences reach this conclusion, Pittman explains that his paintings result from a series of spontaneous decisions.
Featured artists
About the artists
Inspired by commercial advertising, folk art, and decorative traditions, Lari Pittman’s meticulously layered paintings transform pattern and signage into luxurious scenes fraught with complexity, difference, and desire. Pittman uses anthropomorphic depictions of furniture, weapons, and animals—loaded with symbolism—to convey themes of romantic love, violence, and mortality. Despite subject matter that changes from series to series, Pittman’s deployment of simultaneously occurring narratives and opulent imagery reflects the rich heterogeneity of American society, the artist’s Colombian heritage, and the distorting effects of hyper-capitalism on everyday life.
