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Lundeen’s gruesome masks are made up of random objects [2] that may not have any commonality at first glance – the thread holding them together is their discarded nature [3] and the artist’s creativity. Six foot tall canvas masks are strung with strings of hair, seemingly from well-loved dolls, creating scraggled Medusa-like manes and stringy beards.
The glossy super colors of magazine pages [4] are transformed into wearable monster masks, complete with misshapen teeth, bulbous noses, and gaping mouths, bearing their original lives as epic MAD Magazine fold-ins. Al Jaffe, the artist of the popular counter-culture mag [5], would no doubt appreciate its transformation from literary shocker to tongue-in-cheek fine art. Even a campy music-note emblazoned blanket is turned into a character, with the plastic ivories of a cheap Casio keyboard [6] standing in for the gritty teeth. It’s hilariously named after 80s pop artist Rick Astley’s hit “Together Forever.”
Aside from using reclaimed materials, Lundeen salvages something else – a slice of childhood. His most recent show, called “Good For You Son,” will open at Chelsea’s Mike Weiss Gallery [7] on June 21, also marking the release of a 7 inch vinyl recording from his rock band, The Oblique Mystique.
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