Dennis Larkins
"Point of Contact"
February 2-25, 2007
A refugee of the Kansas Bible Belt, Dennis Larkins has lived life on the front lines of radical times, emerging from Grateful Dead artist to a chronicler of skewed and alternative realities. Using evocative retro images as universal archetypes brought into the context of the current era, he creates illusionistic, visceral narratives that seem to draw from other dimensions. Pioneering and refining a bold new approach to artistic expression, Dennis works in a style forged from both traditional and space age ingredients as he paints sculpted relief on canvas, creating layered works of arresting depth and intense optical punch. Growing up bathed in the glow of the Atomic Age is bound to scramble any thinking person’s circuits. Dennis has been turning to art to heal his radiation burns from the time America started planting its own mushroom forest out in the Nevada desert a few decades ago. Ever since passing through the sieve of art school, he has painted against the grain—not as an attention-grabbing statement versus the art world, but simply because his personal vision, informed by such diverse sources as retro sci-fi and pulp symbolism, the mundane parody of everyday life and the paradox and mystery of death and destruction, was immune to passing trends or commercial fads. After four decades of persevering along a formative, solitary and expansive path of painting, practicing the theatrical trades of scenic art, set design and more recently designing for theme parks, he has been enjoying a sculpted-canvas renaissance. And in a great gestalt-millennial moment, he has found himself among the fellow revolutionaries who have come together, quite unintentionally, to form the pop-surrealist underground. But even subcultures have their trends…and Dennis still paints his own road. He really doesn't have a choice. |
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