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Emperor Tomato Ketchup, 2004. 72 x 72 inches

Justin Faunce : �Thanks for All the Memories�. - Leo Koenig Inc. 25 Jan to 5 Mar 2005


Faunce's paintings are a labyrinth of color, pop imagery, cultural iconography with an underpinning of socio-political critique. Deceptively cheery, the paintings appear to be brightly colored, glittering confections. However, soon the imagery asserts itself as an incongruous juxtaposition between an ostentatious giddiness and a brooding malevolence. One sees alongside Vegas showgirls and charming cartoon characters,

Go Team, 2004 . 75.5 x 75.5 in

the emblems of corporate America, heroes and villains of our recent cultural past and reminders of the violence of our foibles. As to further illustrate this point, Faunce's compositions are done using a mirror image or Rorschach technique. One side of the canvas mimics the other, though upon closer inspection, one realizes that this is not altogether true. Within the mandala-like intricacies, there are glitches in the reflection, we are not seeing the reverse of the image, but its doppelganger.

Faunce's technique is one of obsessive precision. Using a method of meticulous stenciling and applying layers of paint, the artist begins by assembling and arranging an enormous array of found images, both familiar and obscure. Faunce relates the sifting through this imagery as extracting something meaningful from the information void. Like so many of us, Faunce believes that the magnitude of information that we are bombarded with in contemporary life has become incomprehensible. The sheer force of its volume has made it impossible to form cogent narratives from our aspirations. What we are often left with amounts to a collective attention deficit disorder and personal histories reduced to sound bites.

Justin Faunce prefers to construct his own complex visual allegories. His painstaking method painting, taking months to complete, is not unlike the meditative practices employed by eastern philosophies. With intense focus, and repetitive actions concentrating on the smallest of details, Faunce relates a particularly effervescent state of visual bliss. As well, his compositions, though eminently contemporary, also reveal a much more traditional underlying notion of duality. Patterns emerge, spliced from up-to-the-minute relics of a disposable society. Images mutate into each other, creating a perverse hybrid that immerses the viewer in a plethora of opposing representations where innocence exists alongside depravity, confidence alongside apprehension, hope within despondency. In these multi-faceted compositions, Faunce attempts to relate the impressions of a generation who are confronting a future of endless possibilities, all the while convinced of impending global catastrophe.


Justin Faunce received a diploma from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. This is his first solo exhibition in New York City.

Heaven, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in