Judy Sarup is a copywriting intern at our brand strategy and creative services firm Project X Media. She likes art. She likes to write. She gets to review.

THE EXHIBIT

Project X:Art Gallery has an exciting exhibit, “Super Fun,” running through Nov. 7, by local artist Tony Larson. The exhibit placard describes it as “new paintings and prints exploring what happens when existing visual languages are pulled apart and put back together.” A photograph of Larson at the top of the placard is our introduction to this concept, with his tattooed arms extended, and his head on a black-and-white TV.

WHO’S THE ARTIST

Larson is a painter/designer/musician, educated at Cal Arts in Los Angeles, with professional, commercial background and an international as well as domestic following. Although “Super Fun” is a great title for the exhibit, the viewer will quickly recognize Larson’s professional schooling and training, and familiarity with archetypal works and artists. Messages, some even “heavy,” lace his works as we enjoy them. Larson often features the theme of communication in his art.

I perused the collection and smiled immediately as my eyes set on the first surfboard there. Larson meshes vintage art elements with modern ones so effectively that his pieces will span multigenerational taste, in theme, design, and color usage.

THE AMAZING SURFBOARDS

The first surfboard is pink and shaped like a fish, with a black old-fashioned microphone that emanates caricatured electric waves (communication, anyone)! The word “Super” is on the microphone. Whether “super” or super-duper, we are transported back to the Populuxe or “Googie” architecture era of the 1950s and 1960s! And, the pink shade resembles those found on pink poodle skirts and square, plastic purses of the 1950s.

That memorable aqua

Next is a rounded, vintage aqua surfboard, child-sized, with a black-and-white caricature of a vintage mariachi singer. The caricature is respectful, and our eyes are drawn to his mouth, as you guessed it, he COMMUNICATES! “Super K” above and to the right of the musician, is in a banner shape, or a cut ribbon. This recalls the vintage-but-still-used-today Peavey amplifier logo.

There’s “Super” again on a red surfboard with a light orange-edged sun, with ”Super” repeated small and in white above on the right. Larson thought of the surfer as he placed illustrations in front of and behind the standing spot on the boards.

Island Ethnic

There’s a black surfboard with white designs on it that include motifs like stars, daisies each missing a petal, screws, totem pole cuts, tiki patterns (with carved smiling profile). Larson made sure your eye will travel down the board—as objects seem to move before your eyes. Glance down quickly, and a strand of stars becomes a fish skeleton; an irregularly-shaped sun becomes a starfish! There’s a blue “Super” seemingly placed strategically at the Golden Mean (or ratio) part of the board.

Shades in Reverse

And, there’s a white board with gray and black pictures. Is Larson communicating again, with more electric movement? Concentric white arcs at the top suggest wave movement passing over fish and seashells. At least, I think those are seashells! The surfer gets to place his feet between lobster claws! There are pools of water traveling (in illustration) behind the surfer, and over fish and rocks!

THE T-SHIRTS

More of the same patterns

Each T-shirt captures a pattern seen on a surfboard, combined with colors of other surfboards — Island native print but with the vintage aqua background, etc. The novel one is off-white with “Babylon” written in pink, with the sun’s rays shooting down in front of a leaping dolphin or whale.

Get ready for the decay of civilization

Larson’s wall collages feature this more serious theme, hinted at by the “Babylon” pink T-shirt.

Let the mind morph

Or maybe, did he really mean “Baby-lon,” as in “Baby-Orlon,” or “Baby-Nylon?” That vintage pink, like his aqua shade, were popularly used on ephemeral items of the ‘50s and ‘60s--fabrics, fashions, plastic accessories, and paint.

AND, THE SOBERING WALL COLLAGES

Parti, anyone?

Larson’s wall pictures each bear a Parti number identification. (Oh, oh, there I go again, telephone party lines of the ‘50s and ’60s?)

Can you hear Larson and his ideas; he wants to keep you on your toes

These are much more abstract than the other collection pieces, and they scream out some downer themes. Each picture is whitewashed out and with a few strategically-placed objects in a limited color range, suggesting the ephemeral nature and decay of material objects, the possible wastefulness of the human mind in creating these objects through the ages, and challenges some political ideology.

But there’s charm.

Humor is evident on each “Parti” if you take a moment and try to read fine print upside down. Larson has snipped numerous printed lines out of old trade and other magazines for messages.

Do you see your kitchen here?

Parti #1 reveals a pink milkshake (recognized only if you stand at a distance), a frying pan and hints of other household objects whitewashed out.

And then, a fighter plane?

Larson has created what looks like one out of newspaper strips on Parti #2. One strip reads, “Use this card for airmail reply.” And, the theme of sound is ever-present again, with a newspaper strip about hi-fi and sound systems. On a similar theme, the military-suggested picture on Parti #3 has a strip reading, “Your way to a high-paying new career.”

Time to exit the collage collection, anyone?

Parti #10 has newspaper splices and glossy paint to depict doorways, windows and walkways. But we can’t exit quite yet…

More transportation

See a train caboose with the body of the train whitewashed out, a zeppelin and a light tower—on Parti #11. I think I see a periscope somewhere here but looking at these collages anyway feels like taking a Rorschach Inkblot test. See “Toys to Train Army Tankmen for Battle” in a “Table of Contents for the Shop Craftsman,” on a newspaper strip. A submarine-like object depicted on the lower right has a strip reading, “They’re blowing air into shipboard…”

There’s the communication theme again in the “Parti” works. Larson uses microphone/transistor and electric wave images throughout his collection.

And there’s value.

After all, man (and woman) cannot live just on kitschy art and fun alone. As manmade objects decay, our bodies and minds ultimately decay, too, just like all those before us. As with Babylon, some civilizations wither away. Larson can justify his creation of the “Parti” collages by attaching philosophical meanings to them. Artists and musicians take up the challenge of creating experimental works for academia’s sake and driving their art form into a new arena, inviting growth and change. We need that, and Larson has contributed, perhaps even out of his normal work comfort zone.

THE POSTERS FOR SALE

What’s going on between the sexes now?

Prints #3 and #4 look like microphones imposed upon an orange pineapple or other bromeliad. The “microphones” could easily double for phalluses, and the pineapple could suggest the female form.

Larson’s statement about visual language manipulation

Prints #1 and #2 highlight this well. A hand with the middle finger pointing up becomes a skyscraper caricature upon staring at it for a second, in Print #1. Or, see convex and concave funnels appear as Slinky toys (again, retro objects) and Larson’s favorite electric/water waves. Use of primary colors is cheerful here.