BEAUTY: Painting--Jeremy Mangan

Painter Jeremy Mangan's simplified, surreal, rural narratives are full of wonder and humor. There's a do-it-yourself, cobbled-together, country idea in nearly every piece below. But the titles are the punch lines, and are necessary to see after taking in the image.
I love his use of glowing lights, whether electric or from some mysterious source...

Top to bottom: Dancefloor; Good A Place As Any; Harbor Crossing; Just Right; Occasionally One Or Two Get Out, But They Never Go Far; Visitation

It is always fascinating to see what artists become fixated on, obsessed with, and to see how they work through a particular idea that has captured them, snagged them. And Mangan seems to be working on and through the idea of rural barns, sheds, and morphing, dream-like permutations of such structures. Just look at the absolutely massive barn structures that make up the feed and tack super mall (like a big box store on steroids for the Mid-West) in the last image entitled The Gettin' Place...

Top to bottom: Life On The Cornice; Crossroads; Oak Head; Every Effort Made To Preserve The Original Structure; Second Story Addition; Pier 29; Seine Shed; The Gettin' Place

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