What’s up with Joyce Pensato’s normally cheerful cartoon characters? The cast of former childhood favourites has taken on a distinctly sinister air; the seemingly frantic, manic brushstrokes and the sombre black and white enamel paints she uses imbue an unhinged quality to the familiar faces usually smiling happily from the wholesome funny pages. Even characters such as Batman, prone to dark moods in the DC Comics stories, seems to be having a particularly bad day in the imagination of the New York artist.
Pensato calls the hub of her alternate world Joyceland, and the legions of stuffed toys, figurines, posters, adverts and postcards that fill the Brooklyn studio as sources of inspiration are travelling with her as Joyceland temporarily relocates to London’s Lisson Gallery. There Pensato’s working environment will be recreated in detail as a series of installations that show how the artist’s painterly creations come about. The dates for your diary are 26 March to 10 May.
Joyce Pensato in her studio,
Photo, Debora Mittelstaedt
Joyce Pensato,
Batman I, 2011,
Enamel and metallic paint on linen,
121.9 x 101.6 cm, © the artist;
courtesy Lisson Gallery, London
Joyce Pensato,
Chuckie, 2014,
Enamel and metallic paint on canvas,
90 x 80 inches, 228.6 x 203.2 cm,
Signed dated titled verso in china marker,
Courtesy of the artist and
Petzel Gallery, New York.
Joyce Pensato,
Felix, 2007.
Enamel and metallic paint on linen,
274.3 x 182.9 cm.
Credit Courtesy of the artist
and Petzel, New York
Joyce Pensato,
Them Eyes, 2014,
Enamel and metallic paint on canvas,
60 x 48 inches, 152.4 x 121.9 cm,
Signed dated titled verso in china marker,
Courtesy of the artist and
Petzel Gallery, New York.
Joyce Pensato,
Buzzy, 2014,
Enamel on canvas,
50 x 50 inches, 127 x 127 cm,
Signed dated titled verso in china marker,
Courtesy of the artist and
Petzel Gallery, New York.
Joyce Pensato,
Golden Batman, 2014,
Enamel and metallic paint on canvas,
72 x 64 inches, 182.9 x 162.6 cm,
Signed dated titled verso in china marker,
Courtesy of the artist and
Petzel Gallery, New York.
