Planes, Trains & Automobiles is not a post-modern academic dissection of the John Candy and Steve Martin comedy (although that has to happen at some point), but rather a study of vehicles and their interaction with people and the environment from California-based painting duo Jessica Hess and Tara Smith.
Smith’s big oil paintings give the machines an almost human quality – in one of her Mobile Vehicles series we see a child play while watched over my the most literal of figurative helicopter mothers. Her smaller-scale watercolour series Road Kill looks at animals who have seen better days displayed out of context. Hess, in contrast, uses a photorealistic style and a much more urban landscape in her work, her array of vehicles often marked by a celebratory swathe of graffiti-as-art amid the man-made environmental decay. The pair’s exhibition is on display at the Subliminal Projects gallery in Los Angeles until 20th April.
Installation view © courtesy Alan Shaffer, 2013
Jessica Hess,
Death Van, 2013,
Oil on canvas,
22 x 28 inches
Tara Smith,
Untitled (Chopper), 2013,
Oil on canvas,
74 x 68 inches
Installation view © courtesy Alan Shaffer, 2013
Jessica Hess,
Citrus Camper, 2011,
Oil on canvas,
22 x 28 inches
Tara Smith,
Thermo King, 2009,
Oil on canvas,
60 x 45 inches
Installation view © courtesy Alan Shaffer, 2013
Jessica Hess,
Eureka Train Night, 2008,
Oil on canvas,
36 x 48 inches
All images courtesy and copyright the Artist
