Opening Reception: Gordon McConnell: Comic Book Cowboys, Cadillacs and the Italian West

Gordon McConnell: Comic Book Cowboys, Cadillacs and the Italian West features work which has filtered comic books, advertising and movies, into painting through collecting, editing, and collage. These new paintings are translations of fragments from the limitless library of mechanically reproduced pictures that recur throughout his work. The work is rich with color, texture, implied action, and nuanced painting technique. Gordon McConnell references pop culture as well as pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, surrealist Giorgio De Chirico, writer Larry McMurty, and Iginio Lardani, the graphic artist and animator who utilized bold, experimental techniques in the credit sequences for numerous Italian Westerns. They also reveal the seminal and profound impact of Western popular culture on his practice.