Tom LaDuke

In each of his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, LaDuke presents multiple layers to consider, all with their own references and meanings. His works compel the viewer to pause and observe as the elements gradually unfurl and become apparent in ways that may be surprising. As Benjamin Weissman describes, “Viewing these paintings means giving up your expected routes and sense of direction, letting the painting keep you off balance and giving yourself over to its vocabulary, layering, rhythms, rules or lack of convention.”

Depicting what at times appears to be a foggy film projection or airy unidentified industrial spaces, LaDuke builds the foundational layer. Despite its blurred quality, it alludes to an existing space and is meant to draw the viewer in through a feeling of recognition. The subsequent layers in the foreground—often comprised of a series of brightly, colored impasto brushstrokes—frequently refer to equally real elements outside of the frame of view established by the initial background. These seemingly untethered marks are reflections of components that are behind, aside, or in front of the determined picture plane. LaDuke’s paintings situate the viewer in an illusory middle dimension, suspended between the many layers. Though done in graphite on paper, the artist’s drawings are also created through a similar process, albeit with slightly more eerie results. While the surfaces of the works are a broad playground, reality is always present.

LaDuke's work has been exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA, Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, CA, Torrance Art Museum in Torrance, CA, ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA, Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California in Riverside, CA. His work is also in major public and private collections across the United States.

Courtesy of Miles McEnery Gallery