American Purgatory
American Art Collector|March 2023
Artist Marc Trujillo distills the sterility of American consumerism into haunting snapshots of the mundane, liminal, moments that make up much of our lives.
By Michael Pearce
American Purgatory

Artificial food and fast lights forge cheerful islands of color against gray and darkened streets in urban paintings by Marc Trujillo, memorializing the ghastly spread of ruthlessly economical architecture in beautifully rendered glazed grisailles. Trujillo’s technical oil portraits of buildings superficially resemble Edward Hopper’s urban nocturnes but shed Hopper’s comforting harmonies of nostalgia by using cold L.E.D.’s and strip lights for illumination. Hopper’s tones are warm and jazz-like and sing tragic melodies of men and women finding themselves alone. Trujillo’s songs of San Fernando, California’s streets are cold and electric and indifferent to individuality. Hopper's buildings tell us about people. Trujillo's people tell us about buildings which, while sterile, are the only personalities in these smooth paintings.

He calls the paintings his American purgatory. If Trujillo is our Virgil, we are his Dante to guide through the indeterminate space between the edge of hell and the gate to heaven. He shows us impersonal and unhappy meals and hungry trays, cold aisles and fluorescent airports, squaretiled supermarkets, buzzing refrigerators in minor-key and melancholy pictures of unloved places and thankless food staged in a grim, concrete city. He is the lover of loveless commercial architecture.

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Guardians of the Temple – Simon Dinnerstein reflects on The Fulbright Triptych 50 years later.
American Art Collector

Guardians of the Temple – Simon Dinnerstein reflects on The Fulbright Triptych 50 years later.

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University exhibits Simon Dinnerstein's The Fulbright Triptych haunts the visual lexicon of 20th century American representational art. Fifty years have passed since Dinnerstein completed the painting in 1974.

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9 mins  |
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A City Perspective
American Art Collector

A City Perspective

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Living Legacy
American Art Collector

Living Legacy

The Butler Institue hosts Allied Artists of America's 110th Annual Juried Exhibition.

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American Art Collector

Elegant yet Approachable

The second edition of the RTIA Show presents even more art to explore and expanded special programming.

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American Art Collector

Figuratively Speaking

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JAMES AYERS: The Importance of Play
American Art Collector

JAMES AYERS: The Importance of Play

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GINA MINICHINO: Playing with Food
American Art Collector

GINA MINICHINO: Playing with Food

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Island Light
American Art Collector

Island Light

The Cuttyhunk Island Artists' Residency is held in a sprawling, 100-year-old house on an island off the southern coast of Massachusetts.

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Solitary Forms
American Art Collector

Solitary Forms

Hogan Brown has been working with Arcadia Contemporary for two and half years and is excited to be featured in his first solo show at the gallery. He doesn't take for granted the many talented figurative painters Arcadia represents and is thrilled to be among them.

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Living the Dream
American Art Collector

Living the Dream

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