If there was ever a time in California where being transported to an alternate universe seemed like the best option, it would be this week when Anthony Clarkson’s newest solo show, All By Design, virtually opens at Thinkspace in Los Angeles on Saturday, August 22, 2020. Clarkson has a gift for conveying surreal and, at times, ominous, settings, perfectly capturing both our relationship with nature and the supernatural. The characters are simultaneously enthralled, curious and suspicious. That the mantra “the end is near” is not only depicted in the works Theater of Tragedy: Encore and provides a backdrop for both our collective reality and Clarkson’s imagination seems apt for the type of apocalyptic weeks we are enduring under the (unrelenting) California sunshine.
In the grand tradition of pop surrealist Mark Ryden, Joe Coleman and Todd Schorr, Clarkson spins narrative-based stories with his paintings. All By Design may be his most intense and thoughtful series to date, so dense with imagery and attuned to our desperate need to slip out of this current space. In his sixth solo show with Thinkspace, Clarkson is as urgent as ever. —Evan Pricco
