It’s easy to get lost in the arresting vision of Mike Worrall, who was last mentioned on Hi-Fructose in this 2014 piece. But maybe lost is the wrong word, as there is a definitive space viewers inhabit as they look upon works like “The Lost Narrative,” above, which takes us to the “World’s End.” The paintings’ subjects often gaze back at the viewer, further shackling passers-by into lingering.
And sometimes, the U.K.-born, Australia-based artist gets more playful. “Call of the Wild” features a hand extending out of the forest, taking a call from an enormous telephone. “The Alley of the Kings,” above, takes a similar approach with both elegance and humor. He stirs in a slightly more serious tone with “Miss Pandemonium,” whose titular figure looms over a populated maze.
Worrall’s vision has founds its way outside of oil on linen, too. As an “ideas artist” in the film industry, he’s created imagery for films like Alien III. Even director Roman Polanski cited the artist’s work as a major influence in making his version of Macbeth. In all of his works, the “almost entirely self taught” artist explores his love of dreams, the subconscious, “and the weirdness of how we go from one thought to another in an almost drifting process.” These entities, like Worrall’s works, intrigue in both serious and humorous incarnations.
In a new show at 
Italy-born painter