Mark Whalen, covered here, is an Australian born artist living and working in Los Angeles known for his Greco-Roman inspired works. His pieces span resin-coated paintings to ceramic sculpture and pottery, which depict little geometric worlds inhabited by an unusual civilization. Whalen has described his images as “a bizarre version of life itself”. Over the years, he became continually interested in portraying how humans interact with the spaces around them. Spatial theory is one of the themes of his upcoming exhibition “Trapezoid” at KP Projects/MKG in Los Angeles, opening Setember 12th. Although he is inspired by the images that appear on ancient artifacts, Whalen’s contemporary observations make his work feel futuristic. Hidden within his vibrantly-colored trippy illustrations, we can make out a mixture of quizzical and horrifying scenes. In each, tiny people experiment with every aspect of their environment; some torture each other with pixelated shapes, while others contort themselves in unnatural ways around the walls and furniture. Whalen will also debut a new series of ceramic works for the exhibit that emulate his paper illustrations. Take a look at our preview of Mark Whalen’s “Trapezoid”, below.
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Australian-born, Los Angeles-based painter 
Praeteritum Nunc Futurum. Translation: Past, present, and future. Tomorrow night, 
Blending two- and three-dimensional forms, Mark Whalen creates cerebral and absurd arrangements of the human body. Whether stacking vibrant heads or using sculpted hands to sculpt the very shapes of canvases, there’s a metatextual component in tackling the act of creating art itself.
Moscow, Russia based artist