Impossible perspectives and block-like figures in Mernet Larsen’s paintings 

Date
24 November 2015

We stumbled across Mernet Larsen’s work in Mousse’s 50th issue, and earlier this year she had her first solo show in LA. Mernet has been painting since the 1960s and has been an art professor at the University of South Florida since 1967. 

Her work is both obscure and familiar, blurring 3D into 2D through her perspective-shifting paintings. Mernet’s worlds are artificial, geometric and angular, but they are based in some sort of distant reality as shown by her use of everyday and domestic things like escalators, checked table cloths and pencils. Mernet’s works are constructed as ordered and methodical as they appear: “I often paint the elements separately on tracing paper, try out different noses, heads, hands and then paste them on,” she explains.

Oversized characters work together with smaller figures in clunky harmony and the detail included is neat and considered. Mernet sees each painting as an isolated and singular event, and often questions our existence within time but despite this remoteness there’s still an unexpected warmth and humour to her paintings. 

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Mernet Larsen: Committee

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Mernet Larsen: Reunion

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Mernet Larsen: Escalator

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Mernet Larsen: Chainsawer and Bicyclist

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Mernet Larsen: Taking Notes

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Mernet Larsen: Cafe

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Mernet Larsen: Sit-ups, Leg-lifts

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Mernet Larsen: Cube

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Mernet Larsen: Explanation

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Mernet Larsen: Conductor

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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