Craig Krull Gallery

Llyn Foulkes

Since his debut at Ferus Gallery in 1961 and his first museum exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum the following year, Llyn Foulkes has continued to produce raw, visceral, provocative, often political and sometimes disturbing works of art. He said, “My work has always been about man’s inhumanity to man.” His edgy and honest approach has resulted in a public reception over the years vascillating between adulation and misunderstanding. As curator, Ali Subotnick wrote, he prefers “to exist a bit on the periphery to retain his rawness, integrity and realness. He’s much more in tune with what’s happening in the real world rather than just focused on - as so many artist are – the art world.” A major “rediscovery” occurred with his inclusion in MOCA’s Helter Skelter exhibition in 1992, and yet again in recent years with solo exhibitions at Sprüth Magers and Gagosian. His exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery will include 16 recent small scale works of painted-over portraits, signature “bloody heads” and assemblage in critique of his cultural nemesis, Walt Disney and the omnipresent Mickey Mouse. In a catalogue essay from the exhibition, Llyn Foulkes: Between a Rock and a Hard Place at the Laguna Art Museum in 1992, Marilu Knode wrote, Foulkes’ “musings presage the millennial anticipation of a country wondering how it will adjust to changing global interconnections, even though the changes have been wrought in part by America.”