Golden Home Mishaps - Curt LeMieux

Golden Home Mishaps - Curt LeMieux

Golden Home Mishaps is a series comprised of 34 presidential portraits by Curt LeMieux created by directly onto the thick paper pages of the Golden Home and High School Encyclopedia Series originally printed in 1961.

While creating this series LeMieux put himself into the mindset of a high school student. He channels a half-awake adolescent who sits at his desk doodling while his history teacher delivers a lesson on U.S. presidents, hearing only a small portion of content with random thoughts and facts ending up on paper as stylized text and drawings. Chester A. Arthur is depicted as a mermaid. A distorted Richard Nixon displays his signature double-handed peace sign and James Monroe is shown with two women crudely drawn. The likeness of Grover Cleveland appears sunken by candy red enamel and a giant blue ball hovers over his head. Entries in the encyclopedia include mediocre reproductions of an official presidential portrait originally rendered in oil paint for each individual president. The works in the Presidential Portraits series were created directly on the encyclopedia pages with the portraits serving as primary imagery. Enamel paint is layered on each page with the face of each president remaining untreated and isolated amidst a field of color and graphic details.

Curt LeMieux lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a Master of Arts from University of Wisconsin-Superior and a Master of Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate University in California. LeMieux has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA., Museum of Contemporary Art, Minsk, Belarus., Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, SC and The Painting Center, New York, NY.

This exhibition shows simultaneously with Miracles & Happenstance and Herd Mentality. A reception for all three shows takes place September, 10th at SooVac.


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