Rendered in delicately cross-hatched ink, dozens of figures inhabit towering constructions or assemble in crowds within the elaborate scenes of Pittsburgh-based artist Ben Tolman. Evoking the playfulness of The place’s Waldo? and the optical illusions of M.C. Escher, the artist conjures what Galerie LJ calls “a sort of human zoo.”
Opening subsequent month, the gallery presents Tolman’s solo exhibition, Management, the title of which takes its cue from present occasions. All through the final 15 years, the artist has channeled an undercurrent of disconnection and imagined dystopian settings. His forthcoming present acknowledges the uncomfortable notion that a few of these components have develop into disconcertingly near actuality.
Tolman depicts faceless people that transfer in sheeplike herds, “willingly following paths that clearly go in opposition to their very own pursuits: expertise, invisible boundaries, perception techniques, developments, politics,” the gallery says. The works in Management ask: how far are they (or we) keen to go? At what price comes folly—or just not paying consideration?
In works like “Condominium” and “Routine,” nameless figures mill about in particular person, soulless packing containers. Some seem like working, stress-free, or socializing. Others simply appear to face there, staring into their telephones. And within the darkly comical “Linked,” individuals queue to stroll up a towering ramp construction, absorbed a lot of their screens as they head up the incline that it’s too late earlier than they understand they’ve stepped proper off the precipice.
“With a beneficiant dose of cynicism and voyeurism, Tolman portrays the eccentric truths and social failures of Western society,” the gallery says. “That’s what (he) is making an attempt to know—or to sentence. The longer term he sketches may appear bleak, have been it not infused with a scrumptious sarcasm.”
Management runs from September 5 to October 4 in Paris. Discover extra on Tolman’s website and Instagram.
