loser, geek, whatever

grandma candy

All is Well

Gouache on paper, 2015

And then he ran into my knife. He ran into my knife ten times.

Adam Alaniz’s “La Plush” at Roq La Rue.

Currently on view virtually at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle, Washington is artist Adam Alaniz’s solo exhibition, “La Plush.”

Adam’s large scale canvases are portals into densely packed, roiling, and joyful scenes full of natural environments and strange spirits. Usually each painting has a dedicated brightly hued monochrome palette with an illuminated, glowing effect. Strange little rounded characters, from small animals or gentle nature spirit-like beings to smiley anthropomorphic rocks populate each scene, giving each cartoonish image a mythic aura as well as a portal into a deeper spiritual meaning imbued within our own world. Influenced by American landscape painters, Alaniz’s work is also informed by a love of the riotous carnivalesque works of Netherlandish painter Bruegel. Alaniz says: “He (Bruegel) was known for being a great observer of people and would draw people without them knowing.  I kind of feel like that. I  just happen to stumble upon quiet but great melodramas. Gods helping from above, bird people traveling miles to bury the head of their love one, monsters trying to find friends, soft rocks enduring through time, animals walking with death, people longing to be loved, and penguins courageously traveling forward to whatever lies in the future.”

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90s public washroom designed by Stéphane Plassier.

Bathrooms, Collins Design, 2004 📚