Pop Artist Shows Comical, Critical Side

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia

Staff Reporter

In “Half-bucket of Blood,” Todd Norsten uses a blood red color on the creature’s head.

A cute pink creature stares blankly from a white canvas, as streaks of red, in the likeness of blood, gushes out. This is one of the striking images from American artist Todd Norsten's solo exhibition in Seoul.

Whether it is comical or critical, it is up to the viewers to interpret Norsten's works displayed at the Arario Gallery in Seoul.

The deep red color of blood disrupts the otherwise cute, almost childish image of a pink creature in ``Untitled (Plush).'' The same color is visible in ``Half-bucket of Blood,'' which features half of a creature's face.

In the exhibition catalogue, Walker Art Center curator Yasmil Raymond said the ``inflamed red color conveys the same unpleasant association with blood and violence to the terrain of cartoons and religious dogma.''

“Untitled (Mask)'' is one of Tood Norsten's works featured at the Arario Gallery in Seoul.

Another of Norsten's work ``Sweet Side'' conveys a feeling of contrasting forces and paired opposites. He shows two sides, a dark blue ``unSweet Side'' and light pink ``Sweet Side,'' referring to traditional images of masculinity and femininity.

``As in his most recent compositions, the images are characterized by the absence of absolute resolutions in exchange for bold outer contours and short shadows, as if the words were withheld in the middle of a sentence, fragmenting their meaning to allow the beautiful irreverence of laughter. At the end, his work reminds the viewer that there is no fearless speech without humor,'' Raymond said.

Norsten's other works contain light, almost ambiguous images. One untitled work, features a collaboration of 18 different pieces, such as a bloody snowman's head, a skeleton patterned T-shirt, messages saying ``I Took Your Picture'' and ``Stop Looking At Me.''

Todd Norsten’s “Sweet Side” shows two contrasting parts, a dark blue “unSweet Side” and light pink “Sweet Side.” /Courtesy of Arario Gallery

``It is the creative friendship between images and speech that informs the character of Norsten's most recent body of work in which the brevity and poignancy of images and utterances range from the bitterly critical to the supremely comical. His pictures depict thoughts that resemble thoughts themselves, uncertain, abstract, honest and occasionally inappropriate,'' Raymond said.

Norsten graduated with a fine arts degree from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and was part of the Norfolk Program at Yale University. He has a background in drawing, painting and printmaking.

His works have been shown at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Whitney 2006 Biennial and International Print Center in New York.

Norsten's exhibition runs until Oct. 7 at the Arario Gallery Seoul. For information, visit www.arariogallery.com or call (02) 723-6190.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr