On Thursday, Feb. 20, the Albuquerque Museum hosted painter Larry Madrigal to talk about his work in the University of New Mexico Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist program. After the talk, Madrigal hosted a Q&A session with audience members.
“The program invites prominent contemporary painters from around the world to come live and work in Albuquerque,” according to the UNM Department of Art website.
Madrigal is from Phoenix. His first solo show was in Los Angeles in 2020, he said, and he has since had shows in Paris, New York and Bucharest.
Madrigal’s paintings are “a suspension and celebration of the precariousness by which our most mundane daily rituals are balanced on a precipice just above total anarchy,” according to the UNM Department of Art website.
“I know one thing that I wanted to do while I was here is … to connect one painting to capturing the chaos of trying to have this ambition as a painter and hold this responsibility of a family … and then I can move on to the really important stuff,” Madrigal said about his goals for his time in the visiting artist program.
The theme of the inherent chaos of family life continued throughout the showcased works.
Paintings such as 2023’s “Man on Trampoline” capture this feeling. Madrigal spoke to his interest in painting upside-down figures, which can be seen in this piece.
“Making of a Memory,” another painting from 2023 that was showcased during the talk, has an impending sense of chaos personified by the presence of a toddler standing at the mouth of a crowded slide at a park.
“I started painting parks … it’s a great opportunity to use multiple figures and to play around with all the great things about painting and abstraction,” Madrigal said.
Madrigal frequently paints pieces he describes as “commonplace allegories.”
One such painting is 2019’s “Fitting Room and the Search for Style,” which depicts a man trying on multiple different outfits in a clothing store’s fitting room.
“The fitting room is (an) analogy of trying to figure out what mode of painting or subject matter best fits my personality or demeanor,” Madrigal revealed.
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He expressed his desire to paint a modern twist on the classical nude figure. This vision was realized in his 2019 painting “At the End of the Day,” which features a nude man taking off his socks and preparing to take a shower.
Madrigal also talked about his interest in “this negotiation with making paintings of intimacy, but it had one rule — that it had to be in the context of this chaotic life.”
During his talk, Madrigal spoke about an unconventional influence on his work: stand-up comedy.
“I love that in a lot of stand-up comedy, they take a lot of what’s familiar … and pull back layers and get to the absurdities of things,” Madrigal said. “It gets me really excited to do something that we’re familiar with but sort of be able to create opportunities to dig deeper.”
This influence can be seen throughout his work; he paints with a sense of levity and joy, one that is unencumbered by the harsh world outside.
“One of the things I’ve discovered about painting that’s really fun is how much creativity you can have while remaining in the realm of realism,” Madrigal shared.
Emmett Di Mauro is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
Elijah Ritch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
