Todd Bienvenu

Life on Mars is pleased to open its second season with Borrowing Tomorrow’s Fun - the very first one-person exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Todd Bienvenu.

A Brooklynite by way of Little Rock, Arkansas and New Iberia, Louisiana, Bienvenu paints babes, boozers, buckets of blood, brawlers, punk rockers, apocalyptic zombies, pro wrestlers, country outlaws, camel toes, happy penises and masturbation technology.

His themes of southern culture, sex, rock and roll and religion allow him to embrace and extend the traditions found in the figurative expression of Max Beckman, Phillip Guston, Frank Auerbach and Chaim Soutine. Combining a masterful handling of the medium of oil paint with expert draughtsmanship, Bienvenu simultaneously embraces the tradition of figurative expression while denying its overt heroism; using humor, sarcasm and the imagery of popular culture. He embodies much of his generation’s ennui, and its struggle for the authentic in the time of Meta, digital and new media.

Additionally, in our inaugural exhibition in our project room, we present a selection of works by painters Peter Acheson, Farrell Brickhouse, Brenda Goodman, Arnold Mesches, Fran O’Neill, Ben Pritchard, Karen Schwartz, and John Walker.