Beer With a Painter: Keith Mayerson

"“I wanted to rip the mask off the signifier and just deal with the signified,” said the cartoonist-turned-painter who depicts a cosmology of American identity and activism."

"The Los Angeles-based artist is best known for his ongoing cosmology of paintings that make up the My American Dream series, often presented in “chapters” and drawing from a combination of his own photographs and found photography. Begun in the aftermath of 9/11, the paintings depict an omnivorous personal pantheon of heroes."

"Among the subjects were Martin Luther King Jr., Sitting Bull, Superman, Marvin Gaye, James Dean, Annie Oakley, Kermit the Frog, and Tintin, complete with a sparkling Castafiore emerald. Interspersed were a couple of abstractions, cityscapes of New York and Los Angeles, a view of Earth from outer space, and a double portrait of his husband and himself."

"“My Family,” (2013) showed his family of origin - Keith as a child with his sister, mother, and father - lying together under a patterned bedspread watching television. The patterns became a metaphor for interwoven networks of community and family."

Keith Mayerson creates a figurative cosmology of American identity and activism through paintings in the My American Dream series. The works often appear in chapters and draw from his own photographs and found photography. Begun after 9/11, the paintings assemble an omnivorous personal pantheon of heroes. The imagery can include figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Sitting Bull, Superman, Marvin Gaye, James Dean, Annie Oakley, Kermit the Frog, and Tintin, alongside symbolic objects like a Castafiore emerald. Interspersed abstractions and landscapes, including views of New York, Los Angeles, and Earth from space, expand the scope. Family scenes use patterned bedspreads as metaphors for interwoven networks of community and family.

Read at Hyperallergic