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MERNET LARSEN,
MERNET LARSEN,
MERNET LARSEN,
MERNET LARSEN,

"Trial" study 2, 2021

Acrylic on Bristol paper
24 x 19 in.
61 x 48.3 cm

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) MERNET LARSEN, 'Trial' study 2, 2021
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) MERNET LARSEN, 'Trial' study 2, 2021
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) MERNET LARSEN, 'Trial' study 2, 2021
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) MERNET LARSEN, 'Trial' study 2, 2021
Larsen’s paintings often take compositional cues from found imagery, which she uses as jumping-off points for exploring the psychological ordering of form and space. In this study for the painting...
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Larsen’s paintings often take compositional cues from found imagery, which she uses as jumping-off points for exploring the psychological ordering of form and space. In this study for the painting “Trial” (2021) Larsen takes the ubiquitous—and often claustrophobic—scene of a courtroom, and stretches it into a vertiginous tableau. Working off a government diagram of a courtroom and its typical operators (judge, witness, court reporter, gallery), she builds a cast of characters amid the tan tiles, green carpeting, and wood-sided desk stands of this municipal space. The blocky heads and bodies of the figures appear in sizes that defy the logic of perspective—a tool Larsen has used since the 1980s, to convey differences between individual mindsets. Here, by using geometric form and plays on perspective, she orchestrates the figures and composition ground to suggest the emotional and power dynamics at hand.
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