Tom LaDuke- Opening Reception at Peter Medenhall Gallery

Tom LaDuke was born in Massachusetts, but raised in Los Angeles- graduating with his bachelors of fine arts from CSUF in 1991. I knew of his previous work from his 2007 work "4pm, 1980" with airbrushing and painting canvas. The piece was an odd juxtaposition of a view of his studio overlayed on top of a still frame form the move "The Shining", and I always liked the odd sense of cold nostalgia I felt from that painting. I was very excited to hear that he was having a reception in Pasadena and I rallied some ArtCenter friends by bribing them with some cheap pad thai. 

First impressions of the art wasn't great- I only saw two small sculptures that were both reminiscent of udders, and the pieces on the wall looked like blurry black and white photos. I quickly made my way over to one of the frames on the wall and got as close as I could without fogging up the glass, and I was amazed! All of the frames were graphite on paper. Tom LaDuke's technique was flawless, and I enjoyed his departure from his typical paintings and sculptures. 

However, the subject matter of the drawings were a bit boring. There was one frame with a candle, but the others were indiscernible, the majority of the drawings looked like lace lamp shades. The novelty of finding out that the pictures on the wall were hand drawn and not printed wore off quickly, and I found myself wishing that there was more to look at. My friends that came with me felt the same way about the exhibit. Overall, I would say that it was pleasant to look at the works, but I would not drive from Koreatown to Pasadena solely for the gallery. 







Comments

  1. Daniel StoneOctober 27, 2025 at 9:26 AM

    Hi Brandon! So cool that you were able to go to the gallery. I really appreciated your insights regarding the work related to "The Shinning". Glad your friends are also fans of cheap pad thai like myself!

    ReplyDelete

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