Anthony Clarkson 'Spoil The Mother' Print Available

Artist: Anthony Clarkson
Title: Spoil The Mother
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: 20 x 29 Inches
Edition: 30
Prices: $75

Anthony Clarkson is a Los Angeles-based painter, illustrator and designer whose ghostly surrealism maps the fault-line between child-like innocence and adult disquiet. Born in 1978 and trained at the Colorado Institute of Art, he spent his early career as head graphic designer for a major record label, crafting hyper-real digital photo-manipulations for album covers that quickly appeared on releases across punk, metal and alternative rosters.

Weary of pixels, Clarkson began re-activating the sketch-book creatures of his youth, translating insomnia, heartbreak and suburban ennui into acrylic and oil paintings on wood panel. His imagery wide-eyed waifs, crumbling circus tents, wind-up ballerinas abandoned in overgrown gardens combines meticulous glazing with distressed surfaces so light seems to seep through cracks in the narrative.

Since his 2005 debut at Thinkspace, Los Angeles, he has exhibited in venues such as Gallery 1988, Copro/Nason and Cannibal Flower, and was tapped for curated tributes to Marvel Comics (hosted by Stan Lee) and Kevin Smith’s “Crazy for Cult” series. Vinyl-toy juggernaut MindStyle commissioned him to customise a 10-inch Stitch figure for Disney’s global Experiment 626 tour, cementing a crossover following that spans fine-art collectors and designer-toy hunters.

Whether rendering a melancholy carousel horse or a house swallowed by kudzu, Clarkson’s work invites viewers into what he calls “a theater of tragedy” a place where sweetness and sorrow share the same breath, and every cracked paint flake is a reminder that stories, like hearts, are beautiful when broken.