We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

Visually speaking, the categories of “beautiful” and “challenging” overlap far less frequently than they should. This applies to any creative pursuit: architectural, musical, sartorial, and most definitely when it comes to painting.

Paul Wackers’ work exists in that tiny shared zone between the two categories. His paintings of abstracted machinery, natural growth and mountainous landscapes are as thought-provoking as they are stimulating, mixing recognizable geometric elements with head-scratching piles of…well, interesting-looking stuff.

Wackers’ paintings remind us a little of the psychedelic dreamscapes (nightmarescapes?) of Kirsten Deirup, but there’s no doubt he’s doing something all his own.

Kirsten Deirup’s painting style could be described as the genetically-deformed love child of Yves Tanguy and Tod Browning. A native of Berkeley and a Cooper Union graduate, Deirup’s works are dreamlike tableux of monsters, forts, haunted trees, spare interiors, junk and garbage. It’s the sort of work that defies casual viewing–a piece like “Good Times” (above) will stop you in your tracks mid-gallery-stroll.