Jerry McLaughlin at Smith-Andersen - Palo Alto, California - Review of Exhibitions

Art in America, Jan, 1995 by Peter Selz

Jerry McLaughlin paints concrete visions of invented, improbable objects, strange contrivances that are difficult to fathom. At first glance, the large painting Symmetry with Anomalies appears to represent a mass of toy soldiers or sentinels marching in close formation. It doesn't take long, however, to realize that the painting is constructed from an astounding range of forms: cones, cubes, kidney shapes, tubes, spheres and devices suggestive of laboratory implements. In a complex structure of repetition and variation, the painting creates a powerful sense of visual paradox. Similarly, the vast multiplicity of elements in Recreation cannot be deciphered, although they suggest vascular and neurological structures or high-tech systems. (In addition to these two large-scale works, this show included 14 smaller paintings.)

McLaughlin is fascinated with computers and technology, but his more central concern is with the mysteries of pure science. Although they seem to communicate a sense of order, McLaughlin's paintings are actually visions of unpredictability, bearing comparison to quantum mechanics' description of the complexity arising from phenomena of physics such as "frozen accidents" and "surviving mutations." McLaughlin's highly intelligent paintings relate to these and other kinds of experimental thinking.

In his painted investigations of indiscernible energy and the mystery of space and time, McLaughlin tries to visualize the structure of the atomic nucleus and subatomic particles like quarks and leptons. He also follows new developments in astronomy and studies mineral and organic life forms, including undersea flora and the color miracle of tropical fish.

After some 35 years of painting, McLaughlin (whose work has been widely exhibited in the U.S.) is a superbly disciplined artist. His large compositions, which begin as sketches and undergo numerous changes during their making, take 9 to 12 months to complete, and his long experience enables him to handle the painting and glazing to create glowing colors and beautifully crafted surfaces.

When confronted with McLaughlin's paintings, we are shown clearly delineated objects which bear no resemblance to anything we have ever known or seen. But after all, the artist's job is to see what others don't and to attend to our fantasies from an alien world that even science fiction has never imagined.