In his 1997 exhibition at I-20, Patrick Thorne created works that incorporated mass-produced materials for home design. The low-grade bricks, rugs and mirrors in his works were originally made for homes and offices in the American suburbs.
In a new series of paintings, America’s Mis-Adventures, Thorne incorporates a parallel ingredient, some of the common, popular symbols that have become part of our visual vocabulary. From Chihuahuas and aliens to bongs and airforce jets, Thorne’s symbols mirror, echo and parody sign paintings for advertisements and are integrated with text. Using the mobile paintings on U-Haul trucks as a springboard – paintings which depict benevolent scenes of regional America – Thorne alters these touristic landscapes with a darker, humorous and more irreverent version of America in 1999.
Thorne’s more recent group exhibitions include Wild at Exit Art, New York; The Prophesy of Pop at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; Surfing the Surface at the DFN Gallery, New York; and NU-GLU at the Joseph Helman Gallery, New York.
Patrick Thorne was born in 1967 in Fairfield, California. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute, and lives and works in New York.