Chris Fallon at the Landing

Chris Fallon’s paintings pull you in with their colorful palette and array of painted styles—the figures and objects in his bizarre scenes range from cartoonish to hyper-realistic. His figures often are painted simply with squares for noses, small black dashes for eyes, and graphic blue, purple, or pink skin, while the scenes they are set within, whether cramped interiors or foliage-filled landscapes are rendered in a more realistic style.  The figures often feel like paper dolls, stuck within a more keyed-up reality. This gives the work a sense of humor and play, although prolonged looking builds towards a more morose tone. 

Each painting presents us with an odd scenario, where anomalies and subtly warped perspectives push the paintings into an uncanny place. For instance, in Ill Suitor a pink figure sits on a loveseat, limply holding a bouquet of flowers, while the “suitor” seated next to her seems to have morphed into an amorphous shape made up of grey ribbon-like fabric. The bit lip of the figure, along with the large armoire in the background that blocks the only exit from the room, add a sense of unease to this surreal scenario. 

Passageways, windows, and reflections are repeated motifs in the paintings, and Fallon’s compositions often feel oddly cropped so that the viewer is placed in a voyeuristic point of view as if we too are peering in through a window, trying to make sense of the odd scenes before us.  

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Photo: Chris Fallon, Ill Suitor (installation view) (2023). Image courtesy of the artist and the Landing.