Rob Pruitt's 'The Suicide Paintings' Exhibition Explores Color and Digital Mediation

Rob Pruitt's exhibition 'The Suicide Paintings' features 11 canvases with airbrushed acrylic color gradients, each bordered by gradients that balance or enliven the central hues. These works oscillate between kitsch vistas and formal color studies, referencing theories like color intensity variation through framing. Pruitt, known for glitter pandas, Jimmy Choo designs, and the Andy Monument (2012) in New York, here riffs on the 'death of painting' debate without his typical pop-culture wit. The paintings lack emotive cues, creating an alarming encounter through scale and color intensity. In an anteroom, chromed TVs on white-and-black boxes allude to blank pixels, questioning how pop culture simplifies emotions and identities. The exhibition title suggests metaphors for life and death, with the works resembling flatscreen TVs in proportion and vacuity, hinting at digitally mediated suicides. The concept blends sculpture, word, and paint, reflecting a world where pixels dominate and pop culture loses impact. First published in December 2013, the show presents Pruitt's wry, clever approach to contemporary art.