Art Beat

Mark Lunning is better known as an artisan -- a master printer -- than he is as an artist. But at the same time that he’s been working with some of the best artists around at Open Press, his fine printing shop in Broadway Terrace, he’s also been making his own fine art.

Related Content

• Standout shows at Pirate and Edge call attention to the corner of 37th and Navajo
  March 22, 2012
• Joan Moment and Monroe Hodder get the Havu gallery off to a running start in 2011
  January 13, 2011
• The Masters
  August 16, 2007
• The Simple Life
  May 12, 2005
• Piss and Vinegar
  November 19, 1998

More About

• Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
• Visual Arts

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Arts and Theater Newsletter: Weekly information keeping you in the know when it comes to the art and theater scene. Find out about upcoming performances, exhibitions, openings and special events.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

In A Change in the Weather: Etchings and Paintings, Lunning showcases his own recent pieces in the exhibition space at Open Press. The show’s title, indicative of a stylistic break as well as a seasonal change, is taken from one of his etchings, also called A Change in the Weather: (pictured).

The prints are not paper versions of the paintings, nor are they preparatory models for them. But they’re not unrelated: Both have a central spiral motif that suggests the contraposto poses used by the old masters, including Caravaggio, a personal favorite of Lunning’s. The paintings, many of which have radiating triangles of color, also owe a debt to cubism and futurism.

Another interesting aspect of the paintings is the use of three-dimensional boxlike canvases that have been finished on the sides as well as the front. A couple have been framed, which finishes them off even more effectively. Lunning’s engaging show reveals what he’s been up to when he’s not helping others achieve their artistic ends. The show is well worth seeing before it closes on June 3.