Untrue Believer

There’s naive art and there are naive subjects. Artist Terry Thompson mines the latter with his architecturally precise depictions of vintage roadside landmarks such as motels and diners. The paintings will cause twinges in those harboring memories of a simpler time, because his works are hyper-realistic representations of an America that’s no longer real. Of course, Thompson’s America never was real, but only a capitalistic construct, and those neon beacons that he so beautifully renders were mere siren’s lures for road-weary travelers. The advertising signs certainly weren’t considered art by those who made them, but they’ve been recast in that role by a new generation of collectors, preservationists, and artists like Thompson and his fellow Americana revisionist Robert LaDuke.

Mondays-Saturdays. Starts: May 1. Continues through May 31, 2008