By Julie Pratt McQuiston for Nuvo
In real life, David Linn's landscapes would be bleak, but on canvas, they're surreal and intoxicatingly beautiful. Perhaps it's their minimalism, their clean lines and baby skin-smooth surfaces. Utah artist Linn, whose paintings Into This Wilderness are on view at the Indianapolis Art Center, creates something depthful through the medium of surreal hyperrealism.
Linn seems to pay homage to what's underneath. His paintings, reminiscent of the Utah remoteness he lives near, are not verdant. Instead, a field of rocks spans to a limitless horizon; snowcapped mountains surround a deep pool that seems to sink, literally, into the canvas. His clouds are as palpable as a squirt of whipped cream. This is trompe l'oeil at its finest.
What we see, though, is not a trick: It's evocative of a magnetic center. Each landscape, with one exception, is painted with a central light source, indicative of something unseen and spiritual holding things together. But where is the life in this deathlike environment? Linn manipulates his scapes like the unseen hand of God, or brush, as it were.
In "Evidence and Continuation," drapes fall from the sky as if onto a stage. The glossy effect of oil on panel further states the odd interplay between what is so real and what is stage-like. The sky behind is unmistakable, but then again it, too, could be a backdrop, a stage set. Perhaps the planet is just a theater after all. The question is, who moves the props, and who writes the script? Life is in the movement, in the parting of Linn's rocks, giving space for something to take hold, or in the dance of tree branches ("The Lesson") that have fallen from the tree and now strike a morbid pose, while the tree trunk remains intact and has grown new leaves. From death, then, there is apparently life.
Linn has honed his craft not to reflect realistically what he sees, but instead, to reflect on the reality behind what he sees. Perhaps there is a void we are being asked to pay homage to, or at least to recognize; and from this, color can emerge. The colors of life truly lived, after all, are where we find them; and the meaning is what emerges from beneath. .
Copyright © 2026 David Linn - All Rights Reserved.
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