https://artillerymag.com/space-invasion/
LEANNE LEE, MARGIE LIVINGSTON, MAYA LUJAN, CHRISTOPHER MERCIER, LAURA MORIARTY, LINDA STARK, STEVEN WOLKOFF.
Maya Lujan, Carwash, 2010, photo by Ben Duggan
To most of these artists though, the fiction of the window doesn’t matter. Maya Lujan’s paintings do entertain the concept of spatial illusion but then playfully reject it. This is most apparent in works that feature thick skins of dried paint attached to the top of a canvas. These flaps of paint extend down, often past the canvas and even to the floor. And they can also obscure that prime image area, the front of the painting. In one series, the paint strips deliberately evoke stage curtains; in other works, those long car-wash sponges. “When I paint, I let the paint stand on its own and reference itself through sculpture,” Lujan says.