Mutantilation 2016

Robert Sammelin made this work, Mutantilation, sometime in the 20th Century, using what looks like digital painting tools. It’s got that super saturated comic book palette, all hyper-real pinks, purples and oranges, laid down with clean lines. It makes me think about how artmaking can be a process of world-building, constructing an alternate reality, one mutation at a time. Take a look at the detail in the skeleton, how the colors create a sense of texture, a kind of marbled surface, really pulling your eye around the composition. Then there’s the hand, gripping the sword, so fleshy and bloodshot. It’s kind of a gross detail, but it’s also compelling. It’s like Sammelin is forcing us to confront our own mortality. It reminds me a bit of the work of Basil Wolverton, maybe because of that grotesque, cartoony style. Both artists seem to revel in the absurd, in the messy, in the monstrous. Ultimately, art is a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas, so it’s cool to see how Sammelin is riffing on those themes, adding his own unique spin.