The Peter Mendenhall Gallery is pleased to announce its second exhibition of paintings by Los Angeles artist Daniel Douke. Included in the exhibition will be his hyper realistic three-dimensional paintings of common objects such as mailboxes, cereal boxes, cardboard packing boxes.

Doukeʼs work seamlessly blends notions of painting and sculpture, realism and abstraction, and representation and reality. In so doing, the works often confound viewersʼ expectations of artʼs means and ends. The paintings originate from and also bring together elements of three 20th century art movements, Conceptual art, Minimalism, and Pop art. “Marcel Duchampʼs ideas have always interested me,” states Douke, “along with Minimalismʼs concept of the specific object and Pop artʼs use of common imagery. There is an element of industrial process to my selection of images. I make paintings of things people look at everyday, but donʼt necessarily see. They are what I call icons of expendability.”

In 2006, the Luckman Gallery at California State University, Los Angeles, mounted a comprehensive survey of Doukeʼs work, Daniel Douke: Endless Instant. Curated by Julie Joyce, the exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue under the same name with essays by Joyce and independent writer/curator Michael Duncan.

On view at The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, is Daniel Douke: Bytes of Reality. The solo exhibition runs from March 26 to July 17, 2011.

A full-color, 40-page hard-bound book by New York-based writer/curator/poet John Yau was published by the Peter Mendenhall Gallery for Doukeʼs 2008 exhibition.

An opening reception at the gallery for the artist will take place on Saturday, May 14, from 6 to 8 pm. For further information please contact Peter Mendenhall at (323) 936-0061.