When asked what his paintings are “about” in a recent interview, Tom LaDuke responded, “My paintings are about location, a subjective moment in time and place. There is no entrance into my paintings - I try to fix moments in time, where something significant happened to me, or of an image that is important to me: to anchor this idea of self. But it is impossible to do—we are never the same person—we are always changing.” 

Realism is an illusion in Tom LaDuke’s world. He was inspired to develop this body of work after catching the reflection of his studio on the screen of a television playing a movie. Scenes from films such as Alien, The Shining, and The Elephant Man serve as the background for the ghost forms—bits of digitally-manipulated imagery from art history, pop culture, and personal memory—that LaDuke floats into his compositions with photographic precision. Hovering between cognitive assumption and clear identification, LaDuke’s work pulls back the curtain on visual perception and plays with our conception of reality. 

“There are no obvious edges to hold, no clearly marked or reassuring paths to take,” LaDuke reveals, “These paintings are closer related to music or better, eavesdropping on a private conversation between two people… specifically when the sound of each person overlaps to form a new sound, a new chord. This third then becomes an opening, a place to stand to ask, ‘Where am I?’”