What goes on behind closed doors in Southern California?
- Text by Robin Nierynck
- Illustrations by Ed Templeton
Contemporary artist and skater Ed Templeton explores the sinister depths of suburban life in California’s Huntington Beach, with a new solo exhibition of paintings Synthetic Suburbia at Roberts & Tilton gallery in Culver City, California.
A chronicler of Southern California life, Templeton has long photographed the people and culture around Huntington Beach, where he grew up. Now he’s moving into the suburbs, for an expedition into the secret lives of its residents.
With Synthetic Suburbia, Templeton seeks out the darker side of the coastal town, unveiling its shrouded elements of strangeness and fabrication. “Synthetic Suburbia is a culmination of years of looking at the place where I live and the peculiarity of it,” says Templeton, “I have travelled all over the world and there is no place as strange as Huntington Beach.”
Under the surface of his paintings, which may seem like simple depictions of people going about their daily lives, a private world unravels, exposing a patchwork of facade and carefully constructed images.
Templeton perfectly captures the eeriness of a too-perfect, seemingly idyllic vision of manicured lawns and painted wooden fences. And fences feature heavily in this collection; a physical manifestation of the false front they represent. Templeton explains, “Behind all of these nicely painted houses and planned communities are humans and all the thorny issues that come with them.”
Synthetic Suburbia runs at Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, California, April 25 – May 30.
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