Tom Pfannerstill at Perlow-Stevens Gallery

I recently discovered Tom Pfannerstill's work at Perlow-Stevens Gallery in Columbia, Missouri. Many of Pfannerstill's recent artworks depict our detritus and mass-marketed consumables. Here are some more images of Pfannerstill's work as seen at the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee and at Trifecta Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pfannerstill's trompe l'oeil renderings of once clean cut advertisements and mass-produced packaging are very precise in every detail, virtually indiscernible from the real things portrayed. He depicts paper cups, boxes, cans and other packaging in imperfect states, having captured the likenesses of such items after finding them as trash on the street. (Each artwork features a note on the back chronicling where and when the object depicted was found.)

By depicting our detritus, Pfannerstill shows how even these mass-marketed objects are themselves fallible, imperfect and transitory, subject to time, nature and the elements as everything else. While encouraging the viewer to look at mass-produced consumables and their packaging anew, Pfannerstill also provides commentary on littering and on what we perceive as trash or treasure.

If you are in Columbia between now and September 28, I would recommend stopping by the Perlow-Stevens Gallery to catch the Summer 2008 Exhibit before it ends. The level of detail and craftsmanship of these pieces cannot be fully appreciated unless seen in person.