by Maria Sofou
If, at first glace, you think you are looking at photographs of drive-in movie theaters, you are wrong: artist Andrew Valko has just fooled you.
Valko’s hyper realistic paintings are greatly deceitful as their scenery looks completely real: parked cars, dim-lights, sunset and in the background celebrities playing their best role. Angelina Jolie, Jack Nicholson, Audrey Hepburn, Amanda Seyfried, Marilyn Monroe are all part of this set up.
Each of Valko’s paintings depicts a different parking lot with a different background, created in a way that the viewers feel as they are participating in the scene. We start off as we were comfortably watching from our cars and then we quickly become the voyeurs: we are watching the viewers watching the movie from their cars. A feeling of nostalgia is inevitable: the drive-in scenes takes us back to the past, while the contemporary actors represent a need to go forward. Valko’s work is extremely elaborate and creates a beautiful visual experience.
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