Mark Whalen is an Australian born, Los Angeles based Painter. Using a tightly controlled painting technique, Whalen expresses satirical social narratives in seemingly universal situations.Characters caught in the throes of ambiguous actions, shimmering trees, geometric patterns, architectural anomalies and intricate textural beads of color collide in kaleidoscopic intensity, at once immaculately composed and careening out of control. His use of sly oppositions reflects life's puzzling duality; evoking dark humor through luminous color, chaos through controlled detail and the sublime through the specific - a seductive synesthesia that sheds new light on humanity: which, like his works, is both erotic and oppressive, vibrant and reclusive, beautiful and uncanny.