Dan Gilroy’s 2019 dark satire tells the story of a cynical and profiteering LA gallery scene, and the haunted art of a dead painter. As a child, Ventril Dease, suffered horrific parental abuse. In death, his works, painted with his own body fluids and pigment, infect nearby contemporary monstrosities. Pretentious installations, postmodern sculptures, and various other kitsch come to life and devour the primping movers & shakers who would profit off of Ventril’s pain… For the look, I took psychological cues from Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, with a painterly style drawing on George Bellows, Eric Fischl, and Janet Fish.
