Catherine Mulligan

"Supermarket 2"  oil on board

"Restaurant 1"  oil on board

"Furniture Store Window"  oil on paper

"Shopping Mall (escalators)"  oil on paper

"Public Restroom"  oil on board

Discovering amazing art by well-established professionals of whom I'd never heard before is always exciting, but sometimes it's even more exciting to see work by a young artist who has not really even gotten started yet on his or her career. Of course you can never tell how it's going to go. But these pieces posted by Cathrin Mulligan on her Flickr page strike me as a powerful beginning. Although she has figurative work posted as well, my personal favorites are these roughly painted, scratched and doodled studies of modern convenience in decline. Using technique rather than detail she is able to powerfully convey the timeworn feel of aging shopping malls, and outlet stores; the lonely abandonment of an empty storefront, or the vaguely appalling dinginess of a public restroom. She also has some rather nice still lifes as well, collecting odd objects from this dystopian life; a beer can, some coffee creamer, a jar of vaseline, some sardines, a slice of ham. The photos are not professionally done (there's a strong incandescent yellow cast to some) and there's not a ton of work. Most unfortunate of all, there's not a lot of recent work. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope she posts more soon.

You can see a few of the pieces posted from her undergraduate show in 2009 I think, at PAFA.