Jerry McLaughlin’s paintings lie somewhere between abstraction and realism, and are densely packed with various objects that at first seem recognizable, but upon closer inspection have no actual footing in reality. Organic and machine-made objects commingle in a cacophonous world that is insistent in its energy.

Jerry McLaughlin was born in Sacramento, California in 1925. He graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in California (now CalArts) in 1951. In addition to painting, he was an art director at an advertising agency in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. His work is represented in collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. McLaughlin died in 2002 at the age of 76.