Jean Foos
Spectacular Liar, 2025
Acrylic on plastic mask
11X7X5.5
 
Spectacular Liar was developed during a January 2025 artist residency in Venice, amid a period of political, environmental, and cultural upheaval in the United States. Although geographically distant, Jean Foos remained deeply affected by the California wildfires, the Trump inauguration, and the death of filmmaker David Lynch, events that collectively shaped a surreal and unsettling psychological landscape. The discovery of a child's Pinocchio mask became a central catalyst, painted with patterns to become a dark, iconic form. Drawing on folklore and the carnivalesque, the work explores spectacle, deception, and the grotesque overlap between innocence, power, and menace.