NEW BRITAIN, CONN.- The New Britain Museum of American Art welcomes the latest NEW/NOW artist, Karl Lund and his colorful and dynamic world in which robots seek revenge and destruction in post-apocalyptic landscapes. A melding of his stop-motion character design and sci-fi related themes, Lund’s paintings and sculpture tell intriguing, action-packed stories. They also invite the viewer to look closer, as the works’ small details hold interest and mystery.

The exhibition will showcase a variety of Lund’s sci-fi related paintings of both large and small-scale including, I’ve Grown Tired of playing your Silly Stupid Games, 2011 and He was Programmed to Liquefy Anyone Who Got in His Way, 2012. Lund shares that his new, large-scale paintings zoom out to expose a bigger picture and has allowed him to explore the environment and creatures that inhabit it.

When asked how he would like his art to affect the viewer, Lund responded, “I think if I can make someone smile, open their eyes a little wider, or inspire them to pick up a pencil or a brush to start drawing that would be wonderful. My goal is to tell intriguing stories that are visually and thematically dynamic. I want to capture worlds and events that currently only exist in theory or within the possibility of science fiction.”

Lund began his work as an artist at a very early age. Fascinated by dinosaurs, comic books, and science fiction/fantasy, his drawing was encouraged by his mother, also an artist, and his teachers. “I remember in second grade I had a teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, who called on me to do a drawing about Halloween on the blackboard. So I started drawing ghosts and goblins, and then it got into dinosaurs and it kept going,” Lund recalls. This love of drawing and its ability to unleash the imagination lead to a career that includes painting, drawing, sculpture, and stop motion animation.