AMERICAN GROTESQUE PART 2 Katharsis

AMERICAN GROTESQUE

Zero Station presents works from POTUS8647 in the AMERICAN GROTESQUE PART 2 Katharsis exhibition, opening March 20, 2026, 5–7 pm at 222 Anderson Street, Portland, Maine.  

Here’s the backstory on POTUS8647.

Zero Station Gallery, Portland, Maine, exhibited selections from Michael Torlen’s POTUS8647 in AMERICAN GROTESQUE, PART 1 KASSANDRA, an exhibition in two parts. AMERICAN GROTESQUE PART 1 KASSANDRA opened on September 17 (the anniversary of the Constitution signing) and ran until October 31, 2025.  The artist showed 7 paintings from POTUS8647 series and Drill Baby, Kill, a landscape painting of oil wells, smokestacks, and skulls. 

On November 7th, during First Friday, Zero Station held ROTTEN HAPPENING, an event where attendees threw tomatoes at several POTU8647 paintings. Later in the evening, the artist selected one, titled Money Honey and burned it in response to the chaotic times we are living through. Video Chris Andrew recorded the event.

On Wednesday, November 13 and Monday, December 1, Video Chris Andrew and the artist burned the last POTUS8647 paintings in Buxton, Maine. The BUXTON BURN marked the project's third stage. 

In the last weeks of December, the artist painted backings for the partially burned paintings.

In 2026 Keith Fitzgerald built frames at Zero Station for the varied remains of the POTUS8647 paintings. In this, the fourth stage of the project, the artist embellished the frames with bulbous, GAUDY, GOLD ornamentation and attached a QR code to each work. The QR code will take the viewer to an edited video of this project—the AMERICAN GROTESQUE opening, the ROTTEN HAPPENING, BUXTON BURN, and the GAUDY, GOLDEN framed works. 

Zero Station presents works from POTUS8647 in the AMERICAN GROTESQUE PART 2 Katharsis exhibition, opening March 20, 2026, 5–7 pm at 222 Anderson Street, Portland, Maine.

Hope to see you there.

Michael