The Allen Priebe Gallery opened the exhibit “Shane Walsh: Plastic Alphabet” on Sept. 9, which features various paintings that make up collages on canvas using all sorts of materials.

Walsh, the artist behind these paintings, was a DJ in the 1990s and found inspiration from the subcultures of the era, creating abstract paintings with different techniques to represent his inspiration and his life.

The technique Walsh uses could be described as choreographing all the materials onto the canvas and utilizing a variety of painting techniques to create something new on the canvas, something completely customized to fit his experiences.

Walsh describes his style as “painting as collage,” which is a mindset he took from his time as a DJ.

He said he took influence from media and culture of the time, such as MTV, NBA expansion team designs, Garbage Pail Kids, Modernist Abstraction and many more.

These influences can be seen throughout his paintings, with bright vibrant colors, stars, prints and other forms of media.

The paintings all have unique names too, such as “Strobelite Honey,” “Wizard” and “Tropical Metal.”

Each of these paintings are different; they each have an abstract style that makes them their own.

Walsh said he did this on purpose, as he wanted to go beyond the normal abstract and create a remixed and reshaped form of abstract art, one that was his own.

Walsh’s exhibit “Plastic Alphabet” is certainly worth checking out for those who enjoy abstract art that displays culture and life from a different era.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 30 in the Allen Priebe Gallery, located in the Arts and Communication Center.