Opening Reception: Thursday, October 23, 6–9 PM
McLennon Pen Co. is pleased to announce I'm Having a Panic Attack, a solo exhibition of twenty new works by Austin-based artist Lindsey Lascaux. The exhibition will be on view from October 23, 2025, with an opening reception from 6–9 PM. In this incisive new body of work, Lascaux transforms the titular phrase from a private cry of distress into a public diagnosis of our contemporary condition—a world saturated by systemic anxiety, surveillance, and the absurd paradoxes of digital life.
Drawing from her deep research into the intersecting histories of psychiatry, religion, and technology, Lascaux explores what she terms the "psychic architecture" that organizes our lives. Grounded in the artist’s own lived experience with physical and mental illness, her practice confronts the dissonance between the messy, often painful realities of embodiment and the frictionless, curated selves demanded by the digital sphere. It is from this tension that the work’s dark, tongue-in-cheek humor emerges—finding a shared language in the universal act of ‘holding it together.’ The work uses this humor not to make light of pain, but to make the experience of it communal, inviting a collective, cathartic laugh in the face of absurdity.
The exhibition interrogates the pervasive feeling of being watched and found wanting, connecting childhood hopes for a future filled with magic with adult nostalgia for an imagined painless past. For Lascaux, we’ve entered a virtual reality without consenting to its terms of service, reducing our spiritual and emotional lives to data points in a grand, often terrifying, machine. The show asks: In a state of constant, networked observation, what is the difference between a cage and a refuge, and is a panic attack not a rational response to this reality?
I'm Having a Panic Attack showcases the full breadth of Lascaux's interdisciplinary method, bringing together over twenty new paintings, drawings, sculptures, and mixed-media objects. The exhibition features vibrant paintings that merge the painterly aesthetics of the Disney Golden Era with the flat, glossy finish of cel-shaded animation, creating scenes that are at once nostalgic and unsettlingly synthetic. In her lightbox sculptures, the vernacular of commercial design—from dentist office ceiling tiles to 1970s beer ads—is repurposed to house complex digital collages, resulting in anachronistic objects that feel "unearthed from the rubble of another dimension". Glossy red bouquets sitting in ornate vases appear on closer inspection as though made of smoked sausages and brisket slices, dripping in viscous barbecue sauce. Beginning each work with a combination of 3D modeling and jocular conversations intending to intentionally confuse various AI models, Lascaux renders the fantastical and implausible with touches of realism which demand that even the silliest scene be treated with serious introspection.
Lascaux's practice is a frenetic exercise in critical synthesis, distilling complex theory into potent visual puzzles with the stakes raised to life or death. By treating everything from bureaucratic forms to children's games as ciphers to be decoded, she reveals the absurdity and earnestness of navigating suffering in a hyper-mediated world. This exhibition solidifies Lascaux's standing as a singular voice examining the pathologies of our time, not with didactic prescription, but with the sharp, disquieting clarity of an unforeseen answer.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lindsey Lascaux (b. 1991, Plano, TX) is an Austin-based artist, writer, and educator. Lascaux has a BA in cultural anthropology and sociology from the Lewis & Clark College in Portland. More recently, she graduated from SAIC in 2019 with an MA in visual and critical studies from SAIC. Lascaux’s work delves into the complexities of mental health, societal inequities, and the tools we use to manage our emotions. Her work has been featured in exhibitions with Loyal Gallery, NADA, Martha's, and Rift Contemporary, and her writing has appeared in various publications. She is also an active educator, leading courses such as 3D Modeling for Painters, and Digital Painting at The Contemporary Austin at Laguna Gloria.
For more information, press inquiries, or a preview of the works, please contact McLennon Pen Co. at info@mclennonpenco.com.
