The Carnegie-educated Madonna made a name for himself in 2004, when his monochromatic comic \u201cAll Over Coffee<\/a>\u201d began appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle. <\/p>\n The comics were often large, single-panel images of sights and sounds from all over San Francisco. This could be anything from a hilltop view of the Golden Gate Bridge (which would feature the occasional splash of color) to an empty cup of coffee at a local cafe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Madonna\u2019s recognizable style, with its barely-straight lines and liberal manipulation of the viewer\u2019s perspective, made the comic a hit well outside of the city it portrayed. <\/p>\n Whereas most newspaper comics feature outlandish adventures, and most newspaper stories about San Francisco lean towards the sensationalist (for better or for worse), the images of \u201cAll Over Coffee\u201d were akin to visual poems, allowing the reader to contemplate the minutiae of Fog City without any distracting aesthetics.<\/p>\n No panels from \u201cAll Over Coffee\u201d are featured in \u201cWe Came Here to See.\u201d In fact, the comic seems to have been purposefully deleted from the collection, which includes a crayon drawing (\u201cPink Piranha,\u201d 1979) from a 12-year-old Madonna featuring fish playing an Atari 2600. <\/p>\n That\u2019s one of the few displayed works that isn\u2019t for sale. Instead, the Nelson Duni show leans heavily on the works the artist has created from 2022 onward.<\/p>\n It features several pieces that obviously wouldn\u2019t appear in a mainstream newspaper, including a large collection of nude life sketches. <\/p>\n Most of the sketches occupy the largest wall in the gallery, each at a different stage of completion. Some of the incomplete sketches almost have a Picasso-like quality in how they represent the body in abstract forms, seemingly blending into the background.\u00a0<\/p>\n The more detailed sketches show the artist\u2019s grasp of both shadow and form, creating an Escher-like realism. One prominent piece features a topless Black woman on a lounge chair as the sun streams over her torso, her dark skin contrasting with white furniture and wall behind her. <\/p>\n Another features a fully-clothed man cosplaying as Emperor Norton, his feathered top hat adding some eye-catching color to pleasant portrait. It\u2019s in the detail of these glorious sketches where Madonna\u2019s roughly-drawn aesthetic seems more of a choice. <\/p>\n It isn\u2019t that he\u2019s unable to draw straight lines (which are still pretty lacking in the nudes), but that they might actually take away from the image.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, \u201cAll Over Coffee\u201d makes an influential appearance, if not a literal one. The majority of works in the show are the contemplative images for which Madonna has become known: Lifelike still images of San Francisco, a city that seems to constantly be in a state of flux. <\/p>\n In fact, a triptych of images from atop a hillside crosswalk collectively feature the blue-texted message \u201cThis is a beautiful place that is not a place, but a feeling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A similar large landscape of Bernal Heights features the hillside adorned with its own Hollywood sign, which simply says \u201c\u201cDREAM<\/a>,\u201d a project by artist Ana Teresa Fernandez<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another roughly drawn image of a Dogpatch cafe sees the business tagged with the phrase \u201cGo Back to Where You Think You Started.\u201d For many people, San Francisco is less a place and more an idea; very rarely do those ideas align between any two people.<\/p>\n Through a gaze that\u2019s equal parts indifferent and infatuated, Madonna\u2019s images almost allow for all the ideas to be correct at the same time.<\/p>\n Incidentally, the first thing one notices about the Nelson Duni Gallery is how the former Barrish Bail Bonds building (for which the deactivated neon sign still hangs above the entrance) has this show\u2019s title stenciled outside its brick walls. <\/p>\n Take a step towards the display window, and you\u2019ll see Paul Madonna\u2019s hand-drawn portrait of the gallery, complete with stencils. Even before one enters, the artist has shown them something familiar in a manner one step removed from reality. Even in this tiny gallery, the illusion holds strong.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Paul-Madonna-We-Came-Here-To-See-Print-vrsn.jpg\")
Paul Madonna, \u201cWe Came Here To See.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Paul-Madonna-ART-FIG-Becky-Print-vrsn-1.jpg\")
Paul Madonna, \u201cBecky.\u201d Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n![\"Watercolor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Paul-Madonna-ART-Bernal-Dream-Print-vrsn.jpg\")
Paul Madonna, \u201cBernal Dream.\u201d Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Paul-Madonna-ART-Coffee-Shop-Dogpatch-Print-vrsn.jpg\")
Paul Madonna, \u201cCoffee Shop Dogpatch.\u201d Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n