He's a rebel without a cause, a sweet young man who's eager to find his way. The paintings he produces combine the innocence of childhood with ominous imagery evoking danger, crisis and chaos.

        Marcus Knupp, 23, says his paintings have “a delicate nature but a sardonic context.”

        “I use cartoon images from comic books and animated series to express an adult position or mentality,” he says. “A cartoon is always light, fluffy, cutesy. As an adult, you have to start dealing with the real world — personal finances and the part your childhood played in your development.”

        The eight canvases on view at Mullane's Parkside Cafe, 723 Race St., downtown, are wildly energetic, engaging and fun.

        Mr. Knupp, a May 2000 graduate of the Art Academy of Cincinnati, continues to explore new directions in his work, which he admits is still “the work of a young artist.”

        “I'm still adjusting to being out of school,” he says, although he has applied for graduate schools in New York. “I've started experimenting in different media and I feel less restricted. I'm interested in how your childhood affects who you are today — your sexuality and spirituality — the whole gamut.”

        All of this is apparent in the canvases. Dear little does are superimposed over a bleeding tongue or below an open mouth with pointy teeth. And an original icon described as a “fat finger or stubby phallus” appears in nearly every composition.

        Striking out after graduation, Mr. Knupp shared a studio with Ryan Woods and Steve Zieverink. A series of shows they mounted under the rubric “New Works By . . .” led to what is now known as the gallery space Unit 2.

        “It was a lot of fun,” he says. “We had three shows in one month. It was a blast. All the shows were really nice and it gave me a different outlet — being not just the artist but the curator.”

        Mr. Knupp has moved on to his own apartment where he paints — working through an archive of symbols created by a process not unlike automatic writing — when not serving or busing at Mullane's.

        Born near Wiesbaden, Germany, where his father was in the military, Mr. Knupp did not move to the United States until he was 13. “I went from being surrounded by farms in Wiesbaden and going to an American school to Louisville, Ky.,” he explains. “I was terrified. I hated the United States. It was not my country.”

        But after high school, Mr. Knupp won a scholarship to the Art Academy of Cincinnati and later took on a studio program in New York where he found the stimulus welcome.

        “I loved being surrounded by ideas and current thinking,” he says.

        “When I was at the academy, my work became kind of twisted. I was reacting to where I was. I did a piece that was a hummingbird surrounded by stylized snowflakes, the kind you'd hang on your window. I still have the piece. It looks pretty but is about something darker. I needed to break the monotony of what was going on around me.”

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