So here’s a recent commissioned painting that I never got around to showing. This one was fun to do, and started right around my new fascination with acrylic inks. Too much fun, here you go:
Augmented Reality Acrylic ink on paper, mounted to wood panel and resined. 11″ x 15″ (2012)
Here’s some in progress shots. In case you’re interested in this stuff, I post work in progress photos regularly on my Tumblr page. Enjoy!
To purchase other original artwork, prints or available 100 Drawings, swing by the store.
The show is entitled “I Want my Music Video Art Show”, the theme being pretty self-evident right there in the title. This awesome show, curated by the fantastic Chris Marrs Piliero and David McDowell, will feature several amazing artists, each picking one of their favorite music videos to pay tribute in his or her respective art style.
I chose “Land of Confusion” by Genesis, mostly because it scared the hell out of my as a child. I’d seen the video countless times and the Spitting Image puppets had an amazingly disturbing quality of grotesqueness that was (and is) beautiful in its own unique way. Plus, a little bit of political satire for a video that’s still pretty relevant even today.
Land of Confusion Acrylic on paper, mounted to wood panel, resined.
13.5″ x 19.375″ (2011)
The show is at Gallery Meltdown, in Hollywood. They show opens this Friday, October 7th, and runs until October 20th. Many of the artists (including myself) will be in attendance, and it promises to be a fantastic show. Here’s a little bit of early press so far. For full details, click here. Hope to see you there!
I’ve finished a new painting for another upcoming pop culture show at G1988: LA, this time paying tribute to Garbage Pail Kids.
For those that didn’t grow up in the 80s, the Garbage Pail Kids were an awesome collection of illustrated trading cards/stickers made by Topps, created as a blatant mockery of the super popular insipid Cabbage Patch Kids. The cards were all illustrations of twisted, gross and cutely disturbing pudgy characters meant to show a dark side of the Cabbage Patch Kids. I was a ridiculously HUGE fan of these, and remember spending many dollars at both the corner 7/11 and the local ice cream truck on each magical pack of five GPK cards. I can still taste the inedible “gum” each pack came with, which on more than one occasion actually shattered a tooth upon chewing. The old joke was to collect the gum and chew up the cards, as it was probably much healthier for you.
As I finished up my painting, I was struck by the surreal nature of the experience. I grew up the aforementioned HUGE fan and remember drooling over the amazing art, crazy characters and awesome sense of humour in this collectible art set. To be making a painting of one of the cards for a show actually sponsored by the company that made the original cards is just mind blowing at times. I never imagined as a kid, running after the ice cream truck to buy a pack of stickers featuring gross characters, that one day I’d be painting one of my own.
Here are the original reference cards (all GPK cards came in two versions: same image, different name):
And here’s my version:
Zack Unzipped Acrylic on paper, mounted to wood panel, resined.
14.25″ x 21″ (2011)
The opening reception is 7PM on Friday, September 2 at G1988 Gallery, the Los Angeles location. I’ll see you at the show! And, because I just couldn’t resist, how awesome would it be for this to come to pass? I’m not sure Topps would approve, but it just might blow my mind if it actually happened. For your nostalgic enjoyment:
Zack Unzipped
