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Isabel Samaras at La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Nov. 13

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twobooks

Lisa Petrucci and Isabel Samaras double book signing:
“Kickass Cuties – the Art of Lisa Petrucci” and
“On Tender Hooks – the Art of Isabel Samaras”
Friday, November 13, 2009 6 pm – 9 pm
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027

These two original “ladies of lowbrow art” are featured in the books ” Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art” by Kirsten Anderson and ” Vicious, Delicious and Ambitious – 20th Century Women Artists” by Sherri Cullison. Both Lisa Petrucci and (Parsons Illustration Alum) Isabel Samaras are making a special trip to Los Angeles for this event only. Please join us at La Luz de Jesus for a fabulous night of female fun! We will have on hand numerous items by both artists and of course, there will be free refreshments for all!

“ On Tender Hooks – The Art of Isabel Samaras”

Isabel Samaras folds in familiar icons from classic TV shows, comic books, and movies to create imagery that is very much of the now. Any archetype, from the Bride of Frankenstein to Little Red Riding Hood, Gilligan to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, can find true love (or at least a sexy entanglement) in a painting by Samaras. Never failing to shock and delight with their eagle-eyed perceptions of human folly and animal passion, the paintings in On Tender Hooks tell stories that are tender, bewitching, and fascinating. On Tender Hooks is a look at Pop Culture as filtered through the eyes of an artist with a bent for twisted narrative, saucy erotica and quirky humor. According to Samaras, “People who like classic monsters, fairy tales, and cheesy American cultural icons will get a kick out of this book.” Essay and orchestration by Colin Berry, Text by Justin Giarla, Lucy Blue, Shag, and The Pizz, published by Chronicle Books.

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“ Kickass Kuties: The Art of Lisa Petrucci”

Walk through a sparkling wonderland of make-believe, a cotton-candy-colored dreamworld of hearts, flowers and switchblades, of glamorous, dewey-eyed cartoon pin-up gals, kutie-pie kowgirls, leopard-skinned sweeties, hatchet-wielding honeys, and the cuddliest devil kitties Hell has to offer. The art of Lisa Petrucci is a honey-coated maelstrom of contradictions — the innocence of lost Americana, childhood nostalgia, and traditional feminine iconography all presented with a rebellious spirit. “Kickass Kuties: The Art of Lisa Petrucci,” is the first collection of the artist’s remarkable catalog, a hallucinatory tour through an emporium of cultural chaos, a bipolar gallery of imagery both sacred and profane. Foreword by Kirsten Anderson, Published by Chronicle Books.


In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor

Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, , , , ,

In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor
On view through October 5th, 2008
Laguna Art Museum

In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor is an exhibition that presents the work of 150 artists and posits that there has been a huge, but unacknowledged art movement taking place in this country for the last 40 years. Since 1994, this ground swelling of lowbrow, surrealistic, pop, figurative, narrative work has coalesced and found a voice in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine published in San Francisco. This rag has become the most widely read art magazine in the US. It is an influencing force on the aspiring artists of Generation Y and the Millennials, who are now enrolling in art schools in numbers never seen before.

Juxtapoz magazine was founded by Los Angeles-artist Robert Williams. The “Juxtapoz aesthetic or lowbrow art” is almost always figurative, and is inspired by movies, TV, advertising, black-velvet painting, psychedelic posters, pulp porn, sci-fi and horror, carnival art, comics books and all things lower- and middle-class. The Magazine has and does provide a voice and validation for a brand of artist, like Williams, who has not been accepted traditionally by the typical art-world infrastructure of collector, curator, and critic. However, since its founding, it has been the clear focal point for having been the inspiration for the creation of its own infrastructure that supports Juxtapozian art with galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, collectors, followed by critical attention, followed by museum exhibitions at adventurous institutions. With it’s growing success Juxtapoz has been a major contributor to the reemergence of painting again as a valid practice for artists since the mid-1990s, running counter to forty-years of art-school canon that focused on the Conceptual practice of context, collectivization, and dematerialization of the art object.

For the last decade the art establishment (collector, curator, and critic) has argued that the idea, or construct, of an art movement is outmoded. This exhibition explores the idea of a “Juxtapoz Factor.” Is it an organized movement operating under a singular manifesto? Or is it a wave of talented overlooked artists who decided to reach out to the public and create their own canon?

Check out the full description here, along with a listing of all the fantastic artists involved.  You might notice Illustration Alum Isabel Samaras in that list.  Congrats to her!  You can also read more about the show in this write-up by Richard Chang in the OC Register, who proclaims that this show “could very well be the art show of the year.”  High praise.

Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Drive
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

[ images by Robert Williams (top) and Isabel Samaras (bottom) ]