CANNED HEAT
4633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Friday, July 5 at 8:00 PM 11:00 PM
Ends Jul 28, 2019
CANNED HEAT: Summer Group Exhibition Roger Betka, Chris Donnelly, Tasha Kusama, Maya Peterpaul, Jay Torres, Andrea Shear, and Brian Williams La Luz De Jesus Gallery is pleased to present Canned Heat, a group exhibition irrationally named after Sloppy Henry’s 1920s song, “Canned Heat Blues”, which slurs the consequences of drinking canned heat (also known as sterno fuel) during the age of Prohibition. The exhibition features work by Roger Betka, Chris Donnelly, Tasha Kusama, Maya Peterpaul, Jay Torres, Andrea Shear, and Brian Williams. Canned heat whiskey’ll make you sleep all in your clothes, lay down in your clothes, hear, baby, I said//Canned heat whiskey make you sleep all in your clothes//When you wake up next morning feel like you stayed outdoors// -Sloppy Henry, “Canned Heat Blues” Roger Betka lives and works in Los Angeles, California as a storyboard artist and freelance illustrator for Toyota, Nissan, Ebay, Chevy, Harris Publications, and Time Warner Cable. His love for comic book art, mid-century illustration, and Sci-Fi, and anything coming from a weird, surreal physical or mental space inspire his compositions. Chris Donnelly was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fascinated by their shapes, colors, and mechanical design, Donnelly was driven to collect antique wooden fishing lures. By the early 90s, he was inspired to make them himself. Looking for a way to express further emotion and character, he ultimately ventured into carving wooden people. Using only basic carving tools such as gouges, files, and knives, he sculpted from his unadulterated imagination and has since been producing his iconic wooden subculture. Tasha Kusama lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Kusama explores the concept of women ‘on the verge’ through the female form and atmospheric skycapes. She believes true human nature is beyond the physical, and men and women should remember to look at one another and acknowledge that we are a collective of spiritual beings not fully represented by the physical world. Maya Peterpaul lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Her ink drawings are influenced by her background in printmaking and feature stills from a subconscious world of extraterrestrial visitors, vegetable spirits, epic heroes, and mystical creatures. In 2007 she received her B.A. in Art Education, with a focus on intaglio printmaking, from the University of New Mexico. In 2018 she received her M.L.I.S. from San Jose State University. She has exhibited in galleries in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and in Los Angeles, California. Andrea Shear lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Working mostly in ink, watercolor and oil paint Shear creates cryptic imagery conveying a sense of longing and sentimentality that seems to represent part of a bigger narrative. As a mother of two, she is especially interested in exploring themes surrounding the wonder of nature and childhood emotion and experience. Shear studied at Oxford Brookes University in England and at the New York School of Visual Arts Upon returning to Los Angeles, Andrea worked in the visual effects industry and eventually returned to design, drawing and painting. Brian Williams Lives and works in Columbus, Ohio. He is interested in surrealistic juxtapositions of animals in a man-made environment — sometimes posing as a person or replacing man-made technology in order to illustrate the ways people and animals are similar but also to create unusual, humorous or vaguely unsettling images. Williams draws inspiration from nature, history, animals, ghost stories, folklore, and old-fashioned photography. Williams graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2003, where he studied Illustration, Fine Art and Art History, and where he now teaches. Jay Torres lives and works in Altadena, California. Torres explores themes of dark figures in barren landscapes, nightmarishly-goofy portraits, and catholic iconographies that create a quiet and aloof dreaminess to his work. It’s no wonder that as a child, Jay Torres was chastised by the nuns at his school for his tastes in the fringe subcultures of the 80s and 90s. As he grew older, these interests not only informed his perspective but also shaped a uniquely hypnagogic and surreal aesthetic. Jay graduated with a BFA in Illustration from ArtCenter College of Design. More information and images coming soon. Contact Gallery Director Matthew Gardocki for purchase info: info@laluzdejesus.com (323)666-7667
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