FIRST PHOTOS

May 4th, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | No Comments »

Carnivora artist Robert Williams, Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon and Les

Carnivora Editors George Petros and Deana Lehman with friend

Photo: Jeremiah Klein

Carnivora Artists & Authors At Los Angeles Opening

E-mailer Invitation

April 17th, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | No Comments »

This simplified invitation was designed for everyone’s convenient E-mailing use. It does not list artists names, for that, there is the printed version of the invitation featured 3 posts just below. Unfortunately, the names of artists, Kent Bash, Dean Fleming and Dwayne Vance are missing from the printed invitation since they joined Carnivora only in the last two weeks, after the invitation was already printed.

The complete list of participating artists in the L’Imagery exhibition can be found on the Press Pelease.

All Carnivora Art Now at L’Imagerie Gallery in LA

April 17th, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | No Comments »

Topher Crowder, one of our Carnivora artists, drove the exhibition cross-country from Detroit to Los Angeles. Debra Jacobson and her staff are presently in the midst of unpacking and properly cataloging every item in the shipment. More artwork is expected to arrive in the coming days from artists adding new pieces. Everything is progressing on schedule towards the big opening on May 3rd. Pick up the (always) excellent new issue of Hi Fructose magazine. It contains double page ad for the Carnivora exhibition and L’Imagerie Gallery. 

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The Magnificent Seven

April 9th, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | No Comments »

Allow me to single out for a special note of thanks Kent Bash, Dean Fleming, Ken Keirns, Chris Peters, Bart Powers, Dwayne Vance and Charles Wish, the seven magnificent artists who have agreed to join us by including their artworks in the L’Imagerie Gallery show at this better-late-than-never juncture. We welcome you into the Carnivora family. Your original paintings, many of them specially created with the Carnivora concept in mind, guarantee that the L’Imagerie exhibition will be a historical one. If there will be a 2nd edition of CARNIVORA - The Dark Art of Automobiles, your paintings are certain to be in it.

You are Invited

March 14th, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | 1 Comment »

 

 CARNIVORA - The Dark Art of Automobiles

May 3 - June 14, 2008 

 

GRAND OPENING RECEPTION 

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 7pm

 

 L’IMAGERIE GALLERY 

10555 Victory Boulevard • North Hollywood, CA 91606 • 818-762-8488 

 

L’IMAGERIE GALLERY proudly invites you to join in celebrating its inaugural exhibition at its spacious new location with a gala star-studded grand opening reception. The LA presentation of this incredible sampling of the world’s most notorious artistic renegades coincides with the official publication release of the book. L’IMAGERIE will have on hand for sale the first exclusive West Coast copies of the edition, a truly significant chronicle and commentary on arguably the most critically defining icon of modern civilization.

 

 In addition to the 62 artists exhibited  at Detroit’s ©POP Gallery, Carnivora book artists Eduard Anikonov, Steve Cerio, Chris Conte, Cam deLeon, Mike Diana, Brian Horton, Travis Louie, Eric Joyner, Craig LaRotonda, Shag, Greg “Stainboy” Reinel, Jeral Tidwell, Keith Weesner, and Robert Williams will join the exhibit at L’Imagerie Gallery, plus new original works are being produced for the show by Guy Aitchison, William B. Hand, David Trulli, Brian Viveros and Kenneth Williams. Artists who came to our attention after the book went to press and are joining the Carnivora exhibition at L’Imagerie Gallery with their paintings are: Kent Bash, Dean Fleming, Ken Keirns, Chris Peters, Bart Powers, Dwayne Vance and Charles Wish. 

 

Los Angeles Carnivora Exhibition Opening, May 3rd

February 1st, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | 3 Comments »

The West Coast opening date of Carnivora - The Dark Art of Automobiles, is planned for May 3rd. This will be the first exhibition at L’Imagery Gallery’s  beautiful new location, 10555 Victory Boulevard, in North Hollywood. The show will grow to include more artists from the book and other new surprise additions to Carnivora.  

Carnivora Update

January 30th, 2008 by LesBarany | Posted in Generl News | No Comments »

Photos of the Carnivora exhibition installation and the opening night at Detroit’s ©Pop Gallery have been uploaded to the PICS section of the Carnivora MySpace page. Please have a look. the show looks great! Of the 90 artists featured in the book, 64 are represented  in this first leg of the exhibition. The show looks great! A big thanks is owed to Tom Thewes, Rick Manore and all the people who pitched in and helped during the two days leading up to the opening, Topher Crowder, Jaclyn Schanes, and visiting artists Patrick Byers, Bernado Corman, and Jason D’Aquino. My big thanks to Chris X and Kevin Slaughter for making sure the book was done in time for the ©Pop exhibition and for representing Scapegoat Publishing on opening night. Others in attendance from the Carnivora family were editors George Petros and Deanna Lehman, and contributing author Daphne Graham. The exhibition will run through the end of February. If you are anywhere within a 100 mile radius, it is well worth the trip to view the Carnivora art collection up close and in person. 200 advance copies of the book were rushed from the printer to Detroit for sale at the show so, for now, until the first shipment of Carnivora arrives at bookstores in April, ©Pop Gallery is the ONLY place in the world the book is available! 

 

The Detroit News - Sex, death and cars…

January 18th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Show News | No Comments »

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sex, death and cars

Michael H. Hodges / The Detroit News

Sex, death and — amusingly — UFOs predominate in the current show at Detroit’s C-Pop Gallery, “Carnivora: The Dark Art of the Automobile,” timed to overlap with the big North American International Auto Show at Cobo downtown.

It would be easy, perhaps, to see in “Carnivora” an implicit critique of Detroit, the current state of the Big Three, and their impact on the world. But that would be too simple — and a little narcissistic, to boot.

Rather, “Carnivora,” which runs through Feb. 22, looks far beyond the domestic auto industry, embracing the entire world’s dark romance with the automobile, and the central role the car occupies in mankind’s dreams.

It just so happens that most of the dreams presented here lean toward the nightmarish.

Some 65 artists worldwide are represented, with works that range from sculpture to painting to digital art. There are huge names — underground cartoonist R. Crumb and Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, who designed the alien in the “Alien” films, to name but two artists.

Detroiters are well represented with works by, among others, Niagara, Topher Crowder and Ford GT40 designer Camilo Pardo.

If there’s one constant throughout this entertaining exhibition, it’s that most of these artists, whether European, Asian or North American, are positively enraptured with the classic age of 1950s American car design.

No matter what mayhem occupies the rest of the canvas — from car bombs to the apocalypse — those behemoths-with-fins are rendered with palpable affection.

But then, given the choice, which would you paint? A 1959 Chevy Bel Air or a 2005 Nissan Sentra?

Case closed.

“It’s not the car that’s dark,” says Rick Manore, C-Pop director, and the author of an essay in the show’s book. “The auto is neutral until a human being gets behind the wheel. Then it becomes our automotive doppelganger, a metallic extension of ourselves.”

As such, it’s no surprise that sex and death — those twin obsessions lodged somewhere behind the shiny chrome grill — figure highly. (Climate change, by the way, makes virtually no appearance.)

Take Niagara’s punchy, cartoonish “Light My Fire,” in which a stiletto-heeled dominatrix stands with gasoline can behind her 1950s classic, whose license plate reads “Detroit.” Behind her, a skyline erupts in flames.

The show’s organizer, New York artists’ rep and curator Les Barany, shrugs. “Well,” he says, “bad things can happen in cars, huh?”

Happily, there’s humor in the midst of the darkness.

If some of these works disturb — like Paul Rumsey’s mesmerizingly creepy “Cars,” in which gas-masked people morph into automobiles, or vice-versa — many others are a positive scream.

Eric Joyner’s luminous oil-on-wood “Close Call,” for example, catches a relieved alien-robot just as he bails out of a late-’40s Packard careening off a cliff.

Or consider self-described “auto artist” Bernardo Corman’s “Carp!” series. This features a group of small, colorful “fish” whose heads are the fronts of 1950s cars, which morph seamlessly into an elegant tropical fish before you hit the windshield.

“It just popped to mind,” Corman says with a grin Monday at C-Pop. “Fish with car heads.”

Curator Barany says he decided against putting out a general call when he began pulling the show together in August.

“I knew I’d be inundated with a lot of work I wasn’t crazy about,” he says. “Instead, I used the opportunity to go after people I’ve been a fan of since I was in art school.”

About a third of the works, Barany adds, were created specifically for “Carnivora.”

From Detroit, the exhibition will travel to that other car-crazy town, Los Angeles, for a show at the L’Imagerie Gallery.

As for fears that some patrons will take the show as an attack on the local industry, Pardo says that never occurred to him.

“Especially for people in my field,” says the Ford designer, “it’s very cool to see something a little more colorful. Because generally all we see are the happy, shiny illustrations. It gets a little redundant.”

Whenever he hosts a designers’ party, Pardo says, “I always try to bring in some weird, Salvador Dali-like art. For us in the creative end, it’s refreshing.”

Indeed, the enthusiasm for man’s favorite vehicle — despite the show’s premise — is confirmed in the exhibition catalog, now available on amazon.com. The short bio on each artist notes what kind of car she or he drives.

Niagara motors around Motown in a metallic-silver, 1966 Cadillac Coupe DeVille.

Pardo owns a 2005 Ford GT, a 1967 Mustang fastback, a 1982 Ferrari BBi, and a dinky 1972 Fiat 500 — which he says he parks in his living room/studio.

And Barany, the evil genius behind the whole show?

A typical New Yorker, he’s never learned to drive.

You can reach Michael H. Hodges at (313) 222-6021 or mhodges@ detnews.com.

Find this article at: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/ENT05/801170383

Local Detroit Pre-Show Press Coverage of Carnivora

January 12th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Book Release, Event | No Comments »

THIS WEEKEND - CARNIVORA UNVEILED AT CPOP DETROIT!

January 10th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Event | No Comments »