VANTASTIC VOYAGE - DIRTY DONNY GILLIES
Where: Copro Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Complex
2525 Michigan Ave , Unit T5, Santa Monica , CA 90404
Ph: 310/829-2156
E-Mail: CoproGallery@Live.com
Web: www.CoproGallery.com
What: VANTASTIC VOYAGE - DIRTY DONNY GILLIES
Dates: Opening - February 25, 8:00 - 11:30 PM - Exhibit runs; February 25 – March 17, 2012
Contact: Gary Pressman, Gallery Director Copro Gallery
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Copro Gallery presents for the first time at the gallery, Dirty Donny Gillies solo exhibition "Vantastic Voyage". Inspired by the custom van murals made famous in the 1970's and the fascination with space fantasy in the years just after the moon landing, Donny has created an entirely new collection of works. Only in that glorious, pre-digital age did space travel, heavy metal, unicorns and medieval sword fights all collide on the flat slabs of sheet metal, black velvet / black-light, belt buckles and album covers - and none of it escaped Donny. He's combined a love of this magical era with his ever-present cast of monster characters in new canvases and dice-of-many-sides full of metalflake, fishscales, panels and space dust. This exhibition will also feature 2 of Donny's custom Pinball machines, special edition copies of his brand new book along with many other suprises!
While Dirty Donny has made a name for himself with his ever-expanding cast of monsters in the Low Brow art scene, it takes merely a second glance at the environment he's created for them to live in to understand his greater influences. Donny is a popular cultural anthropologist as much as he's a artist, painter, pinstriper, illustrator, typographer and designer. Using mediums like punk rock flyers, rock show posters, guitar picks, pinball machines, cigar store Indians, action figures, motorcycle helmets, automobile bodies, jackets, t-shirts and yes - even canvas, Donny uses every chance he gets to convey some of the greatest elements of American pop culture : hot rods, muscle cars, custom vans, tiki gods, surf culture, horror movie characters and rock-n-roll. Donny's attention to detail for the all those minutiae that the rest of us just take for granted is part of what makes his work so special.
“Dirty Donny…making the world a better place, one monster at a time.” - James Hetfield, Metallica
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