Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave , Unit T5, Santa Monica , CA 90404
Ph: 310/829-2156
E-Mail: www.copronason.com
What: gallery 1 - Kukula's Princess Express - gallery 2 - Tin's "Tainted" - gallery 3 - Sas Christian's "Alter Ego"
Opening Reception, November 8 - 8:00 - 11:30 p.m.
Dates: Exhibit - Saturday, November 8 , 2008 - November 29, 2008
Contact: Gary Pressman, Gallery Director Copro/Nason Gallery
Kukula's "Princess Express"
The Princess Express is a travel agency that provides especially slow transport for fragile creatures--like princesses and their teddy bear companions. Kukula says " Four years ago I moved to the US , but somehow I still don't feel like I've entirely arrived. Physically I'm here of course, but the long journey from one home to another isn't yet done. This show is about long journeys to uncertain destinations. I approached each painting like it was a page of a travel diary recording the muted hopes, disorientation, or just plain weariness of a lost soul."
Sas Christian's “Alter Ego”
This is a great Sas Christian mini-show featuring oil painting studies of upcoming works. An alter ego (latin for "the other") is a second self, a second personality or persona within a person. It was coined in the early 19th century when schizophrenia was first described by early psychologists . A person with an alter ego is said to lead a double life .
Tin's “Tainted”
Tin's earliest influences in childhood were comic books and fantasy cartoons like "Star blazers". Says Tin "I sketched from time to time and did ok in high school art class then I decided to became a fisherman. The dangerous kind like out of the movie "Perfect Storm". I almost died three times and should have lost my drawing hand at least a dozen times. After my last close call with death I decided to become an artist. I didn't look at art as a career though until I was 22".
Tin built a name doing pin-up/erotic art for 7 years but became tired and depressed. "I was just going through the motions and creating things that didn't challenge me anymore. One day I was finishing a pin-up girl and I remember saying out loud to myself "If I only had a heart" which reminded me of the Tin Man in "Wizard of Oz". That moment I decided to do more interesting works and call myself Tin.
His main influences are Steam punk, a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.
"I like high contrast and Dr. Frankenstein. A soft woman and a fluffy animal combined with hard metal gets me my fix. I'm also fascinated by broken women with mental problems or scars with hard history or who have survived heartache and are likely to stab me for God knows what."
There will be some new prints by Tin at the show so don't miss it.
