CHET ZAR 'LIFE & DEATH'-STEPHANIE INAGAKI 'ICONS OF 'DEATH & DREAMS'-EMMA BLACK 'DIVINE DECAY'-DOS DIABLOS 'MACHINA DIABOLIKA'


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: CHET ZAR 'LIFE & DEATH'-STEPHANIE INAGAKI 'ICONS OF 'DEATH & DREAMS'-EMMA BLACK 'DIVINE DECAY'-DOS DIABLOS 'MACHINA DIABOLIKA'

CHET ZAR Web-Preview
STEPHANIE INAGAKI Web-Preview
EMMA BLACK Web-Preview
DOS DIABLOS Web-Preview

WHEN: Exhibit runs October 12 – November 2, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday October 12 , 2024 - 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Contact:  Gary Pressman, Gallery Director - Copro Gallery

For the month of October Copro Gallery presents 4 artist solo exhibitions honoring the Autumn season. This month marks the end of the summer harvest and letting go of what no longer serves us & the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that is often associated with human death. Over 2,500 years ago, celts believed the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred in October. They celebrated the ancient Gaelic festival SAMHAIN (precursor to Halloween) a holiday that included human sacrifice. For these 4 exhibtions the theme of Life, Death, Dreams and Divine Decay are explored. All 4 artists will be at the opening reception and the spirit of the season will be in the air.


CHET ZAR 'LIFE & DEATH' will be Chet's 11th exhibit and event since 2006 with Copro Gallery. In in this new collection of oil paintings, Zar has taken inspiration from the theme of 'Life & Death' which is an inevitable part of our existence. "Through these paintings, I tried to explore our emotions surrounding life under the influence of the fear of death and the phantoms created by it. While we often avoid thinking about it to get through the day, this avoidance can give death a haunting power over us. Unacknowledged mortality becomes a burden on humanity. Yet, without death, life would lack meaning. It is as natural as birth, and shouldn't be feared.

'Life & Death' continues to expand the ever-unfolding world of Dy5topia, the “negative thought-form dimension” that Zar has spent most of his artistic life uncovering through his paintings and sculptures. Two sides of the same coin....constantly presenting us with choices, heads or tails?

CHET WILL BE SIGNING HIS BOOK “Dy5topia- A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar” AND PERSONALIZING PRINTS & POSTERS OCTOBER 12, OPENING NIGHT!
“Dy5topia- A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar” is the long-awaited field guide to Zar’s nightmare frontier. It describes the characters, territories, societal class structures and more using full color reproductions of Zar’s artwork and text written by Mike Correll (director of the award winning documentary, "Chet Zar: I Like to Paint Monsters"). The layout and book design was created by Mackie Osborne (graphic design for TOOL, The Melvin's and Zar’s "Black Magick: The Art of Chet Zar" book among many others) . The nearly 400-page tome also includes a foreword by artist and author Wayne Barlowe ("Hellboy", "Galaxy Quest", "Avatar").
“IT’S GREAT!!!!”- Academy Award Winning Director Guillermo del Toro
Chet Zar Bio


STEPHANIE INAGAKI'S 'ICONS OF DEATH & DREAMS' is in honor of life and death, and the resilience, grit, and perseverance that comes out of it, which does not exist without hope, which in turn creates dreams. Many cultures throughout history used to and still carry forth days or months of remembrance for the dead. The gods and goddesses of death simultaneously represented healing, life, regeneration, and fertility. This cycle of samsara is a continual theme within my body of work.
BIO: Stephanie Inagaki received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University's College of Fine Arts and her Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has been published in magazines and books such as Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Hi-Fructose, “The Mammoth Book of Skulls”, “The Aesthetics of Design in Fantasy: Myth & Horror”, to name a few. As a multifaceted artist working in both fine art and jewelry, she resides in Los Angeles.

EMMA BLACK 'DIVINE DECAY ' is Emma's second solo exhibition with Copro Gallery, Divine Decay is a series about remembrance, fragility, mortality and the transient nature of earthly existence. The work is a comment on how contradictory elements such as beauty and decay can co-exist in our world of ambiguities and dualities. Present in the works is a contemplation of death and mortality, and an exploration of the relationship between new understandings and perceived identity. Caught between life and death in an essential unreality, the figures in the paintings are in turmoil as they transform into new beings. The visible anatomy acts as a representation of, and simultaneous contortion, of the idea of true beauty being on the inside; contrasting with the unassuming pleasantness of the flora and fauna blooming on the surface. The inaccuracies of their existence become intertwined into their identities, resulting in a hybrid of entities that aims to feels more akin to an object, in a process of self examination and objectification. Acting upon a sense of what could have been and the unlikely feelings of a new beginning, they serve as a tribute to the personal loss and grief in the world.
BIO: Emma Black is a UK based artist. She graduated in 2012 from the University of Westminster with a First Class honours degree in Illustration, and in 2016 from the Cambridge School of Art with a MA in Fine Art. The unknown, whether an aspect of the physical world or a limitation of the human mind, is the main starting point for her work. Using traditional media and autobiographical themes, her practice explores notions of The Uncanny, human subconscious and our relationship to death and the natural world.

DOS DIABLOS 'MACHINA DIABOLIKA' Hailing from Guadalajara, Mexico, Dos Diablos is an artist who taps into the fears that have haunted our society for thousands of years. Drawing on these irrational anxieties and fusing them with an aesthetic that draws inspiration from Christian iconography, Dos Diablos’ work is a chilling reminder of the power of demonic forces. Using his preferred technique of oil paints, his work is a throwback to the wonders of taking ones time to perfect a craft. The texture of his brushstrokes evokes a physicality to his work that could only be achieved through this specific medium. The origins of his subjects, demonic creatures and mutated humanoids, lie in the psyche of this unique artist, exploring the deep subconscious mind and reflecting on ones own identity, a task that few of us wish to undergo. This self-introspective and novel approach has resulted in him working on projects that vary in style. From movie posters to magazines and newspaper features and the fine art world, Dos Diablos is ever forging new grounds. (Gata Magazine)
BIO - Jorge (Dos Diablos) was born in Guadalajara Mexico (1982). His art carreer started as an editorial illustrator, working for several Mexican newspapers and magazines. His illustrative collaborations range from posters, music album covers and book designs. Jorge's fine art career began as a result of restlessness, inner emotions and social conflicts. His critical vision which we see in each of his works evolves into the monster that we each carry with us every day. The work of 'Dos Diablos' transgresses and delights the viewer, leaving us no option but to forge ahead and contemplate our destiny. Jorge works and lives between Guadalajara and California.
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