THE BLAB! SHOW / 16TH ANNUAL GROUP EXHIBITION
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: THE BLAB! SHOW / 16TH ANNUAL GROUP EXHIBITION
BLAB! Web-Preview
WHEN: Exhibit runs; September 11– October 2, 2021
Opening Reception: Saturday September 11 , 2021 - 5:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Contact: Gary Pressman, Gallery Director - Copro Gallery
“I can’t believe it’s our sixteenth year in a row,” commented the Midwest curator. “Believe it or not, the key incentive as to why I keep organizing these annual BLAB! events is to be able to view the original work by our masterful contributors in person. My only stipulation in regards to content is that their piece be square.
BLAB! began as a self-published, black-and-white midwestern comics fanzine published in 1986. After its second issue, it was picked up by the independent comics publisher Kitchen Sink Press and relaunched as a trade paperback on a national scale. BLAB! featured comics by Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, Richard Sala, Joe Coleman, Drew Friedman, and Zap artist Spain Rodriquez. In 1994, the seventh issue won a HARVEY AWARD (named after Harvey Kurtzman, creator of MAD) for Best Comics Anthology.
“But then my vision for the digest entirely changed. I reformatted BLAB! as a 10-inch square color anthology mixing the art form of comics, illustration, and contemporary painters together, having no idea as to what the response would be. The new BLAB! took off like a bottle rocket. Within four months, the 5000-copy print run had completely sold out.”
“I began commissioning covers by Mark Ryden, Gary Baseman, and the Clayton Brothers, with interior art by the Low brow / Pop Surrealist painters, which led to a Los Angeles-based exhibition with Gary Pressman & Greg Escalante of the now legendary Copro Gallery. Gary rented out Track 16 at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica and on opening night over 1000 people turned out. It was exhilarating on the one hand, but overwhelming on the other. I was being pulled this way and that by fans of this art form to the point where I almost ducked out. Never before in my life had I experienced an art event such as that. Looking back on that time, when people ask what it was like, I tell them: Now I know what it feels like to be treated like a Beatle.”
This year’s show will be a real homecoming for Beauchamp as he was forced to cancel last year’s trip due to COVID19. “I’m really looking forward to once again hanging out with those who have supported us over the years and to meet the first timers attending THE BLAB! SHOW.”
Bergamot Arts Complex, 2525 Michigan Ave T5, Santa Monica, CA 90404 - 310-829-2156
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