Copro Gallery’s latest showcase prepares us to indulge in the works of three diverse artists as Chris Mars, Amandine Urruty and Ciou take centre stage…each, simultaneously, with their own solo exhibitions within Copro’s walls. These three creators, though starkly different in their approach to art, bring a tantalizing collection in a triple event you don’t want to miss.
CHRIS MARS | AMANDINE URRUTY | CIOU
Opening Reception:
Saturday, February 25, 2017 | 8- 11.30pm
Exhibition Dates:
February 25 – March 18, 2017
Copro Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Complex | 2525 Michigan Ave | Unit T5, Santa Monica | CA 90404
For purchasing information and availability, please contact Gallery Director Gary Pressman E: copronason@msn.com
Chris Mars
With his darkly surreal oil paintings, Minnesota-born Chris Mars opens up a gateway to deeper levels of the human mind. His solo exhibition of new oil paintings delve into a series of personal influences as his poignant, vibrant strokes continue his journey of empathy as he eloquently re-interprets his brother’s chronic experiences of mental illness. Though many may find his works disturbing and macabre, there is power in Chris’ works which permeate through with an unstoppable energy. As he states on his website: “From my hands, my mission: To free the oppressed; to champion the persecuted, and the submissive; to liberate through revelation the actualized Self in those proposed by some to have no self at all.” Other works in his solo show will include pieces from his ongoing series of paintings about Hanford, Washington – a nuclear bomb plant from the cold-war era that continues to contaminate its surrounding area with radioactive waste, even to this very day. “Painting is a way to simply escape,” Chris explains. “I don’t exclusively wrestle with how people treat other people negatively. Luckily there are problems people are solving for one another as well. Either way, painting is good therapy.”
Life is Beautiful
Chapter 31 Paragraph 2
The Next Meal
Elsewhere
Hanford 14
On Foreign Shores
Amandine Urruty
The playfully grotesque pieces by French artist Amandine Urruty provide the perfect escapism from everyday life. Instantly recognizable, she mixes her mastery of traditional drawing with unorthodox scenarios, the contemporary and the symbolic often providing strange yet curiously inviting creations. Staring out at you from the canvas, her characters connect you to the scene at hand; escape is, in a bizarrely cathartic way, futile. As her website explains, “Amandine Urruty offers us a cheerful gallery of deviant portraits, associating grotesque outfits with baroque decorum which miraculously reconcile lovers of alchemistic symbolism to young ladies with too much make up”.
Trunk
Mirrors
Dolls
Ciou
The intensely vivid multimedia works of Ciou are a rare glimpse into a world ‘suspended by dreams and nightmares’. Even the physical foundations alone begin each creation with an already-established history; collages made from old papers in medical books, nature manuals and dictionaries are the bases on which she paints her fantastical visions. “Ciou creates her own « necro-kawai » cosmology of characters mainly centered around witch-y nature burlesque girls and their strange animal companions” explains her website, “her new works feature florescent psychedelic colors as a foil for her obsessive black line work [and] her darkly charming works are creepy in a very playful way, a little bit of sweet and a little bit of sour in a friendly and dangerous world.” Her quixotic, large-eyed beings fashion themselves perfectly within the wild landscapes of unknown realms, and have caught the hearts of collectors worldwide from Tokyo to Berlin.
Nothing’s Going to Change My World
Life on Mars
Jellyfish Song
