Relax for a spell and let your imagination travel the creative corridors of two distinct artists and their extraordinary new bodies of work. Arouse within feelings of intrigue and curiosity and join The Dark Art Emporium this weekend in honour of William Basso and Alex Eckman-Lawn.
Rooted in symbolic narratives, the collection of eerie imagery alongside the fundamentals of dark surrealism conjures a strange, emotive response. Gaze upon each soulful portrait and let them speak to you.
Time travel and see all the previous exhibitions. To view available artworks, visit the The Dark Art Emporium website! If you haven’t discovered The Art Pit DAE Podcast, now’s the time. The Jeremys (as in Jeremy Schott – Owner and Jeremy Cross – Assistant Director) discuss all things art, music, movies, and more. Episodes 1-3 are now available to stream using Soundcloud via The Dark Art Emporium website or their YouTube channel. The gallery is open by appointment only but that doesn’t mean you have to miss the show. Make your appointment today to visit and see all works in person!
William Basso & Alex Eckman-Lawn
Opening Reception: Saturday, July, 9 2022 | 5-9pm
The Dark Art Emporium
121 W. 4th Street, Long Beach, California 90802
Located in Downtown Long Beach within The 4th Horseman
For additional information and purchase availability please contact: Jeremy@darkartemporium.com
Entities By William Basso
The eight mixed media pieces in this show are a series of imaginary portraits, each one with its own secret story. The pieces all emerged from my subconscious and were grown in a very organic and intuitive way, meaning that I didn’t have a preconceived notion of what they would be beforehand. It was through the ritual of working that the pieces came into being and each one of these personalities revealed itself.
The figures are often a combination of organic and mechanical forms, creating a partially artificial or fabricated creature, and this could in fact be an alter ego, a kind of theatrical transformation that masks another being within. My hope is that the viewer will participate creatively and, in their own way, interpret the hidden stories behind each of these “Entities”.
To create each portrait, I start by combining random, unrelated pencil sketches with my own photographs (taken of small sculpture studies that I’ve fabricated), and then editing this very loosely with Adobe Photoshop software. This type of exploration can yield exciting discoveries. The resulting rough collage is printed out and the paper print is used as a soft underdrawing which is carefully mounted to a panel. Cut paper is collaged over this and the piece is developed with pencils, acrylic paints and other media.
– William Basso
The Dregs By Alex Eckman-Lawn
The Dregs is a series of portraits celebrating members of a community that doesn’t exist. Like a documentary aiming to memorialize a liminal space, it is a dream that’s fighting to push through the thin membrane separating it from waking life. The subjects of this series want to communicate, but the language isn’t shared. As our actual lives become increasingly surreal and horrific, my practice reflects that gauzy haze that has descended over me these last few years. I’ve welcomed a new kind of chaos into my work- a secret vocabulary of half-understood symbols and imagery.
There’s a narrative here, but it feels just a bit out of reach; the way you might feel if you found half of a diary lying in the muck. The result is a body of work that feels sort of unfamiliar to me, like meeting a family member I didn’t know I had. I’m the documentarian, lost between a life I wish I could escape and a dream that I can’t quite reach. Maybe you’ll have better luck.
– Alex Eckman-Lawn
