The Creep Machine was lucky to get one of the participants of the Crazy 4 Cult 4 show, Apricot Mantle, to not only take some photos of the event for us, but write a review as well. Hit the link to see the rest of the photos and the review. Hopefully we can talk Apricot into doing this more often.

The group show Crazy 4 Cult is now back again for the fourth installment. The full title “Crazy 4 Cult 4: The Case of the Redundant Number”, will feature work inspired by cult movies from a wide range of amazing artists. Just a few of those participating are: Allison Sommers, Anne-Julie Aubrey, Apricot Mantle, Casey Weldon, Chet Zar, Chris Murray, Dan May, Dave MacDowell, Ewelina Ferruso, Gene Guynn, Joe Scarano, Ken Garduno, Ken Keirns, N.C. Winter, Rich Pellegrino, Scott Campbell, Stella Im Hultberg, Tom Haubrick, and many more. Some are veterans of the group show, and many are new. The past three shows seemed to have been dominated by just a handful of movies, Donnie Darko, The Big Lebowski, Edward Scissorhands, and Willy Wonka. There are so many amazing cult movies, I do hope some of them are given the same treatment some of the repeat titles have. Here is a short preview of some of the works that have been posted around the web, or graciously shared with the Creep Machine. Hit the jump-link to see the full preview.

Breakfast Fight Club by Dave MacDowell

This is the Last Time I Saw You by Ken Keirns

Opening tonight at the Alternative Cafe in Seaside, CA is the latest Creep Machine curated exhibition. “Fables and Follies” is a group show that will feature work by Wesley Burt, John Cebollero, Dan Harding, Dave MacDowell, Jason Levesque, Jessica Ward, Apricot Mantle, Ken Keirns, Joseph Larkin, Arabella Proffer, Celene Petrulak, and more.
The reception starts at 7 pm, and for those that can’t make the show, the works are not on the galleries website.

Take a look at these preview images and then head on over to see the full show.
Fables and Follies @ Alternative Cafe

Tortoise At the Hare by Dan Harding

Pursuit of Love by John Cebollero

Vernor Tweakman by Joseph Larkin

This Saturday, June 5th will be the Culver City Art Walk. Patrons will be able to walk down Washington & La Cienega Blvd and check out a whole variety of galleries. Just a few galleries that will be participating in the art walk is; Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art, Corey Helford Gallery, LeBasse Projects, Thinkspace Art Gallery, WWA gallery and many more. Thinkspace will be having a group show that will also feature some new works by Dave MacDowell. And since your in the area you can head over to the Hive Gallery for the B3 Video Game themed show, with Apricot Mantle as one of the featured artists.

I’ll be there for this weekend of art, and will be taking some photos. See everyone after the weekend.

Culver City Art Walk info

Opening up this Friday, March 5th is the 13th installment of the “Everything But the Kitsch ‘N Sync” group show at La Luz de Jesus. These shows are packed with art, there is over 150 artists and 300 pieces to look at. This year features a great mix of well known artists, and some up and comers. Bob Dob, Apricot Mantle, Adam Strange, Bonni Reid, Heather Watts, JAW Cooper, Jessica Ward, Jon MacNair, Leslie Ditto, Patrick “Star27″ Deignan, Nathan Ota, Scott Holloway, Trevor Brown are just a few of the artists you can see in this show.

Check it out here: “Everything But the Kitsch ‘N Sync” Volume 13 @ La Luz de Jesus

Apricot Mantle now has an interview as well as a sketch video up over at the always inspiring Sketch Theatre website. It’s a great interview and really breaks down not only the working process of the artist, but why he chooses to use colored pencils. It doesn’t seem to be a commonly used material when looking at art these days, but Apricot shows that in the right hands it can look really exciting.

Make sure you check out the video as well, the final image practically glows, like all of his works seem to do.

Apricot Mantle Interview @ Sketch Theatre
Sketch Video @ Sketch Theatre

Apricot Mantle posted two new paintings that are in the Big Tuna/David Lynch Tribute show. Both drawings are pismacolor on illustration board, 16″ x 20″. As always each one has a very unique frame to go along with the theme of the artwork. I love how much each one of his drawings seem to glow, he really knows how to rock those colored pencils.

See more over on his site along with process shots of how he does it all. Apricotmantle.com

Coming this Friday July 10th at the Alcove Gallery in Decatur, GA is a group show featuring work inspired by David Lynch films. The lineup of the show is pretty impressive with paintings from such artists as : David MacDowell, Amy Botello, Lesli Ditto, Apricot Mantle, Dan May, Chet Zar and many more. I personally am a fan of themed shows. I know that is makes it difficult sometimes for some artists to fit in, but I think it is often a good example of how an artists style can be pushed to present unique ideas. Some great works that are unexpected also come from themed shows, just look at the art in this preview. I love what David MacDowell submitted as well as Apricot Mantle and another unique handmade frame made out of 1600 black and white pencil erasers!

Alcove Arts

Here is the rundown of exhibitions opening this weekend. Ton of excellent shows.

Friday:
CAVE Gallery will be opening “Curious Oddities” with new work from Josh Taylor, Paul Chatem, Amy Botello, Apricot Mantle, Matthew Ryan Sharp and more.

Thinkspace Gallery has three big shows taking place. “Beneath The Seams” by Sarah Joncas, “The Conservatory” by Kelly Vivanco and in the project room “Portraits Of The Unknown” by Tran Nguyen. The shows are online and look fantastic.

Strychnin Gallery will be opening “Midsummer Nights Madness”, with new work from Brian Horton, Leslie Ditto, Edith Lebeau, Angie Mason, Kristen Ferrell, Oksana Badrak and many more

Roq la Rue will have “Best Loved Tales of Misery and Woe” by Travis Lampe and “About:Face” by Chris Crites

Saturday:
Exhibit A Gallery is opening “The Detournements of Wynn Miller”, in which the artists photos are reinterpreted by Shepard Fairey, Shawn Barber, Greg Gossel, Nate Frizzell and more.

POVEvolving will open “A Touch Of Evil” featuring new works and an installation from Attaboy

Cerasoli Gallery will host “Out Through The In Door” by Matt Phillips, “Some Are Here and Some Are Missing” by Mario Wagner and “Beyond A Shadow” by Seth Curcio

Black Maria Gallery has “Nights and Hunters” with new work from Ken Garduno, Jason Hernandez, Michael Hsiung and Sam Saghatelian. And the “Swoon” group show with works from Andrew Bell, Jeremiah Ketner, Julie West and many more

Billy Shire Fine Arts will be opening “Intemperance” featuring new works by Carrie Anne Baade

Last Rites Gallery will open “Flesh to Canvas”, a show featuring fine art from “a renowned group of tattoo artists” such as Shawn Barber, Paul Booth, Alex Garcia, Nikko Hurtado, Kim Saigh and many more

Shooting Gallery will open “Happy Endings” with new works by Greg Gossel. Right next door at White Walls will be “There’s Aliens In Our Midst” with new work from AJ Fosik as well.

The folks over at Graffhead.com have added some pics of the “Canceptual v3″ show that went down at the Crewest Gallery this past month. There is some pretty amazing work in the show. I especially like the cans that Jessica Ward made, you can some better shots of the artwork on her site here. The show also featured some work by Apricot Mantle as well as Dave MacDowell, with his can/painting.

Canceptual v3 @ Graffhead.com