Just a few days before Halloween, on October 28th, Last Rites Gallery in New York opened the 4th annual group show The 13th Hour. The gallery is known for consistently showing the best in dark and surreal art, and the 13th Hour is a show that focuses on dark surrealist works from a broad variety of artists. This year the list of participating artists included: Shawn Barber, Matthew Bone, Paul Booth, Colin Christian, Sas Christian, Jason D’aquino, Tom Gabriel Fischer, HR Giger, Fred Harper, Naoto Hattori, Michael Hussar, Joka, Sarah Joncas, Aunia Kahn, Michael Mararian, Chris Mars, Annie Owens, Chris Peters, Anthony Pontius, Dan Quintana, David Stoupakis, and many more.
Aside from the outstanding dark art shows the gallery opens month after month, I love the shows that feature dark works of art from artists that rarely contribute to these types of shows, and art from those you might not have expected, such as Self Deceased XXXII by Tom Gabriel Fisher — otherwise known as Tom Warrior of Celtic Frost fame and most recently Triptykon. Eli Livingston also created a sculpture, one that seems to be able to light up from the inside. leslie Ditto also created some prints from her painting Witching Hour, that might still be available from her Facebook page. If your in the area make sure to stop by and see these works in person, you have until November 27th. Otherwise the show is now online to view.
Interview: Vincent Castiglia
For this months feature, the Creep Machine not only had the pleasure to show the art of Vincent Castiglia, but to also interview him. I do hope what is recorded below will give viewers a greater understanding into the artwork that Vincent creates, but also to foster a greater appreciation of it. Vincent creates his paintings with only the use of his own blood. Looking past the medium one can clearly see that he is creating allegorical paintings, dealing with the ideas of life, death, and rebirth. Works of art that are iconic and timeless. I would like to thank Vincent for taking the time to answer these questions.
Vincent Castiglia at the H.R. Giger Museum Gallery, Gruyeres, Switzerland, 2008: Photo: © 2008 Raphael Siegrist
CM: I know you went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Was drawing and painting something that you did from an early age, or did you start later?
Vincent: I began drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil and comprehend how to make a mark on any given surface. Making art began like “The Great Escape” for me, and the most efficient way to disconnect from the war zone of what appeared to be a home from the outside world. Those initial marks on paper, walls, or just about anything I chose to draw on would pave the way to a much more contemplative sphere of reasoning and technical execution than what was possible at three or four. But nonetheless those early markings were the formative acts which were to unfold into a tree of destiny, the fruits of which are now my sustenance and the life of my flesh.
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H.R. Giger, creator of the Alien still annoyed with Hollywood
Found this article over at National Post. It’s the 30th Anniversary of one of Giger’s most interesting creations, yet from what the article states, Giger is still upset with how Hollywood treated him. It’s not surprising to learn that any artist is treated a certain way when it comes to the movie business. Whenever a franchise becomes a money maker, any artistic integrity goes out the window. It is sad to learn that Giger could have contributed far more to the movie industry. I have always loved his work and would have loved to see him develop characters and environments for more movies.
I’m attaching the article here, just in case it disappears from the original site.
Photos: “Draw” @ Shooting Gallery SF
This past weekend the “Draw” exhibition opened at the Shooting Gallery in SF. The show was curated by Erik Foss and Curse Mackey, and contained no less than 360 works of art. It was intense to see that much work dominating the wall space in the gallery. That coupled with the horde of people that stormed into the gallery right when the show started, it was almost too much to handle. They had a pamphlet that had all the works of art listed so it was just a matter or matching up the numbers. I found out about so many new artists, and saw work from some all time favorites like Glenn Barr, Shawn Barber (Shown), Van Arno, Kevin llewellyn, Jonathan Weiner and even from some unexpected ones like Gibby Haynes, David Byrne, HR Giger and Jonathan Levine.
I took a bunch of pics from the show, but as you can imagine it was hard to grab all of them. So head on over to the Creep Flickr account to see what I was able to grab.
Draw @ Creep Flickr
“Metamorphosis 2″ book now available
The next book of “Surreal and Fantastic Artists” is available over at the Beinart online Shop. Metamorphosis 2 features work by HR Giger, Ron English, Michael Hussar, Chris Mars, Lori Earley, Shawn Barber, Travis Louie, Greg “Craola” Simkins and many more. Check out the full list of artists here: Metamorphosis 2 at Beinart Shop
They also have added some limited edition prints to the shop, a few from Chet Zar, David Stoupakis, Naoto Hattori and Jeremy Geddes (shown second). Check these out in the shop as well.
“The 13th Hour” at Last Rites Gallery
A new group show at the Last Rites Gallery opens this Saturday, October 18th. The show features work by” “Carrie Anne Baade, Saturno Butto, Scott G Brooks, Vincent Castiglia, Christopher Conte, Molly Crabapple, Jason D’Aquino, HR Giger, Fred Harper, Michael Hussar, Eli Livingston, John John Jesse, Kris Kuksi, Hiroshi Kumagai, Craig LaRotunda, Michael Mararian, Christian Van Minnen,Lithium Picnic, Anthony Pontius, Paul Rumsey, Xris Smack, Martina Secondo Russo, Chet Zar & more.”
What a killer show, the works should be online this Saturday to view. I popped in a few preview images from the show, in order they are Chet Zar “One Eyed Jack”, Michael Hussar “Modern Devotional” & Inky Dreadfuls with “Children of the Night”.
“Transgression” opens Last Rites Gallery
Last Rites is a new gallery in New York brought to you by Paul Booth and Genevive Zacconi.
The first show at the gallery will be This April 5th till the 28th. The show is called “Transgression” and features art by: Shawn Barber, Colin Christian, HR Giger, Michael Hussar, John John Jesse, Travis Louie, Dan Quintana, David Stoupakis, Chet Zar & more. This is going to be an amazing show.
Looking at the site, the next year has some really great shows planned. Expect to see shows featuring: Kris Kuksi, Fred Harper, Karl Persson, Kevin Llewellyn, Stephen Kasner and many more.
