Friday, July 27, 2007

Geek Love & Arturism


My father was a librarian, so naturally i was surrounded by millions of books growing up. Bookshelves upon bookshelves of books that my father swears he had read each one of them, but as a child, there was no way i thought that was humanly possible because there would be no time for Nintendo if that were the case. Duh. Amongst the hojillions of DelRay and Penguin logos on the spines of hundreds of books, i ALWAYS noticed a bright flourescent orange book that simply said "GEEK LOVE" in what looked like a computer-style font. That title contained 2 words that i HATED when i was younger. Why would i even look at it? Horrible title for a child to want to read. So i never even took it out of the shelf. Years later, i DID. accidentally. But i did, nonetheless. And when i read the back, and it said it was about a family of carnies who are trying to breed their own brand of freaks and start a religion where people are encouraged to chop off their own limbs, it was like finding a drop of toilet water amongst the arabian desert after crawling so much my chest had scraped off in the sand. I couldnt believe i skipped over that book for so many years. Perhaps my childhood would have been completely changed if i stumbled upon that book when i was 10. Oh well. So I read the book Geek Love for the first time back in 2002, immediately after discovering it, on a 13 hour train ride to see my girlfriend. It's the only book i have ever read all the way through in one sitting, and so i felt it was worthy of honoring in this art show:

COREY HELFORD GALLERY PRESENTS:
LITERARTISTRY:Works of Art Inspired by the Favorite Books of Contemporary Artists

Corey Helford Gallery is pleased to present Literartistry, a group show featuring works of art inspired by the written word. As
Michelangelo was inspired by Dante’s The Divine Comedy and John Everett Millais by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, each
artist in Literartistry will base their piece on a book that has inspired or affected them in a meaningful way. Upstairs, the Gallery’s
loft space will be transformed into a classic library stocked with titles featured in the show. Guests will have the opportunity
to check out the artists’ favorite books for their reading enjoyment – just as they would at a traditional library. The opening
reception for Literartistry will take place on Saturday, August 11 from 7 to 10pm and is open to the public. The exhibition will
remain on view until September 5, 2007.

Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
www.coreyhelfordgallery.com
Open Tuesday - Saturday, Noon to 6:00pm

THE PAINTING ABOVE IS MY CONTRIBUTION, IN HONOR OF "GEEK LOVE", by Katherine Dunn, from 1983

The artists participating are:
Jason Shawn Alexander
Erik Alos
Chris Anthony
Chris Conn Askew
Attaboy
Anthony Ausgang
Lauren Bergman
Andrew Brandou
Dave Burke
Paul Chatem
Greg Clarke
Amy Crehore
Camilla d’Ericco
Jason Dugan
Korin Faught
Sarah Folkman
Melissa Forman
Andrew Foster
Lauren Gardiner
Andrew Hem
Michael Hussar
Stella Im Hultberg
Mari Inukai
Wednesday Kirwan
Kukula
Joe Ledbetter
Tiffany Liu
Kevin Llewellyn
Lola
Jeff McMillan
Lisa Moneypenny Murray
Tom Neely
Joe O’Neill
Alex Pardee
Kevin Peterson
Joshua Petker
Carlos Ramos
Sergio Rebia
Joey Remmers
Lesley Reppeteaux
Isabel Samaras
Mijn Schatje
Nathan Spoor
Bob Staake
Gin Stevens
David Stoupakis
Cassandra Szekely
Heidi Taillefer
The Pizz
Sage Vaughn
Amanda Visell
David VonDerLinn
Jasmine Worth

Check it out if you are in LA!!