Preview: “Conjoined V” Chet Zar Curated Group Exhibit @ Copro Gallery [Santa Monica]

Tomorrow, Saturday, January 24th, Santa Monica‘s legendary Copro Gallery returns with the fifth installment of their annual Conjoined group exhibit.  Curated by dark art wizard and master of the macabre, Chet Zar, who transitioned from a career in makeup and special effects for the film industry (Hellboy, Planet of the Apes, etc), into doing highly acclaimed, video and live 3D effects work for Tool and settling into his role as a notable force in the painting and fine art world, Conjoined V is slated to showcase “classic sculptures, Hyperreal life like models, Surreal assemblages, mixed media paintings, and other conjoined works and all in 5D!”  Along with providing one massive sculpture of his own, Zar has assembled an impressive cast of contributors that range from artists who possess a similar background in film makeup, like the brilliant hyperrealist, Kazuhiro Tsuji (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Hellboy) and Face Off Season 2 finalist, Ian Cromer, to past Monster Fresh interviewee, Brian Despain, and Italian pop-surrealist sculptor, Francisco De Molfetta, whose work we highlighted back in 2010.  And while the show focuses heavily on sculpture, there is still a good deal of variety on display, from the inclusion of set designer, Daniel Saks to the rogue taxidermy of Sarina Brewer and Emi Slade, not to mention collaborations, like the one bringing illustrators Dave Correia and Alex Pardee together, and another between Jim McKenzie and Rebecca Rose, whose wearable “scupturings” are consistently standout pieces in such exhibits.  That being said, we can guarantee a healthy supply of skulls, gore, and all manner of unsettling imagery on view for this one.

The opening for this show isn’t free, but many of the artists will be in attendance and there are some really impressive pieces that need to be seen up close to fully appreciate, which is, undeniably, well worth far beyond the modest $5 price of admission.  If you will be in the Santa Monica area and are able to make it out for this opening, we highly recommend you doing so.  If your friends are downers bugging out about making the effort, just drag them along anyway, and they’ll thank you for it.  Otherwise, go alone and meet some new people that aren’t so goddamn square about this type of shit.

Here’s a list of the folks providing pieces for this event…

LIST OF CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Doktor A, Peter Adamyan, William Basso, Jessie Berlin, Sarina Brewer, William Bryan, Nathan Cartwright, Cataclysm, John Cebollero, John Cherevka, Colin Christian, Dave Correia, Mike Correll, Ian Cromer, Albert Cuellar, Francesco De Molfetta, Amanda Dempsey, Brian Despain, Matthew Dutton, Erick de la Vega, Doubleparlour, Michael Edward, Miguel Edwards, Elle Effenberger. Yvette Endrijautzki, Claire Ferguson-Walker, David Grasso, Jesse Gee, Peter Goode, Tim Gore, Jason Hite, Blue The Vigorist, John Haley III, Chris Haas, John Haley III, Nix Herrera, Jeff Himmel, Jack Howe, Akihito Ikeda, Moses Jaen, Tokyo Jesus, Miranda Jory, Jessica Joslin, James Kay, Jeffrey Kibbe, Thomas Kuntz, Larkin, Manny Lemus, Ricky Leach, Matthew Levin, Tas Limur & Michaela Bookout, Eli Livingston, Casey Love, Carl Lyon, Mike Manzel , David Meng, Ver Mar, Chris Marchwinski, Gabriel Marquez, Kevin Mack, 13lack Mass, Meats Meier, Chantal Menard, Jim McKenzie, Mike McCracken, Kamila Mlynarczyk, Sho-ichiro Matsuoka, Clinton Neuhaus, Cig Neutron, Brian Poor, Alex Pardee, Jonathon Payne, Brandt Peters, Mani C. Price, Mike Regan, David Richardson, Jake Roanhaus, Tracey Roberts, Ave Rose, Rebecca Rose, Michael Rosner, Craig LaRotonda, Krystopher Sapp, Daniel Saks, Mark Setrakian, Emi Slade, Brian Smith, Eric Sonntag, Anthony Stewart, Scott Stoddard, Eddie Sparr, Stanislav, Grant Standard, William Sturgeon, Taslimur, Tom Taggart, Kazuhiro Tsuji, Mario Torres, Scott Radke, Tracey Roberts, Katya Tal, Corey Urlacher, Matt Ullman, Vincent Van Dyke, Stefanie Vega, Tod Waters, Mark Walker, Neil Winn, Yuko Yabuki, Chet Zar, ‘Neon Eso Terricka collective’ Live Neon w/ Sam Danton, Meesha Goldberg, Rick Zar, Zombienose

Check out a selection of preview and work in progress images below, after the following event details.

WHAT:

CONJOINED V
Group Exhibit Curated by Chet Zar

WHEN:

Saturday, January 24th
8pm-11:30pm

WHERE:

Copro Gallery –
Bergamot Station Arts Complex
2525 Michigan Ave , Unit T5
Santa Monica , CA 90404

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Opening is all ages – entry fee $5
Many artists will be in attendance
Exhibit runs until Saturday, February 14th
Gallery hours: Wed. – Sat. 1 – 6pm
Official Event Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1532023620415749/

[click images to enlarge]

Dave Pressler

Chet Zar

Sarina Brewer

detail

Doktor A

Kazuhiro Tsuji

Peter Adamyan

William Basso

Colin Christian

Jim McKenzie

Dave Correia x Alex Pardee

Kamila Mlynarczyk

work in progress shot

work in progress shot

work in progress shot

Rebecca Rose x Jim McKenzie

“Pumpkincrab” is scaled down to a wearable size, with a few twists. The piece’s story that derived from collaborating: In reality, humans eat pumpkins (50 million pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving) and crabs (275-300 million pounds of crabs consumed in the US annually) all the time. But in Pumpkincrabland…
The humans are eaten!
Pumpkincrab wears a chef’s hat and giddily holds a fork and spoon ready to feast on the humans he’s caught between his legs. The two human bodies form the band, conjoined and bent at their feet. Comes with Sculpturing, Hand Blown Glass Cloche Dome, Black Engraved Base with Armature, Travel Pouch, and Signed, Numbered, Dated, Fingerprinted Documentation. -Rebecca Rose

Tokyo Jesus (Sayu TJ Ishiyama)