We're so close to the opening of the Greg Simkins curated epic art show, "INLE," where 100 artists will reinterpret Greg's favorite book/cartoon, and a major source of inspiration for his own career, Watership Down. It opens March 11th and has one of the most impressive lineups we've ever seen. Figured today was as good as ever to show some previews, especially a few that have been blazing through the Internet the last few days...
Josh Keyes is one of those universally loved artists, and for good reason. I remember maybe 5 years ago, when LA Weekly had Josh do an illustration for their cover (CONGRATS to them, because they were EARLY!), and it absolutely stunned me. He was about to show at Fecal Face in SF, and it was obvious this guy's talent was going to end up on some serious walls. And it has. Words aren't going to help explain how beautiful this piece is, the picture above does that perfectly well for itself already. But here are some words directly from Josh Keyes about the acrylic on board piece -
"This was influenced partly by Richard Adams Plague Dogs as well as the Inle character from Watership Down.
The products depicted in the painting are made by companies that continue to test on laboratory animals including rabbits.
The crows are in the shape of Inle and I though Black Angels was fitting in that though the act and natural behavior of carrion birds and other scavenger animals is disturbing (to us) it is part of the natural cycle of life. I see the crows as an active agent of liberation, freeing the lab animals bodies from a life of torment and by consuming and breaking down the body the animal is absorbed into the energy of the life cycle."
Again, I won't be able to say something better than the piece does, or Josh did himself. Just wanted you to see it.
I'm not giving you a second to catch your breath. Up next is Amy Sol, an artist who has graced our walls before, and we're so happy to have her back. This piece follows the tradition of Amy knocking it out of the park and takes a very emotional, soft look at the pages of Watership Down.
LA artist Scott Belcastro is a great example of how varied and different everyone's pieces are. Although they used the same pages for inspiration, hardly anyone was on the same page. Scott gives us a panoramic view of the countryside, the calm before the storm one might say, and it stands out as one of my favorites so far.
Martin Wittfooth is known at Gallery1988 for making one of the most memorable pieces from our LOST art show, and we couldn't be happier to be exhibiting a painting from him again. This time he gives us a portrait of the Watership Down character that seems to speak thousands of words. Such an innocent glare in the eyes.
Jason Limon's piece is might be my favorite yet from him (and that says a lot, as I had two of his pieces hanging in my place). This one makes me smile, which is ironic, cause I can;t keep a dry eye when I watch the Watership Down cartoon.
Hope you dug our 1st look at the show, and we'll have more previews in the next 2 weeks!
Jensen
G1988 (Melrose)
