As we get closer to Alex Pardee's Sweet 16 Pizza Party and Raffle this Saturday from 12-2:30 PM at G1988 (Melrose), I like reflecting back on "The Butcher Kings," and laughing at its insanity. A lot of people ask me what working with / hanging out with Alex and Skinner is like. Luckily, our friends at SPY have created a video to give you that exact experience. Enjoy.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Venice gallery last night for the opening of Peter Gronquist's "The Evolution Will Be Fabulous." It is so insane and beautiful inside the gallery and now that the mystery has been lifted, we can show you what Pete has created.
The entire show can be shipped safely and is stunning.
But check out our friend Jean's coverage over at NotCot by clicking the picture below:
Here's a tease of the NotCot article, as all these pictures were taken by them:
The show runs through November 4th at our Venice location, so please make sure and stop by. Seeing this in person is well worth it!
And at our Melrose location, the Butcher Kings are still up and running! Our friends over at Wired wrote up the show. Click the picture below to read it:
Stay tuned to the blog and our website to learn about a special Butcher King closing party, with prints being made available for the first time! More on that later, Mort.
The boys are in town and causing quite the insanity. The Butcher Kings, Alex Pardee & Skinner, will open their 2-man(iac) show Thursday night, 7-10 PM at our Melrose location - and it's actually crazy. Not crazy in the way Prince might ask you to a dance at his concert, but crazy in the way that John Wayne Gacy may have asked you to dance before he killed you. Per request of the artists, all images have been kept secret until the opening party, where both will be in attendance, so I have very little to show you. You'll have to trust me when I tell you - this stuff in bonkos, so if you're in LA, stop by.
“The BUTCHER KINGS is f*cking hilarious. This show is the most fleshtacular event of the decade. It does for the mind what meat does for teeth!”
-Matt Maiellaro, co-creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force
"A stunning example of how many monsters exist within the confines of pop culture and a funny brand new take on characters that have been cemented in our collective conscience."
-Pete Wentz
"Pardee and Skinner conjure up images that you might see in a sweaty dream after a night of heavy drinking and late night street meat eating. These are the images you'd never share with anyone for fear they'd think you were disturbed. Part terrifying part familiar, they are modern day clown portraits that used to hang in your family's doctor's office. In other words I love it."
-Paul Scheer, creator of NTSF:SVU:SD
When we do open up the doors on Thursday night, you'll see over 80 new pieces (all priced between $300-1,000) that completely destroy all of our memories of the pop-culture icons we have grown to love, then channel the soul of a cynical, witty, self-destructive and borderline insane man-child.
DISCLAIMER - This show contains graphic imagery and is not suitable for children.
With that in mind, I've started a new podcast (NSFW), partnering up with filmmaker, and G1988 homie, Kevin Smith's podcast network (also NSFW), and it's called "Get Up On This." Each week, I'm joined by a guest and we go over a few things, whether it's a movie, music, website, comic book, etc., that people should know about, but don't yet. Things that are bubbling in the underground and soon to hit the mainstream. Look at it as a "Cool Things" type of show. Past guests include Mike Shinoda, Jonah Ray, Casey Veggies, DC Pierson, Pete Wentz and Wallpaper. This week I had the pleasure, and absolute nightmare-ish feelings, of having The Butcher Kings on the show and the results are successful (if you consider the Titanic maiden voyage successful because it made for a good movie).
In case you haven't figured it out, this Thursday's Melrose show, "The Butcher Kings," with art from Alex Pardee & Skinner is going to be both fun and twisted.
I know we've kept this show in a shroud of utter secrecy, but we figured we'd let you in a little. Here's a statement from the Kings themselves:
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When Skinner and I met in the late 90's, the Internet hadn't yet been integrated as a common marketing tool for artists and musicians, and the actual outlets that WERE available for us to spread our imagination and artwork out to were limited to friends, family, schools, the local comic shops and the occasional small cafe-galleries and musical acts that catered toward non-traditional artwork. The bi-product of being undeniably driven by the passion to create without having outlets for either critiques OR validations, however, was that we both created our artwork strictly for ourselves and to make US happy. Over the course of the last decade, as the Internet has become a more common and extremely useful tool in all aspects of art appreciation, execution, networking, and entrepreneurism, Skinner and I have attempted to adapt our thinking and artistic approaches in conjunction with this accelerated technology, but on numerous occasions we have also caught ourselves falling victim to this new widespread accessibility to our artwork.
The Internet provides such a rapid firing of both criticism and praise that, over the course of the last few years, has made both Skinner and I almost TOO aware of what people will like or dislike when our work is displayed publicly, causing us to recently questions just who we are no creating art for. Are our imaginations subconsciously aware more so now of what others will think about our art? Are we now being secretly driven to create something that more people can "relate" to in hopes that we will in turn get more Twitter followers and more Facebook likes and somehow transcribe that invisible validation to more monetary success? In short, Skinner and I both realized that, for whatever reasons, we were taking ourselves too seriously.
Well, f*ck that.
We missed creating art with the sole purpose of making ourselves smile and laugh. We missed no caring if we "lose a follower" by offending someone with a drawing of a demonic dick if that dick was fun to draw. And trust us, dicks are fun to draw. And they are hilarious.
So in an attempt to re-unite our fearlessness, and to simply have fun using our separate memories and inspirations as our tools, Skinner and I present to you, "THE BUTCHER KINGS."
Using existing pop culture icons that we adore, and mutually drawing inspiration from various sources including Gary Larsen's 'The Far Side', Jack Kirby, Wheel of Fortune, Carrot Top, Filmation Cartoons, Robot Chicken & Aqua Teen Hunger Force, we imagined what would happen if all of a sudden the memories of every pop culture property has begun to be torn apart by an unknown force and, in order to save the memories from total eradication, had to be gathered and reassembled by someone who was goofy, cynical, socially inept and slight insane. That person...is us.
Enjoy.
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Well, don't say you weren't warned.
Disclaimer: A lot of the artwork that will be displayed in this show are of an adult nature. Since a majority of our shows at Gallery1988 are child-friendly, we suggest this is one that the little ones should sit out.
I don't even really know what to say. Today, I was lucky enough to see a small preview of the work that will be on display at our Melrose location starting October 6th and I haven't really spoken to anyone since. Alex Pardee and Skinner, who have taken the idea of a 2-man show to brand new heights by living with each other and working non-stop next to each other for the past 2 weeks, have created what might be the craziest, and most impressive show I've ever seen. This one is going to be tightly wrapped in secrecy, because the goal of the show is to see it's massive undertaking all at one time, and give you the ability to buy some incredible affordable art (keep in mind, the last time we did that it was Olly Moss's show, so expect more greatness).
You won't be seeing much before the show, outside of some more photos, and a video or two, but I PROMISE YOU, you will not want to miss this show. Alex and Skinner will be at the opening reception on October 6th, from 7-10 PM at Melrose. On the scale of 1-10, this work is just ridiculous. SHAKING MY HEAD.
I couldn't be more excited to announce this one-night event here at G1988:LA. You've seen the incredible posters and t-shirts they sell over at Mondotees.com before - I know I have a few of those posters hanging in my place - and now you can see them in person here in LA. The show will be a literal cinema-inspired art explosion with cult movie t-shirts and exclusive, rare and already sold out posters from Texas based Mondo's history! Which is nuts. I already know the new movie posters we'll be selling exclusively - and they are insane! We'll have some some awesome in-gallery events which includes artist Skinner doing custom-painted art prints, Kevin Tong creating customized hand-drawn movie prints and Harry Diaz live screenprinting custom movie merchandise. If you're a film lover, and are obsessed with with Mondo has done in the past, you can not miss this event. ALSO, when will you have the chance to buy posters from their sold-out archive again?
