Scott Beale has a write-up of the Stanislav Szukalski art show at Varnish Fine Art in San Francisco. The late Szukalski is one of my favorite artists. he was a sculptor and painter and was famous in his home country of Poland, but he moved to the United States after WWII and lived out his days in obscurity in a Glendale apartment. (He was, however, befriended by Low Brow artists and aficionados such as Robert Williams and George "Leonardo's father" DiCaprio). He also developed his own unusual (and admittedly racist) theory of human evolution, claiming that some human races had devolved by interbreeding with Yeti. (Another one of my favorite artists, Jim Woodring, wrote a wonderful article for Whole Earth Review in 1988 about getting to know Szukalski late in his life.)
Varnish Fine Art currently has show up featuring the amazing works of Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski (the show, entitled "The Self-Born: Stanislav Szukalski", runs through September 16th). This is the first large-scale exhibition of his work in 5 years and features many of his sculptures, drawings and photographs. Some of the pieces look like a cross between the Industrial Revolution and the Aztec Empire, and are really stunning. Last Friday I shot some photos of the Stanislav Szukalski show which was up during the Hi Fructose Release Party.Last Gasp has published three books on Stanislav Szukalski (Behold!!! The Protong, Szukalski: Inner Portraits and Struggle: The Art of Szukalski), all of which will be available at the opening on July 30th.
