If you live in Los Angeles, here’s an art opening that’s worth checking out. It’s called Looks Like Chicken and takes place at the Castelli Art Space tonight and tomorrow.
What you’ll be seeing is the brilliant work of Los Angeles Pop Artists Pat Riot, David Buckingham, and Matt Aston: Three well-established artists with chops, intelligence, and razor- sharp wit. These artists are uniquely distinct from one another, and now together, their Pop Art points a collective finger at the fractured culture of modern America…and it does so in Technicolor.
In his series Crystal Lies, Pat Riot reassembles used puzzles of America at its iconic, serene, and fluffy white best, then seamlessly fuses them with hand-crafted resin commentary that is so clear, it’s almost too clear.
Pat Riot will also be unfurling his masterful, large scale, multi-media collages, each of which bears thousands of hand-cut and applied details– each applique integral to the grand, critical theme.
David “Kook” Buckingham combs the deserts of California and her junk yards in search of abandoned metal tractors, cars, 55-gallon metal drums, car doors, etc. After he’s carted them back to his studio, sparks fly as he welds and muscles the scrap into beautifully outrageous robots, giants, designs, over-sized objects, and his signature array of metallic linguistics. Each letter is expertly hand cut and used in wall-mounted quotes, slogans or just simple expletives that re-enforce the fact that David Buckingham has no filter…as in none.
Matt Aston will be exhibiting his large-scale figurative paintings showcasing a technique that combines the mediums of epoxy, resin, and acrylic which culminate in powerful, direct and unapologetic work. His styles and subject matters run the gamut from Street Art to Abstract Expressionism to Downtown Los Angeles murals that pay tribute to those individuals who have created, and continue to create, dramatic shifts within the myriad facets of American culture.
Matt Aston’s particular take on his subjects is a matter of unique perspective into the psyche confronted by America as a youthful promise and what she continues to devolve into…