Rat Fink’s Revenge
June 7 – 30, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, June 7th; 8-11 PM
After forty years, THE fever has gotten in our heads, on our speedways, in our skateparks–there is no cure. We’ve gone on to become artists, filmmakers, mechanics, executives. He’s become an action figure, a bobble head, a race car, a doll, and has achieved timeless cult status along the way. This collection of statues is taken from the book of the same name. The project originated as a way for contemporary artists to exorcize their inner Fink–the sick monster inside who needs to come out and show itself to the world. All the contributors were given the same 12″ resin model kit to customize, making all new, all different creatures of their own creation
La Luz de Jesus Gallery is proud and honored to present this collection based on the most notorious Custom Monster.
The exhibition will also include collectible and vintage toys, archival illustrations and pieces of Ed Roth Studio history.
The Rat Fink copyright and trademark are owned by the Estate of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Ilene Roth, PR.
Bobby Furst
“Don’t Push Me”
June 7 – 30, 2013
Artist Reception: Friday, June 7th; 8-11 PM
Assemblage artist Bobby Furst’s studio / compound sits on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Monument. It is an artistic wonderland, filled with his creative works made from old industrial and household items, block lettering, musical instruments, weapons, helmets, signs, even a motorcycle, many of which express commentary on the tragedy of war and the state of the environment. Bobby turns objects upside down and inside out using color, form, texture, shape and words, inviting viewers to see familiar objects anew, thereby creating new worlds and new landscapes of language and image, to stimulate conversation about the social, political and environmental realities in our world today.
As a child, Bobby would roam the trails of his neighborhood, Laurel Canyon, collecting sticks, stones, bones, etc. Walking to school on Thursday mornings he would raid the local trashcans and stow his finds in bushes to be taken home later that day. Making order out of the chaos of these castoffs was the beginning of a life-long pursuit of collecting stuff and assembling art.
As a teenager in the late sixties he wanted to become a photojournalist after accompanying his father, Peter Furst, now an anthropologist and art collector, to Tepic, Mexico where the senior Furst documented the life and visionary art of the Huichol Indians. In the 1970’s Bobby spent time photographing musicians and concerts, street people in Hollywood and Venice Beach, and went on location to Mata Ortiz, Mexico for a month to document the now famous potter Juan Quesada (in the late nineties those photographs accompanied a retrospective of Juan Quezada’s work at the Museum of Man in San Diego, California.)
In 1998 he went with a friend to the studio of assemblage artist George Herms. Soon after, at a garage sale, he met a painter attending the Santa Monica College of Design Art and Architecture who mentioned that George Herms taught there and that classes began the next day. Since admission to the school was by the administration’s’ approval of an artist’s portfolio, Bobby arrived the next day with art work in hand hoping to get into Georges’ class. Bobby spent the next year and a half, ten hours a day, seven days a week creating art at his studio space at the school.
Don’t Push Me is a collection of Bobby’s works, hand-picked and curated by Billy Shire.
Contact Gallery Director Matthew Gardocki for purchase info:
info@laluzdejesus.com (323)666-7667