The 4th Annual Coaster Show & Mark Todd

September 2 – October 2, 2016
Closing Party: Sunday, Oct. 2nd, 12-7 PM

Mark Todd “Covered”

Zine Release: Sunday, October 2nd 4-7PM

In Covered, Mark Todd continues his reinterpretations of comic book art. Shifting gears from his use of bright colors in previous shows, Todd has created this latest body of work with limited bursts of color, putting his focus on grays and muted tones. States Todd, “I decided to go with a muted, bleak, almost colorless approach to see if I could keep it interesting by focusing on line-work. I usually mix paint as I go but this time, I’ve created my own gray-scale by mixing up about 14 different shades of gray going from a light, almost white to a dark, almost-black. A small amount of bright color pops in here-and-there, like an exclamation point. I’ve bordered these pieces with a glowing fluorescent pink edge to unify, and added contrast.” Todd is also concentrating on paintings versus his usual mixture of collages and paintings; this time adding collage elements directly to some of the pieces.

Todd reinterprets comics from his youth, as well as earlier, iconic ‘ultimate collectors items”. Most of the pieces in this show are based on these types of desirable comics, such as number ones in the series, or the first appearance of a character which were often unobtainable for a young, comic obsessed Todd and his small weekly allowance. In Covered he keeps his interpretations of these covers closer to the source than in previous shows, channeling a combination of confidence with playful naivety, injecting humor with purposeful “mistakes” such as misspelled text and truncated sentences.

 

Covered also includes a series of vinyl action figures that Todd has altered, and made packaging for, such as you would buy them in the store and as most collectors do, keep the box!

 

We’ll also be hosting a zine release mid month. Sign up for our newsletter for details. Click here for Mark Todd‘s interview on Pod Sequentialism.

 

The Coaster Show 2016

 

Closing Party: Sunday, Oct. 2nd, 12-7 PM

It’s hard to believe this year is already the fourth annual installment of the La Luz de Jesus Coaster Show! What started as a last minute substitution has grown into a legitimate institution–one of the most anticipated events of the LA Art Scene.

We’ve all done it. We’ve sat at the bar, drinking a beer and doodled on a coaster.

But most of us aren’t the extremely skilled painters, illustrators, animators, tattooists, sculptors or collage artists that are featured in this exhibition that takes a love of craft brewing and elevates it to high art.

We produced a custom canvas for some of our favorite gallery folks to do what they do best, and transform a 4″ tondo coaster into museum worthy exhibition pieces.

In these past four years, we’ve dotted our walls with thousands of tiny masterpieces, and this year we’ve got almost a thousand more, each priced $250 or less.