Dave Lebow "End Time Visions", Jason D’Aquino "Phillumeny" & Jaime Zacarias aka Germs "Fasho"

June 1 – 30, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st, 8-11 pm

Dave Lebow “End Time Visions”

Working with oil on canvas, representational painter and illustrator Dave Lebow’s “End Time Visions” is influenced by the biblical story of Revelations, which is a subject matter he began exploring last year when he was commissioned to paint seven Doomsday pictures for a popular TV show. Those seven paintings will be in the exhibit with other paintings that follow this theme –albeit a little more obliquely. 

Conceptually, Lebow depicts themes of death, vanity, monsters, demons and angels, rapture, and falling from grace. Dave has sold and exhibited his work extensively and shown his animated shorts in US and Canadian festivals. He has created illustrations for the entertainment industry and recently completed a portrait commission for Tanya Haden and Jack Black. Lebow teaches advanced Life Drawing at Cal Arts, and lives with his wife, daughter and cat in Mar Vista, Ca.

 

Jason D’Aquino “Phillumeny”

 

Jason D’Aquino is a miniaturist. The majority of his works are minute and meticulously detailed graphite renderings on vintage matchbook and other found surfaces. White highlights are introduced using watercolor undiluted with a single hair brush. The search for these found “canvases” has led him to strange corners of the world and to some unique treasures. He recently unearthed a hand-quilled, illustrated whaling manuscript from St. Petersburg Russia, which made its way to Christie’s auction house in New York City.

The matchbook was a canvas I fell in love with because it carries with it a universally recognizable built-in scale reference. Often collectors will first encounter my work through a blog or magazine article, and this makes it difficult to effectively convey scale…but once they see the matches, they can put the whole thing quickly in context. I also love the matchbook because it is a nostalgic, gritty, cheap little souvenir. I enjoy taking such a worthless surface and turning it into a coveted piece of art,

– D’Aquino

All pieces are framed in elegant, black wood frames with white matte-board under plexiglass.

 

Jaime Zacarias aka Germs “Fasho”

 

South Los Angeles native Jaime Zacarias aka GERMS is seemingly infected with an innate ability to channel the spirits of our surrealist predecessors, slapping our eyeballs with his grotesque yet amusing iconography and ameoba like characters while simultaneously referencing post-Chicano culture and imagery. He is known for cleverly stylized Luchador masks given life by their protruding tentacles, surrounded by floating amoebas that playfully flirt with their viewers’ imaginations.

Says GERMS, “I find myself mesmerized by the seemingly infinite details and borderline infectious behaviors of each character I create, while striving to transform and challenge the traditional interpretations of the icons we all know so well.” The viewer is drawn into a complex layering of cultural references; comfortable and familiar, often times playful and childlike imagery, which may, however, mask the dark and sinister – but which is imbued with an innocent sense of “anything is possible” in the World of GERMS.

GERMS most recent body of work is titled “Fasho,” a term which affirms an unspoken agreement between the artist and the viewers of his work to look at the familiar as filtered through the mind of GERMS and see something never before seen.”Fasho”, also meaning “for sure” is a play on words –giving the artist total freedom to use the space as a playground.

 

Contact Gallery Director Matthew Gardocki for purchase info:
info@laluzdejesus.com  (323)666-7667