Monday, June 04, 2007

ART OPENING THIS MONTH!

COMING TO PORTLAND, GOREGON JUNE 21st!

OPENING RECEPTION
THURSDAY JUNE 21
7pm-10pm

OPTIC NERVE ARTS

SUPPORT REAL UNDERGROUND ART!
Our allies at Optic Nerve Arts have made special arrangements for this exhibit and will not be taking any percentage of final sales from this show! That means if an artist sells their work, the artist keeps all the money! This sort of deal is unheard of in the art world. So come out for the Opening Reception June 21st and BUY ART! You’ll walk away with a piece of history, knowing you did your part to support raw unbridled expression in this age of quiet desperation and just plain old boring decency.

WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT MEAN?
“Entartete Kunts” is a bastardization of the German term “degenerate art” and a snide reference to the infamous 1937 Nazi purging of all art deemed objectionable by "Der Führer." The pun seems somehow appropriate for a bunch of drooling degenerates that consistently crank out uncompromising eyesores with seemingly little regard for commercial viability or etiquette. As it turns out, the title also insures that many local businesses will refuse to display the flyer or otherwise promote this questionable subculture extravaganza. Entartete Kunts is in fact a very special exhibition that assembles some of the most devoted artists from around the country for a rare glimpse into the thriving underground...

WHO ARE THESE DEGENERATES?

Sean Taggart is a legend of New York Hard Core cartoon art! Perhaps most widely known for his Jerky Boys artwork, throughout the 80’s Taggart created amazing flyers and album covers for bands such as Whiplash, Agnostic Front, Crumbsuckers, Cro Mags, and Carnivore. Insightful and hilarious, nobody would ever suspect that Sean Taggart is the artistic equivalent of a steel-toe boot in the face!

Ed Repka is the undisputed King of Monster Thrashing Madness! For more than 20 years he has painted the chromatic soundtrack to every teen thrasher’s stage diving apocalypse! He has created some of the most memorable album covers for seminal bands such as Megadeth, Venom, Massacre, Ludichrist, Evil Dead, Three Inches of Blood, & Death. He is also the designer of a full line of bobble-heads and monster toys. This is Repka’s first gallery show on the west coast! SCREAM BLOODY GORE!!!!

Stephen Blickenstaff’s playful paintings recall the grotesque splendor of Basil Wolverton and the golden age of Mad Magazine and Tales From The Crypt. Most widely known for his leering zombie on the classic Cramps record ‘Bad Music for Bad People’, Blickenstaff most recently created a line of shirts entitled ‘Legends of Cryptozoology’! Big Foot advocate and all around nice guy.

Jeff Gaither is one of the most prolific and instantly recognizable artists to emerge from the underground zine movement of the 80’s. If you’ve read any Xerox punk publication worth its staples in the past 25 years, you’ve undoubtedly been assaulted by Gaither’s militia of flying eyeballs and sutured monstrosities. He has worked for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and created album cover art for The Accused, The Undead, The Fartz, Hirax, and countless others. Legend!

Rich Rethorn is a former Bronx, New York grave digger. His dark surrealist charcoal drawings are informed by an intimate relationship with decomposition and the realities of the flesh. Inspired by the early 80's D.I.Y. punk scene, Rich began creating large scale oil paintings in 1984 and self-published nearly 20 issues of his own zine, HEADPUMP. More recently Rich was instrumental in forming NYC's acclaimed Lit Lounge & Fuse Gallery, where he served as assistant curator. Imagine Tex Avery performing an autopsy on Hans Bellmer and you're getting close to the mad, mad world of Rich Rethorn!

Frank Russo is the co-founder/curator of NYC’s MF Gallery. Since 2003 MF Gallery has been the Lower East Side’s sanctuary for great underground art. Frank’s own art fuses a life-long love for trash culture & fast music with a wide variety of media and styles. In the not-so-distant future Frank intends to destroy the human race with his robot metal band, Dethrace! Be prepared.

Jim Blanchard is a Seattle-based artist whose white-knuckle line drawings have appeared in numerous books, magazines, & album covers. His bad-trip doodles first emerged in the early 80’s with his self-published punk/art zine, ‘Blatch’. This zine was unique in its equal representation of underground art and music and was a big influence on Destroying Angels several years later. Jim’s recent work includes portraits of cinematic icons, often created using colorful consumer stickers, and his hilarious graphic novel collaboration with Jim Goad titled ‘Trucker Fags in Denial’.

Ross Sewage has a combined 17 years in the underground, handling bass duties, fire-breathing, and art direction for Impaled and Ludicra. He has also provided art for scores of other bands including Median and Ex-Dementia. His art has recently shown in Germany and he likes his ramen noodles without the meat.

Sean “Bloodbath” McGrath is an emerging artist whose fun zombie renderings most closely resemble the confident styles of EC masters such as Will Elder and Jack Davis. Sean holds high the six-string middle finger in Impaled and also handles much of the band’s art direction. Recently he has created album cover art, t-shirts, and logos for many bands that probably didn’t pay him what he deserved.

Andrei Bouzikov is a Russian immigrant and Academy of Art graduate with one boot in the punk gutter and one boot in heavy metal hell! He plays bass for Deadfall and has provided art for a broad range of bands as well as mainstream illustration gigs that actually pay the bills! Entartete Kunts is proud to display his freshly painted cover art for Municipal Waste’s latest full-length, not yet released!

Sean "Goblin" Aaberg is an uppity punk whose illustrations of mythological cider-swilling crusty trolls have graced the pages of zines since the early 90’s. Sean is a smart & versatile artist who gracefully handles multiple styles and projects, with an emphasis on subversive design and bold color. When he isn’t passed out near the train tracks with a 12-sided die in his hands, Sean teaches little kids how to draw.

Reuben Storey is an emerging cartoonist with an economical narrative style and a keen eye for mutant detail. His dystopian sci-fi cartoons often depict hilarious fat slobs puking into space and awaiting the inevitable mandroid takeover! Born in Louisiana, Reuben currently resides in Olympia, Washington where he ekes out a living while playing drums in two of the Northwest’s most promising metal bands, Funerot and Furdidurke.

Mark Riddick has been a staple in the underground since he sold his soul at age 14. His visual work has appeared wherever quality death metal has reared its ugly head and his rotting entangled zombies are instantly recognizable. Among the many projects of this veritable “renaissance man”, Mark also composes dark medieval-influenced music (along with his identical twin brother & band mate) under the moniker The Soil Bleeds Black.

Scott Stearns is a black wizard and he will stab you in the fucking neck! His dense sativa-soaked pen drawings have appeared on numerous releases including, most notably, Nunslaughter and his own band Necrodamus. Naked sluts, pentagrams, swords, goats! Scott is simply what great underground art is all about.

Dennis Dread is the curator of this mess and is currently writing about himself in the third-person again. Chronically behind on deadlines and wildly unpopular with the opposite sex, he still hasn’t purchased real art supplies or learned how to pay his utility bills. Buy him a beer and wish him luck…

OPENING RECEPTION
THURSDAY JUNE 21
7pm-10pm

OPTIC NERVE ARTS


2 comments:

SEAN said...

ha ha ha. i'm dying from the bios.

Rich Rethorn said...

I am appalled and thoroughly disgusted by the proposed content of this upcoming exhibition.

Why can't these people paint flowers or portraits of our beloved world leaders?

I think they should all be taken out and SHOT!

. . . I mean, our world leaders?