CUT & PASTED // BURNED & WASTED...TONIGHT!

Today is my birthday. And the opening reception of my latest curated group art exhibition at Black Water Gallery in southeast Portland, Oregon. See what I did there? I just threw myself the best birthday party I could possibly ask for...and spent the past 12 hours in a cloud of cheap paint fumes and the company of a few close friends making sure it all looks perfect. All you hollow dogs who crave the afterglow of "celebrity" attention and the intoxication of scene ascension can fuck off. The rest of you are invited to witness the triumphant return of REAL underground art. Join me this evening in celebration of the following fine artists, outlaws and persons unknown. If you dare...

DAN SEAGRAVE

Under Dan Seagrave's brushes the organic and mechanical meld into one, forming twisted and malevolent landscapes suffused with beautiful stillborn terror. Barbed roots unfurl among cryptic monoliths and shadows seethe with palpable menace. Born in the suburbs of Nottinghamshire, England in 1970, Dan began his professional career at the age of 17 when he provided cover art for Lawnmower Deth. Soon his tremendous talent caught the attention of then-fledging label Earchache which resulted in the use of his art for Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness LP. A domino effect of demand for his 'orrible art followed and his unmistakable imagery has since been featured on over 80 album covers including work for Dismember, Entombed, Suffocation and Portland's very own doom disciples Aldebaran! The micro-masterpieces featured in this exhibition were created exclusively for CUT & PASTED// BURNED & WASTED!

DANIEL "DESECRATOR" CORCUERA

Daniel Desecrator hails from Chile where life is cheap and postage to the U.S. is decidedly unreliable. The 11 original works of art featured in this exhibit languished in a post office storage bin for months and were presumed lost until they suddenly arrived like an ambushing guerrilla army of avenging hellspawn! Since his emergence on the international frontlines in 2005, Daniel Desecrator has rapidly risen to become one of the most highly regarded young artists in the underground, taking the blasphemous aesthetic originally pioneered by French artist Chris Moyen and elevating it to new heights (depths?) of depravity. Born in San Vicente, Chile in 1985 he is entirely self taught and currently does the devil's work as a tattoo artist, illustrator and vocalist/bassist for Slaughtbbath. His incredibly complex drawings have been put to the test by such underground luminaries as Bestial Mockery, Sathanas, Vomitor, Suicidal Winds, Dead Congregation, Hooded Menace, Thornspawn, Satanic Warmaster, and more. This is Daniel's first U.S. art exhibition. Worship!

CHELSEA COON

Chelsea Coon represents the burned in our Cut & Pasted // Burned & Wasted theme. Her contributions to the exhibition include an exquisitely rendered and altogether otherworldly Lovecraftian wood burn as well as deep shadowy portraiture worthy of Otto Dix's finest moments. Born during an Indian Summer on the 29th of September in 1986 in a tiny Idaho mountain town just 30 miles from the Canadian border, her unemployed hippie dad taught her how to draw frogs when she was but knee high and an organic inspiration stirs in her veins to this day. An emerging artist with a bright future, she has already provided work for Warwolves, Eldath and Weregoat, the later of whom will preside over the opening reception at Black Water this evening with a very special ritual of blood and madness.

ELLI ADAMS

Ellie Adams is a local tattoo artist and self taught artist who recently declared her arrival under the moniker of TRENCH ART. Born in 1984, she was raised in Boston, Massachusetts and had to drop out of high school to support herself but struggle would not suppress her blossoming artistic talent. She has a long standing love for comic books and tattoo art and cites "monsters, bugs, snakes and other creepy crawlies" as the primary inspiration for her work.

HALSEY SWAIN

Underneath the bulletbelts and peroxide snarls, the artist known on the internets as "Halseycaust" is actually a very talented and earnest young artist who works hard to realize her own potential. Born in Salem, Massachusetts ("...don't burn the witch!") on August 29, 1984 she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and came to international attention in recent years with her post-apocalyptic portrayals of death punks and feral holocaust wolves for such bands as Toxic Holocaust, Evil Army and Tiger Junkies. Halsey credits Boris, Enrich, Audubon and her own accomplished artist mother as primary influences. As the nuclear pyre expires a burning talent emerges from the ashes.

COLE BARRINGTON

Cole is fortunate to have a registered nurse for a ladyfriend. He's gonna need it. A young barbarian hailing from Santa Barbara, California who can frequently be seen stagediving, spilling beer and generally thrashing wildly in places of ill repute and questionable sanitation, Cole's drawings for this exhibition introduce him to the world for the first time. A twisted path of art victories is sure to unfold before his bloody pencils if he can only sit still long enough to create more work of this sordid calibre.

TANYA FINDER

Tanya made my daughter a great tempeh reuben at a punk show a few months back and so began my interest in her passion for bug-eyed skulls and chaos logic. Tanya grew up in Vancouver, Washington and lived in Denmark briefly before finally relocating to Portland, Oregon where she currently emerges herself in the local D.I.Y. punk scene with her bands Wild Mohicans, and Moral Hex. A young artist with a big heart and even bigger combat boots, she was born on September 15, 1991 but can frequently be spotted performing in bars throughout the Northwest because who the fuck is gonna stop her?

HANNAH STOUFFER

Born in Aspen, Colorado in 1981, San Francisco based artist Hannah Stouffer endeavors to understand the greatest human conflict and the constant contentions that we all endure. I don't know what that means, but I first encountered her intoxicating grin at a comic convention and was blown away by her intimate and unapologetically sexy and refreshingly unassuming fine art prints. In her work, feminine decorative embellishments are counterbalanced by macabre motifs, the animal kingdom, and the never-ending pursuit of illustrating explosive emotional transcendence. Stouffer is best known for the incongruity of intricately executed imagery and shadowy and ethereal themes. Her contributions to Cut & Pasted // Burned & Wasted are drawings from her Myth Ritual series which depart from her more well known aesthetic but still reflect a powerful intuitive vision, deceptive symmetry and the worship of SEX & DEATH.

FINN MCWUHAL

The artist known as Finn is a re-animator of many talents. When he is not intoxicating guests with hand-rolled sushi and home-brewed alcohol, he is defying the grave with creepy sepulchral sculptures. Born in 1972 in Minnesota, the dark woods were his playground and decomposition another shade of life. Currently he resides in Portland where he makes death dance within the confines of beautifully ornate animated music boxes and miniature anatomical odditoriums. Like a true alchemist, he is driven by the seduction of form, the call of the unknown, and the transformations of fire. CUT & PASTED // BURNED & WASTED features his entire body of work to date. Don't even think of touching his work or you too will soon appear in a small box of bones.

AKIHIKO "SUGI" SUGIMOTO

The brilliant Japanese artist known as "Sugi" has been creating flyer and album cover art for two decades and has established himself as an unassuming legend in the D.I.Y. hardcore punk underground. His insanely stippled and wildly colored paintings and drawings are absolutely breathtaking to behold. The list of bands he has worked with is epic but, since you're curious enough to have read this far, here's a complete list: Power Bomb, Rapes, Tetsu Alley, See You In Hell, Gudon, Warhead, Insane War, Crucified Junk, Selfish, Liberate, Crown, Never Again, Bandit, Slang, D-Clone, Acrostix, Origin of (m), Pisschrist, Framtid, Systematic Death, Effigy, Rise From The Dead, Nightmare, Concrete Sox, Mushizu, Nuclear Death Terror, Burning Leather, Ai, The Slowmotions, Unit 21, Wild//Tribe, Burial, Anti Mob, Go Filth Go,bastard, Judgement, Rotten Cadaver, Cave Men, Soucyou Pistons, Forca Macabra, Germ Attack, Masakari, Giuda, Death Side, Unfit Scum, Further Charges, Crude, Wind of Death, Love Potion, State Poison, The Corpse, Desolation and local stenchcore battalion Hellshock! Sorta makes you feel lazy doesn't it?

CALVIN WRIGHT

Calvin is a great young artist with wild potential and a burning call to storm the world with his unique brand of visual chaos- or at least the local beer store. Born in 1987 in Vermont, Calvin has had about as much formal artistic training as the rest of this exhibition's contributing artists (i.e. NONE!). But his work has a rich imaginative depth and a hilarious sense of humor that conjures the heydays of Mad Magazine- specifically the bent nosed depravity of Don Martin and the grotesqueries of Basil Wolverton. His primary inspirations are altered states of consciousness achieved through the overindulgence of potent psychedelics, grim reality, sweet leaf, raging punk, and mental unrest. When he is not grinning madly over his sketchpad Calvin plays drums in Nerveskade, Bog People, Bi-Marks and a few other bands that he has yet to trouble himself to name. Careful with that axe, Sid Vicious.

FRANK BURKARD

The mysterious Mr. Burkard represents the cut & pasted aesthetic in our atrocity exhibit. I am proud to count him among my very closest friends and he also happens to be an enigmatic artist who scarcely recognizes the impact his obsessive and nearly impenetrable visual lexicon has had on the underground over the past decade. Frank's zines R'lyeh Rising and Warning (among others) were/are declarations of cosmic paranoia and conspiratorial musings from a man compulsively drawn to arcane knowledge and life's hidden sinister truths. His contributions to CUT & PASTED // BURNED & WASTED include relics from his days as the frontman for Atrocious Madness as well as original hand-assembled pages from his xeroxed zines and silkscreened artifacts from the deepest tracts of hell (before the days of readily available Crass font and bullshit "punk" webzines). This evening he will also be presiding over the turntables and unleashing a heavy arsenal of vintage vinyl on an unsuspecting audience. The stars are right!

CHANEL ADAIR

Chanel has formerly been featured in my Entartete Kunts exhibits and is a rising talent with tremendous potential, passion and attention to detail. The abrasive and beloved vocalist for Lebenden Toten, her contributions to CUT & PASTED // BURNED & WASTED include the public unveiling of her new masterpiece that will soon be featured on the debut Deathcharge 12"!

DENNIS DREAD

It is very likely that Dennis Dread will soon be the wasted in our CUT & PASTED // BURNED & WASTED assembly. Dread is old. Certainly old enough to know better. And yet he has stumbled through nearly 40 years of life without bothering to use real art supplies, write an artist's statement in the first person narrative or give a fuck what you think. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't shower him in extravagant birthday gifts. In fact, he most certainly desires (deserves!) your records, drugs, and sleazy sexual favors in dimly lit restrooms. He squandered many hours of his life curating this exhibition because he genuinely believes in the profound transformative power of unfettered expression. SUPPORT REAL UNDERGROUND ART!