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29/6/2002

Otaku!

Copro/Nason Gallery, Culver City

Copro/Nason Gallery is pleased to present Otaku! with paintings by Glenn Barr, Tim Biskup and Coop. "Otaku" is a Japanese phrase that describes people who are obessive or fanatical about something whether it is with stamps, anime, cars, and/or toys. This exhibition showcases three artists' particular fondness for Japanese vinyl monsters or "kaiju" and how this fascination finds its way into their artwork.

The Japanese vinyl monster toys depicted in this exhibition were intially created from Japanese television series or movies mainly from the 1970-80s. Godzilla, who we all know, still continues to permeate popular culture. It is very rare to find a monster character that was not part of a merchandising campaign. Barr, Biskup and coop are among many collectors who, when they rediscovered some of these creatures from their childhood, also discovered the vast world of kaiju that was essentially only available in Japan.

Glenn Barr in one of Detroit's most celebrated and successful underground artists. His paintings have appeared in galleries across the country and his work has been featured in a variety of comics and graphic novels such as Mad, DC Comics and Paradox Press as well as in a series of self-published books called HEEP. Barr has also contributed to the wild world of animation by doing background animation for the "Ren & Stimpy Show," Bjork's "I Miss You" video and "The New Woody Woodpecker Show." Barr's paintings have been reproduced in art journals like Juxtapoz, Juxtapoz Erotica and Film Threat Magazine. For Otaku!, Glenn will incorporate characters such as Astro Boy, Godzilla and Ultra-man all rendered in his usual style with sexy girls.

Tim Biskup was raised on Disneyland, Ratfink, badly dubbed Japanese Sci-Fi movies, punk rock, skateboarding and underground comics. His obsession with the art of Mary Blair led him to a career in animation that has involved him in countless cartoons including his own short "Freddy Seymore's Amazing Life" for Nickelodeon and working as Background Supervisor for Cartoon Network's "Time Squad." Biskup has exhibited in Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego and Portland and has been featured in publications such as Blab, Blast, Juxtapoz and L.A. Weekly. He is also the founder of Burning Brush auction and has his own line of tee-shirts under the Gamma-Go label. For Otaku!, Biskup will be showing paintings with Hedora, Rodan and Daiei Yokai movie characters.

Chances are good you've seen one of Coop's devils, devil-girls, hotrods or monsters on rock posters, fine-art prints, shirts, host, stickers, skate-boards, model kits, shot glasses, a set of computers fonts in addition to a million other places. Coop has done nearly 100 posters and numerous album covers. Cleveland's Rock and Rock Hall of Fame houses two of Coop's posters in its permaneant collection. His artwork has been shown throughout the world, most recently at Deitch Projects Gallery in New York for a celebration party for the ten pages of Coop's images that were featured in Paper Magazine's September 2001 Fashion Week Issues. His full-color coffee table book was released in November 2002 and is already in its second printing. For Otakue1, Coop will be exibiting a series of paintings for the first time in years that are basesd on his favorite Japanese characters.

In conjunction with Otaku!, there will be original works in the back gallery by Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons, ESM-Artificial along with posters by Coop that further examine the fascination of other Japanese toys such as robots (Machinders, Robocon, etc.) and Hello Kitty. There will other be displays of the original toys throughout the gallery to provide points of reference.

Contact: Caryn Coleman, Director/Curator

Copro/Nason Gallery
11265 Washington Boulevard Culver City, CA 90230
Open Wed - Sat 1 - 5pm or by appointment

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