Marion Peck, Sas Christian, Isabel Samaras. The three artists have visions based on dreams and fantasies with a mysterious surreal cutting edge. Their work is humorous and a little bizarre but done with a style reminiscent of the masters from the past.
Marion Peck, Sas Christian, Isabel Samaras
All 3 artists have beautiful visions based on dreams and fantasies
with a mysterious surreal cutting edge. Their work is humorous and a little
bizarre but done with a magnificent style reminiscent of the masters from
the past. All the work is done in oil paint and has to be seen in person to
capture the effect it will have on you.
"Images are food for the soul. The reason to paint is to make tasty images
for the souls to savor". Marion Peck feels the ever inexplicable,
irresolvable mystery of the image is the source of magic and power in art.
"Dreams are miraculous. They are a revelation of the amazing worlds that lie
within every human being. No one can say for sure why we have them or what
they mean but they are there every night, an endless stream of images."
Marion Peck's work references Renaissance ideals of pastoral beauty laced
with surrealism. She often paints images conjured in her dreams and feels
that the more you bring from that world to this one, the richer life
becomes. Her paintings have clean lines and fantastical elements and her
genre is one of her own devising.
Marion grew up in Seattle, WA. She studied at the Rhode Island School of
Design, Syracuse University and Temple University in Rome. She has shown her
work in Rome, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. She
currently lives in Los Angeles, returning frequently to her native Seattle
to wriggle her toes in the mud.
Isabel Samaras is the original Devil Babe, whose beautiful and sometimes
saucy artwork results from the alchemy of high and low culture cooked in the
crucible of the wicked female mind. Her impassioned paintings glow with
the golden light of the Old Masters and blue light of the cathode tube. "All
the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo stuff I could eat with a spoon". One
critic notes, "Samaras' work is classical in technique and pop in content.
Isabel is best known for naughtily transforming television and other pop
icons." "It all started when I still lived in New York. I was doing
enormous symbolist paintings based on my dreams. They almost always featured
red haired women in some kind of peril. Then in the middle of doing all this
bizarre stuff on a lark I painted a tin lunch box to amuse myself. I think
the first one was Catwoman and Batman. I painted it because I wanted to own
it and knew it didn't exist and I thought, why couldn't Catwoman and Batman
ever get it on?" Her methods have changed, evolving from the lunch boxes of
the early 90s through the metal TV trays and wooden game boards of the late
90's to the lustrous and alluring oil paintings on wooden panels she
currently favors.
Isabel's painted narratives revolve around issues of secret love, unrequited
lust and making things end the way we wish they would. It's a form of visual
story telling that is passionate, witty and mysterious. Her multilayered
paintings offer plenty of food for thought and amusement plus a glimpse into
our fantasies and dreams.
Sas Christian was born in London in 1968 but has lived in Florida with her
husband Colin since 1992. Growing up she was raised with the "children
should be seen and not heard" philosophy. She was sent to boarding school
at 13 where she then only had to be seen on occasional weekends. Sas studied
graphic design at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Design, UK. She
began painting in 1999 spurred on by a fateful camping trip where after
ingesting acid for the first time and having "one hell of a bad trip" she
came to realize that being sane again (somewhat) was the best thing ever and
that she would no longer allow herself to be intimidated by brushes and
paint.
Sas Christian's work deals with simple subject matter and moments in time.
Influenced by anime, movies and music she applies numerous, super thin
layers to try and achieve a brush less patina on her big-eyed girls. There
is a certain kitsch element to her work, and often a sense of mischief...
Sweet faced girls with an element of innocent waywardness.
Reception: November 6 8:00 - 11:30 p.m.
Copro/Nason Gallery
11265 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA