The Macabre Show at La Luz de Jesus

La Luz de Jesus Gallery presents “Macabre“, a special autumn exhibition — a curated aggregate of like-minded individuals. Come discover the archetypes and alchemy that makes each of them awaken: from Gothic iconography & morbid symbolism to arcane occultism and allegorical romanticism.

Steven Daily Melchizedek

“This series is based on growing up in a spiritual home, yet being attracted to the macabre.
The dark things in life the mystic, the odd, the essoteric.

The images in this series are based on supernatural stories from the book of Enoch, old and new testament. This is how I’ve visualized them as a adolescent until now.

I always found the stories in the bible to be so surreal. The imagery to be so vivid and descriptive. Border lining the macabre. Yet through all the pain suffering and evil there was always a glimpse of light.

I wanted to explore this ideal, through hard armor and sharp weapons. and the softness of ruffles, pearls and light.”

Myron Conan Dyal Equinox

In Myron Dyal’s recent retrospective at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, the most important art critic in the midwest had the following to say:”Myron Conan Dyal is rivaled only by Richard Serra in the contest for the greatest living scupltor.”

Certainly those who have seen his works in person find it impossible to be ambivalent about it. Some find his life-sizes sculptures of paper mache and acrylic paint to be festive reminders of carnivale, while other are absolutely horrified and experience an oppressive claustrophobia in their presence. To those of us who know Myron, it’s impossible to find anything but a warm presence of goddess energy in his often vibrant figures.

Scott Holloway Janis

Scott Holloway fuses medieval medical text with biblical icon painitngs to create images of great reverance for both death and spirituality. This dichotemy is the subject of his latest show, Janus. His four years at Montserrat College of Art placed him in close proximity to the Gallows Hill of Olde Salem, Mass where the witch hysteria of the late 17th century is still a topic of institutional controversy. More macabre than outright gothic, the power of anatomical illustration is rarely in better hands.

“La Luz has been great to me! I’ve been in the Kitschen Sync show every year since 06, and was also in a four-person show in 09. “Macabre” brings together a great group of artists that I love, admire, some of whom I consider good friends! It’s a great pairing of artists. All different but also sharing a common theme.”

Craig LaRotonda Rise of The Robosapiens

In Rise of The Robosapiens, artist Craig LaRotonda reveals a vision of the future where the evolution of humanity has resulted in a new version of man – an amalgamation of flesh and machinery. These are the Robosapiens. In this dark and unnerving environment, mankind suffers in a world of ominous mystery. Though technologically advanced, man struggles with existence while he continues his search for a higher consciousness and enlightenment.

Mavis Leahy Rest in Peaceful Slumber

Mavis Leahy works in mixed media textile collage. Her quilted creations have featured in Country Living magazine, she’s written numerous articles on beading and other techniques,and her art work has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide.

Her inclusion in The Macabre Show should officially change her status as the best kept secret in the San Fernando Valley. The exquisite detail found in vintage linens, laces and wools is matched and expanded to reflect the many rich cultures of her native Los Angeles. Bones, ceramic, jewels and metal also find their way into her patchwork paradise instilling a forlorn nostalgia for funerary craft art of the Victorian age. The result? Dolls, ornaments and alters that could very well pass for undead.

Miso Birth

A continuance of her sold out 2011 exhibition, “An Introduction to Pathology,” which dissected the creatures of her Miso world, Birth is an exploration of mutation, defect, and the agony of imperfect existence. In a universe that challenges every newborn, mutation is necessity, and imperfection is survival. These specimens are presented in micro portraiture, oft with Byzantine frames or against crushed velvet, wood or gold foil.

Gail Potocki Unkept and Whispered

Gail Potocki will be debuting a single new work as part of our Macabre Show. That work is a triptych titled, “Unkept and Whispered,” and like the ouvre that preceeds it is an oil on linen painting in a handmade frame.

“A chain of dire events have been set into motion by this woman. This action she regrets remains secret through the silenced bird sentinels at her sides. The inevitable outcome is kept at bay by the banishing spell that is broken when the panels are separated” states the artist.

Jasmin Worth Poor Mother

In this series, Jasmine Worth focuses on the conflicted imagery of woman as both holy mother and originator of sin. Embracing the Pagan roots of the Goddess Mother image, as well as the iconography of other religions, she seeks to unify the diverse depictions of the divine mother into one entity. In these works she reunites the image of the divine mother into a whole, encompassing both aspects of the dichotomy that has torn her in to an object of both reverence and fear.

Macabre opens Friday, October 5, 2012 at 8pm and remains on display through November 28
La Luz De Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd,
Los Angeles, California 90027
www.laluzdejesus.com
Preview the entire show here

Images (all courtesy of La Luz de Jesus Gallery)

Steven Daily “Fallen” Acrylic on wood, 12″ x 12″ plus frame
Myron Conan Dyal “Marching Silence” Acrylic on papier mache 42″ x 72″ x 36″ 48″ x 70″ x 50″
Scott Holloway “Claddagh III” Oil, ink and leaf on panel 14″ x 11″
Craig LaRotonda “Phantasma” Acrylic and found paper fragments on wood 8″ x 10″ in 18.5″ x 20.5″ frame
Mavis Leahy “George” Bird skull, antique china doll body 4.5″ x 5″ x 1″
Miso “The Infant” Oil on panel 5″ x 6″
Gail Potocki “Unkept and Whispered” Oil on linen in custom frames 10′ x 24″ (left) 24″ x 24″ (center) 10″ x 24″ (right)
Jasmine Worth “Patron Saint of Freaks” Oil on board 4″ x 6″