Jeff Gillette "Slum Landfills" - becca & Philip Lumbang
WHERE: Copro Gallery - Bergamot Station Arts Complex
2525 Michigan Ave , Unit T5, Santa Monica , CA 90404
Ph: 310/829-2156
E-Mail: CoproGallery@Live.com
Web: www.CoproGallery.com
WHAT: Jeff Gillette "Slum Landfills" - becca & Philip Lmbang
WHEN: Exhibit runs; April 20 – May 11, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday April 20, 2013 - 8:00 – 11:30 p.m.
Contact: Gary Pressman, Gallery Director Copro Gallery
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Copro Gallery presents Jeff Gillette's fourth solo show with the gallery,"Slum Landfills".
This brand new body of work is inspired by a culmination of travels Jeff took through the slums of India, most recently, the Dharavi Slum (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) last spring. Most remarkable in his latest visual documentation of his experiences are the environments of many of the shanty town areas where it's hard discerning the trash from the architecture. Most of the paintings feature Mickey Mouse either prominently, hidden or dead in the piles of debris. Included in the show are a multitude of sculptures that mimic the detritus that is the material used by the slum inhabitants to create their impromptu homes. This show will give you a glimpse into some of the most wretched places on earth!
Artist Statement
When I was thirty-eight years old, I was dragged, kicking and screaming into
the Disneyland Theme Park in Anaheim, California to have "fun." Everything
was clean, orderly and happy. I may have vomited.
I prefer Calcutta, India. Over there I routinely contract food poisoning or
worse,and vomit.It all started for me back in the late 1980’s as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, I
visited all of India’s large cities and their megaslums. Besides India, I’ve ventured into favelas, barrios,
bastis and shantytowns, experiencing urban blight in North Africa, Southeast Asia, Central and South
America, Mexico and Bangladesh. Aside from the seething humanity, suffering, unfairness and
cruelty of the slum is a strange beauty. The cacophony of filthy debris rising from oceans of garbage
comprises an architecture of depravation and necessity. What emerges is a living environment of
aesthetic wonder, spectacular visuals of space, color, form, and texture. These images, I re-create in
the all too-realism of my “slumscape” artwork, in drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations.
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becca - Philip Lumbang
Gallery 2 Copro presents becca & Philip Lumbang. For this exhibition there will be paintings by becca and Philip as well as colloboration pieces done by both artists. Since the late 80's artist becca has been taking her work to the street and helping to pioneer a phenomena in Los Angeles know as “street art”. Her vision in seeing the potential of our urban landscapes as a endless canvas played an integral role in accelerating a movement that would change art and how artists express themselves. beccas' paintings on wood have a look like they have been taken from the street much like her work used to sell in the begining from paintings procured from construction sites or boarded up buildings in Los Angeles. Since the 80's she has done many fine art exhibitions with major galleries and continues to represent the feminine side to a mostly masculine dominated art form.
Philip Lumbang's greatest passion is drawing and painting. Doing the only thing that seemed natural to him, he pursued his artistic talent and went to art school. By divine entanglement, he was offered a seat next to Sheperd Fairey, at Studio Number One. There, immersed in a world where an artist is not a trouble maker, but a respected professional, he realized he could be one too. Los Angeles was a world apart from his humble suburban home back in Elk Grove, California. When he would draw he would channel all the noise, traffic, bad habits and negativity that the city was boiling over with. His bears first emerged as gaspingly rude mammals. But the bears transformed as Philip did. As a counter attack to the world's problems they went to artistic reform school, rather - charm school. They appeared all over Los Angeles as courteous and well mannered cuddly creatures. Now, as a most wise people, Philip Lumbang's message through the bears is to love each other and the bears do it quite nicely!
