CHET ZAR 'THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT ANTHONY' / PHIL TIPPETT 'ARTIFACTS OF A MAD GOD: AN EXCAVATION' / GABE LEONARD 'TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL' / KATIE GAMB "GROUNDING"
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: Chet Zar 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony' - Phil Tippett 'Artifacts of a Mad God: An Excavation' - Gabe Leonard 'Totally Under Control' - Katie Gamb 'Grounding'
WHEN: Exhibit runs October 10– October 31, 2026
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday October 10, 2026 - 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. Artists Chet Zar, Phil Tippett & Gabe Leonard will be present
CONTACT: Gary Pressman, Gallery Director - Copro Gallery
FREE ADMISSION. OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
CHET ZAR 'THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT ANTHONY'
Copro Gallery is proud to present an exhibition featuring artist Chet Zar's largest painting to date—a monumental 6 x 4-foot work titled The Temptation of Saint Anthony. The exhibition will showcase the gigantic painting along with several studies Chet created throughout the process of bringing this ambitious work to life.
For this extraordinary piece, Chet has reimagined the classic theme of The Temptation of Saint Anthony , drawing particular inspiration from his favorite interpretation: Matthias Grünewald's iconic Temptation of Saint Anthony , painted between 1512 and 1516. Chet has transformed this centuries-old subject and brought it into his own distinctive visual language and the dark, fantastical world of the Chet Zar Universe.
The Temptation of Saint Anthony is one of the most enduring subjects in the history of Western art and literature. The story concerns the supernatural temptations faced by Saint Anthony the Great during his years of solitude in the Egyptian desert. The earliest surviving depiction of Anthony being attacked by demons is a 10th-century wall painting in the atrium of Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome. The subject became increasingly popular in Europe beginning around 1450, inspiring some of the most celebrated artists in history, including Martin Schöngauer, Hieronymus Bosch, and Matthias Grünewald. Now, centuries later, Chet Zar adds his own interpretation to this remarkable artistic tradition.
On October 10, Chet will unveil the completed gigantic painting at Copro Gallery and will be present at the opening. The painting was made possible in part through a Kickstarter campaign, and Chet would love the opportunity to meet everyone who supported the project, thank you in person, and talk with everyone who comes to experience the work. Creating a painting of this scale and significance represents a historic moment in Chet's career.
We hope you'll join us on October 10 at Copro Gallery for this very special unveiling—and to witness a new chapter in the Chet Zar Universe.
Chet Zar Bio
ARTIFACTS OF A MAD GOD: AN EXCAVATION BY PHIL TIPPETT
From visionary writer, director, and two-time Academy Award–winning artist Phil Tippett comes a terrifyingly beautiful collection of artifacts from Mad God, his dark, surreal stop-motion masterwork more than three decades in the making. Presented at Copro Gallery at Bergamot Station, Artifacts of a Mad God is a surgical excavation of Tippett’s imagination—an unprecedented journey through the inspirations, experiments, obsessions, and painstaking craftsmanship that brought his nightmarish universe to life. Through original storyboards, drawings, journals, paintings, reference materials, behind-the-scenes imagery, screen-used puppets, miniature sets, props, creatures, and surviving fragments from the production, the exhibition opens a passage into the restless, ceaselessly creative mind from which Mad God emerged.
For more than forty years, Phil Tippett has transformed the language of cinematic creatures and visual effects. From the original Star Wars trilogy and RoboCop to Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers, his work has shaped some of the most enduring images in film history. With Dragonslayer, he brought Vermithrax Pejorative to the screen—the first truly modern cinematic dragon, whose influence can still be felt in everything from Reign of Fire to Game of Thrones—earning Tippett his place as the true father of modern screen dragons. But Mad God is his most personal and uncompromising creation: a vision he did not so much control as surrender to. Made without a fixed destination, it evolved through an instinctive, almost unconscious process, liberating creatures, horrors, and hellscapes that might otherwise have remained buried within the depths of his inexhaustible imagination. This exhibition reveals what was left behind by that extraordinary descent—the physical evidence of an artist overtaken by his own creation, and of an endangered handmade art form kept defiantly alive through obsession, instinct, and the human hand.
GABE LEONARD 'TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL'
Grew Up in Wyoming.
Made It in LA.
Still Working.
Over twenty-five years in. The work is figurative, cinematic, and rooted in the American West — figures on the edge of something, landscapes that carry their own weight, backgrounds that let your mind do the rest. Gabe Leonard’s paintings take you into a world rich with inimitable atmosphere and narrative intrigue. What tales lie behind these interesting characters? And where will their stories take them?
The long way around was the only way.
Gabe says this about the show '"The current pay more, get less, nature of the current landscape is a comedy on the cusp of tragedy. In a pre-apocalyptic landscape, good people with bad ideas prove the west never left….
Welcome to Town
KATIE GAMB 'GROUNDING'
Katie Gamb creates playful, pop-surreal paintings in oil. Rendered with kinder-cute technical prowess, Gamb's scenes unfold like storybook stills with a style of glazing that recalls old master techniques.Gamb's work is whimsical, romantic, and expansive, extending beyond the frame to contemplate narratives of nature, change and the passage of time. Katie Gamb is based in Milwaukee and studied Illustration at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.
Bergamot Arts Complex, Copro Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave T5, Santa Monica, CA 90404 - 310-829-2156 CoproGallery@Live.com
All images and artwork Copyright 2015 CoproGallery
Please e-mail any problems with this site to CoproGallery@live.com
