Becky & I are getting ready to install our first joint art show at David Kramer & Cali Dewitt's new HOPE gallery here in Echo Park. The show will open Saturday June 7 at 8PM, and The Mystical Unionists will perform!
I'll be showing a whole new batch of my "Cartoon Utopia" series of drawings (#25-60), as well as lots of other stuff! There will be lots of pictures to show soon, but for now:
For Immediate Release!
'The Mystical Unionists: Enter The Cartoon Utopia'
Becky Stark and Ron Regé, Jr.
Saturday, June 7
Hope Gallery
1547 Echo Park Ave 90026
'The Mystical Unionists' is a project of Becky Stark and Ron Rege Jr, both of the band Lavender Diamond. For one month they will turn the gallery into an ultra-optimistic projection of the future, via constant in-house drawing, musical performances, and puppet theatre. 'Enter the Cartoon Utopia' aims to inspire viewers towards positive imaginings for their surroundings, and the empowerment for their realisation.
Utililising his distinctive cartoon line-drawing style, Rege envisions a future utopia, drawing largely from the Los Angeles cityscape, and the genre of 60s utopian sci-fi novels. Stark's installation consists of multiple miniature stages for future-utopian puppet shows, as well as musical performances and dance, featuring Stark and friends.
'The Mystical Unionists' have performed at Deitch Projects in New York, the RedCat Theater, and The Smell in Los Angeles.
For more than 10 years, Ron Regé, Jr. has been making "little art books" that showcase his kaleidoscopic and instantly recognizable style of line-drawing. His graphic novels include The Awake Field, Skibber Bee-Bye, and the Dum-Dum Posse Reader, He has contributed to the New York Times, Canada's National Post, Kramer's Ergot, The Believer, and McSweeneys. Rege has exhibited at the Phoenix Museum of Art ('Uninked', 2007), A+D Gallery, Chicago ('The Cartoonist's Eye', 2005), Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, ('Comicology: The New Magical Real' 2005), and The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco ("Raw, Boiled and Cooked: Comics On The Verge", 2002).
Becky Stark is the singer and primary songwriter of the band Lavender Diamond (Matador Records). She created the variety show "The Most Beautiful Show that Ever Lived" in collaboration with Miranda July and Jim Drain, and recently composed music for the feature film "City of Ember" starring Bill Murray, to be released in October.
Hope gallery is a joint project of the bookstore 'Family', and the record label 'Teenage Teardrops'.
familylosangeles.com
teenageteardrops.com
