Imagine a huge biblical painting inspired by the Gospel of John 12:15. A Jesus-like figure is in the center riding a donkey. The brush strokes are prominent. The lettering at the top is so good it would make a tagger jealous. You look closer and notice a figure to the left of Jesus--is that guy wearing a Lynyrd Sknyrd t-shirt?
Indeed he is, that's what you get when your looking at one of artist Rick Griffin's pieces. Right now at the Laguna Art Museum an exhibition entitled Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin's Transcendence runs until Sept. 30 and is $8.00 for students.
Rick Griffin was a surfer and a hippie turned born-again Christian who lived from 1944-1991. In many ways the exhibition chronicles his journey in these three stages of his life. It includes over 140 paintings, drawings, posters, album covers and artifacts.
Below: Surfer Magazine Cover, 1962
Image from www.myraltis.co.uk/rickgriffin/
Sponsored in part by Hurley and Surfer Magazine one of the things that really makes this exhibition stand out is the diversity of mediums. In one room there are a collection of large paintings with heavy religious influences. Another room is filled with concert posters designed for the likes ofJimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead in Griffin's signature psychedelic style. A smaller room is dedicated to his comics which are simply pen and ink once featured in Zap Comics and Mad Magazine.
Overall Heart and Torch is the artist's 1st major retrospective and solo museum exhibition and cover over 30 years of his work as a cult figure in 1960-70's counterculture. What this means for us is hours of relatively cheap entertainment and one of the few art exhibitions where you can literally walk out of the gallery and into one of the surf shops downtown and see Griffin's designs printed on Hurley t-shirts.
Overall Heart and Torch is the artist's 1st major retrospective and solo museum exhibition and cover over 30 years of his work as a cult figure in 1960-70's counterculture. What this means for us is hours of relatively cheap entertainment and one of the few art exhibitions where you can literally walk out of the gallery and into one of the surf shops downtown and see Griffin's designs printed on Hurley t-shirts.
Below: John 18:5, 1979 Published in The Gospel of John. Acrylic on Canvas
Image from: www.rickgriffinink.com
Image from: www.rickgriffinink.com
Also if your a comic freak and you dig Griffin's cartoons there's another exhibit running at the Grand Central Art Gallery in Santa Ana Featuring BasilWolverton, it runs until Nov. 11th. His style is very similar to Griffins and the infamous Robert Crumb and while I was checking out the blogs on Juxtapoz (an arts and culture magazine site) one writer even called him the father of low-brow art. Another great review of Wolverton show can be found at the OC Weekly by Greg Stacey, he has a clever eye for art, for instance he noted that Wolverton characters don't have hair they have "hairs." And it's true the artist details are impossibly intricate. Even if your not into art it's a very well written piece.
Laguna Art Museum
www.lagunaartmuseum.org
Grand Central Art Gallery
125 N. Broadway Santa Ana 92707
714-567-7233
www.grandcentralaercenter.com
Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Dr. Laguna Beach 92651
949-494-8971www.lagunaartmuseum.org
Grand Central Art Gallery
125 N. Broadway Santa Ana 92707
714-567-7233
www.grandcentralaercenter.com
No comments:
Post a Comment