To Each Their Own Monster

the eyedrum

fittingly has an old discarded car sitting out front

the Elder

is half of the team responsible for this show

Goni "Trepadora"

The Monster Show, which may be disbanded at this point but luckily you've got snap happy me to take you on a belated tour.

Jennifer Montes "Sweet Machine"

Every artist in the large group show was asked to create art dealing with "monsters" and the entries greatly varied from mutilated clocks with transplanted orifie and felt bows

Chadwick Noellert "(Everything and/or Nothing) is Obscured"

to paintings of obscure dreamscapes where the monster threat seems to loom just outside the frame of the canvas.

While the monster theme seems to be quite popular these days (possibly due in part to the Mail Order Monster Show at Deitch last year) what made this show so worthwhile had less to do with the included artist's own thoughts on personal demons or cultural symbols of evil or even present day monsters (cough cough george w cough) but that this show gave license to many young artists (a majority from SCAD) to get a little crazy and experiment both in material and subject.

Maybe the best example being the sculptural painting above. The imagery on the panels was not quite as interesting as the funky dynamic shape of the overall piece

which, especially this bit, broke apart any preconceived notions of "the painting."

Ashlee Oliver "Oh My Goodness I'm so Depressed"

Musing over monsters seemed to have moved many of the artists to drop traditional art practices for something entirely more playful.

The two organizers of the show, Heather Elder and Ashlee Oliver built this giant puppet show "I Told You All I Want is for You to Play With Me."

And there was this excellent paper-cut painting of oozing monsters defying gravity and swallowing a mannequin whole. (Not sure on the artist name)


The show came together into a comfortably packed salon style exhibition


which included this sweet series "Monsters Are Real" of crying children by Jacosa Kato (which, in a different setting, could have taken on a much darker in tone)

Alex App's "Robot Sculpture" and in the background are a series of portraits by Josh Durham entitled "King of Horror" of actors in classic horror movies (I'm think).

Heather Elder took a more personal approach in her portrayal of real life monsters with the painting "Unchecked Growth," depicting an engorged cancer cell bathed in classical light with rich reds and pinks on a velvety dark background.

The same form is almost mocked (giving the finger to one of life's more menacing occupants) with the excellent tongue-n-cheek screen print "Autotrophic Carcinoma of an Unknown Primary." This work nicely grounded a show which may have otherwise been caught daydreaming in a time when life's real monsters are all too common.

Another really excellent inclusion is "Mini-Twinned Apparatus I"

and "Twinned Apparatus I" by Lucha Rodriguez. These two writhing creatures worked well layered over water stained paper and I was ready to take them both home with me.