Thursday, August 9, 2007

TRAGIC KINGDOM: THE ART OF CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA

Black Dawn Rising, giclée print with hand-applied mica glitter on archival paper.


Antarctic Suburban Outpost, 2006. Acrylic and glitter on wood



The San Jose Museum of Modern Art is showing a fabulous exhibition of Camille Rose Garcia's work. She is part of the whole LA Pop-Surrealist or Lowbrow Movement. Her art is spooky-cute! A strange and enticing combination of sadness and naive kitsch. I can recommend the beautiful book that accompanies this exhibition (published by Last Gasp) and my husband bought my daughter and me two of Camille's dolls. Here is a picture of Lulu and conjoined sisters Sadie/Katie.

Camille paints a child's fairy tale with all the pains that we inflict on our world by destroying the environment , killing animals, fighting wars. She named a cycle of paintings aptly "The saddest place on earth" , a reference to Disneyland, that is billed as the "Happiest Place on Earth" - and indeed we see a sugary sweet realm, but understand it is fake and it's reality is based on pain and sadness. Click here to read about her on the San Jose Museum Of Modern Art web site and watch Youtube video interviews with her.

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