Welcome to the eclectic 16th annual group exhibition at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica!
For the sixteenth year in a row, BLAB! magazine founder, editor, and curator Monte Beauchamp, and Copro Gallery present THE BLAB! SHOW — an eclectic array of engaging painting, sculpture, and illustration by contemporary artists from all over the world.
BLAB! began as a self-published, black-and-white midwestern comics fanzine published in 1986. After its second issue, it was picked up by the independent comics publisher Kitchen Sink Press and relaunched as a trade paperback on a national scale. BLAB! featured comics by Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, Richard Sala, Joe Coleman, Drew Friedman, and Zap artist Spain Rodriquez. In 1994, the seventh issue won a HARVEY AWARD (named after Harvey Kurtzman, creator of MAD) for Best Comics Anthology. But then the vision of Beauchamp for the digest entirely changed.
He reformatted BLAB! as a 10-inch square color anthology mixing the art form of comics, illustration, and contemporary painters together, with cover by Mark Ryden, Gary Baseman, and the Clayton Brothers, and interior art by the Low brow / Pop Surrealist painters, which led to a Los Angeles-based exhibition with Gary Pressman & Greg Escalante of the now legendary Copro Gallery.
This year’s show will be a real homecoming for Beauchamp as he was forced to cancel last year’s trip due to COVID19. “I’m really looking forward to once again hanging out with those who have supported us over the years and to meet the first timers attending THE BLAB! SHOW.”
The Show features over 60 artists among the most famous in the pop surrealist scene: Andy Kehoe, Bella Ormseth, Benjamin Vierling, Benz and Chang, Bill Mayer, Bob Dob, Bruno Pontiroli, Calvin Laituri, Camille Rose Garcia, Casey Weldon, Cathie Bleck, Chet Zar, Christopher Buzelli, Ciou, Corinne Halbert, Craig LaRotonda, Danny Galieote, David Lyle, Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, Dewi Plass, Ed Binkley, Emil Ferris, Erik Mark Sandberg, Erika Sanada, Femke Hiemstra, Fred Stonehouse, Gabi de la Merced, Glenn Barr, Jason Limon, Jeff Gillette, Joe Vaux, John Brophy, Jonathan Queen, John Kurtz, Josh Keyes, Josie Morway, Karla Pereira, Ki Sing Koh, Leegan Koo, Lucia Hefferman, Luke Chueh, Mari Shimizu, Mark Garro, Marc Burckhardt, Matthew Schommer, Nick Sheehy, Olga Esther, Owen Smith, Paul Barnes, Peca, Rachel Bridge, Renee French, Robert Steven Connett, Ross Jaylo, Ryan Heshka, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Sandow Birk, Sazha Gazova, Scott Bakal, Scott Rohlfs, Sean Mahan, Simona Candini, Sonya Palencia, Teresa James, Thomas Ascott, Tim O’Brien, Travis Louie, Victor Castillo
Exhibit runs; September 11– October 2, 2021
Copro Gallery – Bergamot Station Arts Complex
2525 Michigan Ave, Unit T5, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Discover more here: www.copronason.com/sept21_pr.html
