The Summer 2018 Oddball Art Labs group show is titled “Strange Imaginations and Other Perplexing Wonders” and it’s probably the most open ended theme for a gallery show we’ve ever arranged. The basic theme is Lowbrow Art.
Okay, some of you are saying “Kick Ass! This will be fun!”, but there may be others of you that may be scratching your heads thinking, “What the *&^# is Lowbrow Art?”
Lowbrow Art is a little hard to explain, but we’ll try…
Let’s start with Wikipedia’s summary:
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art,[1] describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, and hot-rod cultures of the street. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it is a sarcastic comment.[2]
Most lowbrow artworks are paintings, but there are also toys, digital art, and sculpture.
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowbrow_(art_movement)
Lowbrow Artists
Rather than a description, sometimes it’s easier to show examples of some of our favorite Lowbrow artists. (Dang, it’s hard to keep this list short.)
The list of great Lowbrow artists just keeps going. Here’s what Wikipedia editors put on their list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lowbrow_pop_surrealism_artists
A few great places to discover more Lowbrow artists are these two magazines:
You’re in good company.
If you’ve been participating in the Oddball Art Labs shows in the past, you may find yourself suddenly saying “Holy Crap…I’ve been a Lowbrow Artist this whole time!!!”
And if you don’t think that “Lowbrow” completely describes you…well, give it a try and see what happens. While the finished art is important, the journey is what is truly critical. Every piece of art you create, whether an amazing success or a weird failure you want to hide in the closet, is a learning experiment that grows you as an artist.
We know that this show has a fairly open description and that’s our goal this time. We’re looking for a wonderful assortment of whimsical, strange and unexpected artwork.
- Surrealistic painted dreamscapes featuring mariachi frogs serenading Colonel Sanders, yup that would work!
- Odd indie or small imprint comix spotlighting the adventures of a rouge pancreas, check!
- Watercolors depicting giant lizards selling tiny humans on skewers to giant cockroaches in NYC, Okay!
- Linocuts featuring fast food franchises making multiple alien species fat…yes, we’d love to see that too.
Let your imaginations run wild.
Join us on Friday, July 13, 2018 for what is sure to be an amazing show.