This post was created to share some good news about our Friend Kevin Scalzo. Recently he started a new series of Pop Art Paintings titled, "Weirdos, Creeps, and Dweebs!" The artwork has some really great style and I have to admit that the characters do look pretty creepy ( I mean that in a GOOD way, ha! ). So, to see more of Kevin's wacky artwork then please, just click RIGHT HERE!
Right now, at the BEAR and BIRD Boutique and Gallery, they're having a Comic Book Art Exhibit titled "PROOF OF HEROES, The Julius Schwartz Printer’s Proof Cover Collection". The Art Gallery is located upstairs at TATES COMICS in Lauderhill, Florida. The show runs from January 20th to March 3rd, 2012.
The basic concept: It's an art exhibition featuring nearly 300 comic book cover printer’s proofs, spanning a decade (1964-1974) of Julius Schwartz’ 42 year run as Editor at DC Comics.
Julius Schwartz began working as an editor at DC Comics in 1944! During the 1950's and 60's, he oversaw the revival of superheroes such as the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Batman, and the Atom, which led to the Silver Age of comic books.
These one-of-a-kind Printer’s Proof’s were originally sent to Schwartz for his final approval, before their commercial print run. The covers feature artwork from such icons as Nick Cardy, Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino, Mike Kaluta and many, many more!
The proofs are being sold to benefit "The Hero Initiative", a great charity. For more information, CLICK HERE!
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present Tim Burton, a major retrospective exploring the full range of Tim Burton's creative work, both as a director of live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. Showcased here are just a few of the "Batman Items" that will be present. We got an original Batman Cowl from a Batman Movie, plus some Costume Design Drawings of both the Penguin & Catwoman from "Batman Returns" and one of The Joker ( Jack Nicholson ) from 1989's BATMAN. Plus, you know there will be much much more! Wow! It looks like a great show!
It will be on view at LACMA from May 29th ( This Sunday! ) through October 31st, 2011, the exhibition brings together over 700 drawings, paintings, photographs, moving-image works, storyboards, puppets, concept artworks, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, including art from a number of unrealized and little-known personal projects. Many of these objects come from the artist's own archive, as well as from studio archives and private collections of Burton's collaborators.
Also, IMPORTANT BOOK SIGNING NOTICE:
Tim Burton will be available at the LAC Museum on SATURDAY, May 28th to personally sign the exhibition catalog book. He'll be there for only 2 hours, between 12:00 & 2:00. For more information, click HERE!
There's a pretty cool art show event-thing going on at the BEAR & BIRD BOUTIQUE + GALLERY in Lauderhill, Florida that a lot of Bat-Blog readers might like to see. In fact, the show ends on July 31st so, you have until the end of this month to see it. It has a "Love of Vintage Toys" theme & a few pieces are even Batman-related. Basically, it's a group show with many artists contributing artwork & photography that is inspired by cherished toys from their childhood. They all pay homage to different action figure toy lines: You have Mego's Batman, Kenner's Star Wars, Mattel's He-Man Master of The Universe, Lego Characters, & much much more! A lot of the artwork is really amazing! Here in this post we feature the 2 Batman-inspired ones. The 1st one was done by the curator of the show & it's actually an original comic book ad for the Magnetic Batman figure by Mego, framed. She also displays the actual figure right above it...cool! The next one is an acrylic painting of a Batman String Puppet flopping around. It was masterfully done by Lora Zombie. There are too many artists & pieces of art to mention here but the flyer ( last photo ) shows all of their names. Plus, at the end of this post is a really really great video of the Art Gallery Installation & you can see all the artwork very well. For more information be sure to visit BEARANDBIRD.COM plus, if you would like to see all the art in sharp detail, be sure to visit their online Flickr gallery by clicking HERE!
I recently posted a piece of art showing Batman with NO face & dared people to draw one on. Well, I got a few emailed to me & I gotta say that I'm very proud of all of them. All the artwork is really great! So, here they are. I'm not posting them in any "favorite order", but I'm posting them in the order that they were received. The 1st two were done by David Morefeld. He did one of Batman but added the "Turtle" because the whole thing reminded him of that famous "Art School Contest", that's hilarious! Plus, his Batman Drawing is really great! The 3rd one was created by Kai Kumpulainen. The shadowing & realistic detail is very good. Especially when you consider that he drew it with crappy software. Can you imagine what he could have done with some Adobe Illustrator? He did a really GREAT job! The 4th one is from our friend Timothy San Fllippo. WOW! He went all totally crazy adding color & a funky background ...love it! The last one is from our buddy Zdravko Genov, who lives in Bulgaria. He said that all he had was MS Paint. But regardless of this his sketch is still really wonderful. I totally love all of these & wanna thank everyone who participated. I thought it was a fun art experiment & was also surprised by how many people took me up on the challenge....Well Done, Gentlemen.
I just discovered a Pop Artist in Australia who, right now, is totally inspired by Batman & other comic book imagery. His name is Johnny Romeo. He's mainly a painter but also makes prints & books. Judging his artwork you can easily see that he is inspired by both Jean Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol. But I do have to admit that he's a great colorist. Plus these paintings do look pretty cool! If you're interested in seeing more of his artwork you can do so by clicking HERE! There you will find information to his current art openings in & around Australia. Also, down below is the promo video for his current United Galleries Art Show with the "BATMAN LANE SERIES" Paintings.
OK, I hope I don't need to explain who Pablo Picasso is, ha ha! But he was an artist who helped define Modern Art & one of his most popular styles was cubism. Well, the designers at WONDER BROS recently created many Superhero Paintings in the Picasso-Style & they're totally AWESOME! In fact, the name of the Gallery is "Artwork So Awesome It will Melt Your Face Off", ha ha! Now because the Bat-Blog is all Batman-related I only posted the ones of Batman & The Joker but if you visit their website you can see ones of Spiderman, Wolverine, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Silver Surfer, Superman, Green Lantern, Captain America, & many many more! They are all extremely funny & very well-executed...To see them all, just click HERE!
Holy Purr-fection, Batman! Catwoman herself, Hollywood icon, actress, and author Julie Newmar, will join us in person as the Paley Center presents this exclusive preview of Julie Newmar: A Life in Motion, a world premiere photographic exhibition at the David W. Streets Fine Art and Photography Gallery in Beverly Hills, featuring the performer as captured by Bert Stern, John Engstead, and Bernard of Hollywood, among others.At the Paley Center event, Ms. Newmar will introduce a special screening of the Biography special, Julie Newmar: The Cat's Meow, and be on hand for a sneak preview of select imagery from the exhibit in the Paley Center's Bell Family Gallery. Julie Newmar: A Life in Motion, will remain on view at the Paley Center until December 6, while the main exhibit is running concurrently at the David W. Streets Gallery.Admission to the exclusive screening and gallery exhibit preview is free, but reservations are recommended. Saturday, November 7, 2009,1:00 pm PT,Los Angeles, CA. For more information be sure to visit the Paley Center website by clicking HERE!
Everybody who knows me personally knows that I am a total Andy Warhol Fan. So when my friend Jeffery sent me this pic of a cool poster with "Warhol AND Batman" I was pretty happy, ha ha. This is an extremely RARE Art Gallery Poster for an exhibit of Warhol's artwork in Torino, Italy. The event happened in 1989 & the actual graphic is a large painting that the Artist did in the 1960's. I love that they chose his "Batman Logo" painting for this. It was an early piece where he was still trying to be a little bit like an Abstract Expressionist. It's a famous piece of art that you really don't get to see very often. Awesome! Thanks Jeffery!
This post is just a friendly reminder of a Batman-related event that happens tomorrow. So, don't forget! On Saturday, August 8th, 2009 ( 5:00pm - 11:00pm ) in Albuquerque, New Mexico the TRILLION ART SPACE ( 2nd & Marquette ) will have an art show titled, "WHY SO SERIOUS?". The show will feature art work in many shapes, forms, & sizes but all of it will have a special focus on Batman and/or The Joker. There will be paintings, photos, colleges, etc...To celebrate the event I made these 2 WALLPAPER BACKGROUNDS you can use on your desktop as a reminder. Also, if anybody goes to this thing then please let us know how it went & send us some photos if ya can, thanks!
On Saturday, August 8th, 2009 ( 5:00pm - 11:00pm ) in Albuquerque, New Mexico the TRILLION ART SPACE ( 2nd & Marquette ) will have an art show titled, "WHY SO SERIOUS?". The show will feature art work in many shapes, forms, & sizes but all of it will have a special focus on Batman and/or The Joker. There will be paintings, photos, colleges, etc... Shown here are just a few examples. The 1st photo shows the poster for the event. The 1st painting is a large car hood that has been painted almost Graffiti-Style with a portrait of Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight Batman movie ( Awesome! ). The next one is a Cubist-Style painting of the Joker that looks exactly like Pablo Picasso's famous self-portrait ( I love the parody here, good job, instantly recognizable ). The next few are examples of image-appropriation where they have taken existing photos or art & defaced them with Joker face make-up. Plus, at the art show, there will be much more artwork & it really looks like it's gonna be an extremely cool event! So, if you live in that area be sure to check it out ( Please send us some pics if ya go! ) Oh yeah, the last photo looks like maybe a postcard they made to advertise the event or maybe it's just a flyer, not sure. But the graphics are pretty sweet!
