Baby Tattooville on Parade

Last Saturday, the Riverside  Art Museum opened an exhibit called “Baby Tattooville on Parade.”


The show presents a strange, fun sort of art that has variously worn the labels “Pop Surrealism” or “Lowbrow Art.”


Growing out of the underground comics, street art, hot rod culture and pop art in California as early as the 1960s, it spans a wide range of subjects, from sad-eyed Victorian girls to spoofs on 1950s moderne Americana (KRK Ryden, above), to ghoulish visions of zombies.


Many of the artists have cool monikers like “Buff Monster (above),” “Shag,” “KMDZ,” “Bob Dob” and “Lola.” A lot of them have unusual haircuts and tattoo stylings. Hmmm...Don’t know about the tattoos--and my hair options are limited, but maybe there’s still time to switch my name to “Smokescreen,” or “Jim Dim.”


Paleo-artist, book illustrator and movie designer William Stout and I got the same dress memo: skeleton t-shirt and black jacket.


Organizer  Bob Self used my painting “Marketplace of Ideas,” as a symbol of the bizarre bazaar that he has brought together.

The movement is associated with the internet phenomena SketchTheatre, Deviant Art, Juxtapoz magazine, and Molly Crabapple’s Dr. Sketchy events  -- all of whom were represented at the opening.


LINKS
Watch the Baby Tattooville Sketch Jam in time lapse video
Riverside Art Museum: "Baby Tattooville on Parade"
Exhibit continues through November 8 in Riverside, California.
Thanks to curator Kathryn Poindexter and the City of Riverside for your support of the anti-mundane.