Located in Santa Monica, California, Copro Gallery showcases high-quality works by up-and-coming artists. This past weekend, I attended opening night of its latest exhibit, “Conjoined vs. Grotesque: Denizens of the Dark.” The event welcomed the public to enter a morbidly fascinating world created by some of the most talented individuals in the Dark Contemporary Art Movement, motion picture and music industries and beyond. I managed to capture countless photos, so, without further ado, here’s your look inside.
The exhibition was curated by artist Chet Zar and author and musician Jeremy Wagner. Both are extremely creative with an avid interest in the uncanny. “Conjoined vs. Grotesque” unites artists from all walks of life to lay bare the bizarre inner-workings of the mind through paintings, sculptures, drawings and mixed media pieces.
It was a packed house for the debut. There were food and coffee trucks, live music performed by horror punk band The Order of the Fly, as well as live body painting by Nix Body Art & FX. It was my first visit to the gallery, so I was excited not only to see the new exhibit, but to also explore the building.
Art work was sprawled across two rooms and practically every inch of wall and floor space was covered. The center piece of the larger room was “Beetlejuice” by El Mescalito. The Tim Burton character was donning his signature black and white pin-striped suit with an umbrella decorated with hanging eyeballs protruding from his head.
In this room was also a stunning piece called “GOD” by Ave Rose. This woman is renowned for the way she implements antiques, taxidermy, rare treasures and mechanical motion in her creations. The piece she contributed contained a still-born goat she sourced from The Glass Coffin, a vampire-themed oddities shop in Austin, Texas. It was encased in glass with $10,000 worth of shredded U.S. cash! Yes, you read that correctly. There was a handle attached to the exterior of the case that you could turn to see the beautiful creature in action. I suggest checking out her Instagram profile @averose13 for more details on how she brought this work to life.
Ryan Matthew Cohn of the Oddities Flea Market was another featured artist and contributed “Fig. 31” — a carefully crafted osteological piece of the skull. I was really looking forward to viewing this in the flesh after seeing him post his progress on his Instagram account. Meagan Meli, who formerly helped produce Oddities Flea Markets with Cohn, showed off her artistic skill with a piece entitled “In Ictu Oculi,” a Latin phrase meaning “in the blink of an eye.” The work included two conjoined skeletal figures, one holding an hour glass and the other a trio of wax candles. It was a marvel to look at the ornate detail and fine craftsmanship.
There were so many other provocative pieces that I will feature in the slideshow below. Also scroll down for a brief recording of the live body painting. I am thrilled I was able to experience opening night of this darkly magical art exhibition. It will be up until February 16th if any of you will be in the Los Angeles area and would like to check it out. Find more details at the Copro Gallery official website.
Vamp Jenn's Corner 
Definitely looks like Lovecraftian entities and all things macabre come to life.
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Wonderfully put! The pieces on display really show the best of what’s happening in dark art.
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Captivating collection. Some of the smaller pieces intrigue, as they invite closer inspection, and in turn yield greater surprise/shock. Did you form a similar impression?
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Yes, there is definitely so much detail in the smaller pieces. The art was truly amazing!
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