Preview: Anthony Ausgang Solo Show “Catascopes” at Copro Gallery

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Meow! This Saturday,  May 30 from 8pm to 11:30, the cat man cometh, when Anthony Ausgang launches his purr-fect new solo show, CataScopes at Copro Gallery.

For his solo show Ausgang, whose work is super mind- and reality-bending, brings an even further-out psychedelic edge to Pop Surrealism. His trademark cat characters are more than just day-trippers out on a Low Brow lark, more anthropomorphized adorable bi-pedial felines frolicking–now they appear to be hallucinations beyond the doors of perception. Ausgang takes his cats as close as possible to the point where their image becomes unrecognizable then all the way to the cusp where the narrative breaks down and the painting’s story becomes the dissolution of its image. Yet there’s still an attachment to reality that must be tended to, just to place it all in some kind of context; the viewer might not be sure what is happening in an Ausgang painting, but it still looks possible. Still artfully rendered in mind-bent colors, Ausgang’s new paintings are more about what reality doesn’t do than what it does.

One the principal painters associated with both Low Brow and Pop Surrealism, Ausgang has shown throughout the United States and internationally, including Apocalypse Wow! at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy and was the featured international artist at the Rewind show in Bologna celebrating the 50th anniversary of Fender guitar in Italy.  In 2010, Ausgang did the cover art for the band MGMT release Congratulations (album) which was nominated by NME for the Best Art Vinyl of 2010. In 2011, Ausgang designed the Christmas windows for the La Rinascente Department Store in Milan, Italy with larger-than-life three-dimensional models of his trademark psychedelic cartoon cats.

“Vacation from Reality” is a publication of his major artworks up to 2007, and he has published two novellas based on the contents of his spam folder. His artwork is also featured in several anthologies, including Weirdo Deluxe: The Wild World of Pop Surrealism, Lowbrow Art by Matt Dukes Jordan, and Pop Surrealism by Kirsten Anderson. In 2011, he received the lifetime achievement award at Beyond Eden’s annual art fair at Barnsdall Art Park.

So prepared to have your mind blown at this solo exhibition of new work by the Pop Surrealist and Low Brow artist! Plus the Psychedelic/Improv band Cat Museum, featuring Ausgang on “prepared” guitar will also play along to a special new video by Matt Fielder. New work by the artist Geoffrey Gersten will be on view in the smaller room.

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Copro Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Space T5, Santa Monica, CA 90404

The event will take place at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica on May 30th from 8 – 11:30 PM. If you are not familiar with the location of the Copro Gallery there, it is the furthest gallery west and is reached through a passageway from the southwest corner of the large parking lot. When you leave, pull up to the gate by which you entered and it will open…

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“The First Cat Run Over by a Car”

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“The Sentinel”

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“Patty Melted”

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“The Wheel Within a Wheel”

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“The Big Gulp”

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“The Late Arrival”

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“Live Free or Die Trying”

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“It Happened on a Monday”

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“The Trap”

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“Never Shake Hands with an Asshole”

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“The Cuckold”

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