One of the summer’s most fun group exhibitions is an overflowing tribute to Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and his character Rat Fink. La Luz de Jesus Gallery‘s new show “Rat Fink’s Revenge” opens June 7, 2013 with models by 40-plus artists who each used a 12-inch resin Rat Fink to re-imagine, dress up, and honor the legendary hot rod cartoon monster icon. The collection of statues is taken from the book of the same name, compiled by David Chodosh. Artists inlclude Ron English, Natalia Fabia, Mark Mothersbaugh, and KRK Ryden.

Rat Fink has inspired artists and made them laugh for decades. Roth (March 4, 1932 – April 4, 2001), father of Lowbrow Art, was an artist, cartoonist, pinstriper, custom car designer and builder, a key figure in Southern California’s Kustom Kulture and hot-rod movement of the late 1950s and 1960s.

“Rat Fink’s Revenge” opens June 7, 2013 with a reception from 8 to 11pm and hangs through June 30.

Below: Spider Fink by Chet Zar (resin, acrylic and mixed media)

Additionally, opening on June 7, 2013 from 8 to 11pm: “Bobby Furst: Don’t Push Me.” Assemblage artist, Joshua Tree local, world traveler, photographer, L.A. native, the list goes on… Bobby Furst is an important voice in social, political and environmental realities in California art today, and “Don’t Push Me” provides an exceptional opportunity to view a selection of his works as chosen by Billy Shire.

Furst works from a studio / compound on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Monument crafting assemblages made from old industrial and household items, block lettering, musical instruments, weapons, helmets, signs, even a motorcycle. Here’s more about Furst’s background:

As a teenager in the late sixties he wanted to become a photojournalist after accompanying his father, Peter Furst, now an anthropologist and art collector, to Tepic Mexico where the senior Furst documented the life and visionary art of the Huichol Indians. In the 1970’s Bobby spent time photographing musicians and concerts, street people in Hollywood and Venice Beach, and went on location to Mata Ortiz, Mexico for a month to document the now famous potter Juan Quesada (in the late nineties those photographs accompanied a retrospective of Juan Quasada’s work at the Museum of Man in San Diego, California.)

In 1998 Bobby went with a friend to the studio of assemblage artist George Herms. Soon after, at a garage sale, he met a painter attending the Santa Monica College of Design Art and Architecture who mentioned that George Herms taught there and that classes began the next day. Since admission to the school was by the administration’s’ approval of an artist’s portfolio, Bobby arrived the next day with art work in hand hoping to get into Georges’ class. Bobby spent the next year and a half, ten hours a day, seven days a week creating art at his studio space at the school.

“Don’t Push Me” will be on view through June 30.