Chet Zar, Solid State, oil on board, 2008.

…opened in London’s Strychnin Gallery last Friday. Which was Friday the 13th. Which is about right for Zar’s 2008 collection, Ugly American. Zar talks about his influences (like Beksinski) and where he gets his inspiration on his site:

The characters i paint may seem like creatures from another dimension, but i think they are simply us, here and now. Modern humanity without it’s masks, without the adornments that make us acceptable to whatever group we are a part of. From the straight laced conservative to the tattooed, anti-social rebel, we all cover up to fit in someplace . Yet the only place where we are truly the same is on the inside. We all share feelings of fear and loneliness. We feel ugly and insecure. We feel separate from our environment and each other. These are the feelings that i try to convey in my paintings. These are the feelings that connect us.

Chet Zar, 13, oil on canvas, 2008.

Zar has done artwork for Tool and was the special-effects madman behind Hellboy. Zar will also be part of a show coming to the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle starting on October 10th through November 1st. The Roq show will also include artwork by Dan Quintana and Jeremy Bennet.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 12:04 pm and is filed under London, Real Art, Seattle, Trippy, Very Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.