Photo courtesy. Photo- Rick Castro/painting- Stephen Holman
Inspired by Orson Wells’ radio presentation (1938) and HG Wells’ novel _War of the Worlds_ (1897) that pioneered the rise of science fiction, which ultimately lead up to iconic franchises like Star Trek comes a new exhibition that celebrates the furry fandom. Rick Castro debuts his latest project _FERAL,_ a collection of images from 1998 taken at ConFURence 9 in Buena Park depicting “fursonas” and the anthropomorphic culture.
Rick Castro says, “With the advent of the internet, furry is, in my opinion, the first culture to create and organize online. Since my documentation in the late 90s, furry has indeed become mainstream morphing into other fandoms, raves, and conventions.”
Stephen Holman presents twenty new works in Feral, and comments,
“These works represent the bigger, bolder, wilder, and more magical side of my work, and I am thrilled to be showing them all together in one amazing gallery location.”
Holman spent a happy childhood roaming through the rural idyll of the English countryside before being rudely thrust into the chaos of punk-era London in the late 70s, and New York City’s Lower East Side club scene in the early 1980s. He moved to California in 1987, and his subsequent four decade, multi-media career in the US has included co-founding and directing the notorious cabaret/performance art troupe Theatre Carnivale in Los Angeles in the late 80s, creating and directing surreal stop-motion animation series for Nickelodeon (Life with Loopy/Kablam!), Warner Bros (Phantom Investigators) and Disney (The Bite-Sized Adventures of Sam Sandwich), and discovering and managing outsider artist, William A. Hall from 2015-2019. Holman's visionary paintings frequently relate to his surreal stage performances, combining eco-science and political satire with messy, outrageous comedy, utilizing props such as giant rabbits, dancing toilets and cheese propulsion devices. In recent years, however, magic, mythology, childhood, and man’s spiritual relationship with nature have also become deep inspirations.
Holman’s work has been shown widely throughout the world in venues including MOCA, the American Visionary Art Museum, The Kitchen, Track 16 Gallery and the Tokyo International Theatre Festival.
He resides in Alhambra, CA.
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The opening reception will take place on February 15, 2020 from 3pm-6pm and will be on display through March 7 at [Lisa Derrick Fine Arts](https://lisaderrick.com).
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