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On Saturday, February 24, downtown Los Angeles' Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) will proudly present a solo exhibition featuring new works by Toronto-based artist Troy Brooks, entitled "SKINWALKER," in Gallery 3.
Influenced by a mixture of classic Hollywood imagery and ancient mythology, Brooks creates surrealistic portraits of elongated women. Eerily seductive and intensely emotional, this new series of bold and unique oil paintings present an elaborate pageantry of female characters placed in allegorical settings. About his new show, he shares, "The new girls are really vibrant. Visually speaking, it's sorta like a cool lime sorbet after having a gorgonzola pizza."
"Water Lily" and "Starfucker"
Brooks adds:
"My girls have always moved in cycles. Every year there's a mood that sort of surfaces throughout my work, and after marinating in it, the concept usually generates its opposite in the next series. In other words, a year of reflective work is followed by more whimsical themes. I often refer to this as my crop rotation.
Last year the death of my mother dominated my work and what came out were a suite of paintings that suggested a requiem. When I finished that mournful series, the need to counter the previous paintings was more dramatic than it ever had been. The depictions of loss and sadness in the 'Shinigami' series were succeeded by new girls with a distinctively different flavor: they were almost appetizing. The color of candy. I try not to curate myself too much when I'm creating a series so that my intuition has elbow room, but now that this new work is complete, I think the most interesting aspect of this collection is the truculent sexuality. What organically emerged after the death of my paintings from my 'Shinigami' series, were a sequence of erotically charged figures morphing into their animal familiars. Resulting in images more overtly carnal than any of my previous work.
As Shinigami was the Japanese Grim Reaper myth that I cloaked the last series with, this time I used the legend of the Skin Walker. The Navajo story of the shape shifting Skin Walker is something I have been fascinated by for years. It's said to be a type of witch that has the ability to turn into or possess animals. This is a decidedly dark folklore that has spilled onto my canvas as satire. Animals have always figured in my paintings. This time, instead of posing in supporting roles, animal and human merge with a feral, explosive sensuality, ultimately balancing out the despairing themes of my mother's requiem."
In addition to Troy Brook's "SKINWALKER" exhibition, Corey Helford Gallery will be premiering new shows from Herakut in Gallery 1 and Adrian Cox in Gallery 3. Opening reception for all three showswill be hosted Saturday, February 24from 7-11pm. The reception is open to the public and all shows are on view through March 31.
About Troy Brooks:
Born in 1972 in Ontario, Canada, Troy Brooks is a contemporary surrealist painter who first learned to draw by sketching the work of the great classic Hollywood photographers George Hurrell, Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Ruth Harriet Louise and Clarence Sinclair Bull. The dramatic lighting and enigmatic pansexuality of those images are sunbaked into the visual themes of Brooks' work. His disproportioned vixens and viragos, with their burning interior dialogue, are widely recognized on the contemporary art scene and have been shown in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
His paintings have been featured in Juxtapoz, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Hi-Fructose Magazine and VICE, among others.
He lives in Toronto.
About Corey Helford Gallery:
Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) was first established in 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer and creator, Bruce Helford (Anger Management, The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, The Oblongs) and has since evolved into one of the premier galleries of New Contemporary art.
Its goals as an institution are the support and growth of young and emerging, to well-known and internationally established artists, the production and promotion of their artwork, and the general production of their exhibits, events and projects.
CHG represents a diverse collection of international artists, primarily influenced by today's pop culture and collectively encompassing style genres such as New Figurative Art, Pop Surrealism, Neo Pop, Graffiti and Street Art, and Post-Graffiti.
After nine years in Culver City, CHG relocated in December 2015 to a robust 12,000 sq. ft. building in Downtown Los Angeles, seven times larger than its original space, where it continues to host exhibitions within the heart of the city's art community. The current space boasts three separate galleries, each of which house individual artist and group exhibitions, whereas the main gallery offers 4,500 sq. ft.,
providing total immersion for its attendees.
New exhibitions are presented approximately every four weeks. For more info and an upcoming exhibition schedule, visit
CoreyHelfordGallery.com
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COREY HELFORD GALLERY
571 S. Anderson St. (Enter on Willow St)
Los Angeles, CA 90033
Tel. 310.287.2340
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 12 Noon to 6pm
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