When he’s not making Chet Haze look like an even bigger idiot on Twitter, Jensen Karp is the owner of the wonderful Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, which has been the location of some of the most incredible pop culture works of art that we’ve ever seen. His latest effort, though, really hits home for us, as he and painter Bruce White have teamed up to bring us “Velvetmania,” which is an art show that features 35 iconic professional wrestler portraits painted on black velvet canvases.
Through some magical skill of persuasion that I still don’t understand, I was able to convince Bruce to create a show idea I had – to paint over 35 BLACK VELVET portraits of my favorite old school wrestlers from the 80’s and 90’s, and now the world can see them all in person. Working with Bruce to carefully choose the subjects may have been one of the most exciting experiences I’ve yet to achieve artistically. Imagine my expression when I got to ask him, “Can you Google Giant Gonzalez?” (Via Jensen Karp)
If you’re in the general area of Gallery 1988’s west location (7308 Melrose Ave.) on Friday night between 7 and 10, stop in and check out the portraits. If this sampling of Karp’s and White’s efforts are any indication of how awesome Velvetmania is, you’re also going to want to bring a giant bag with a dollar sign on it to purchase all of them. And then mail me the Koko B. Ware portrait, because it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen.
