Camille Rose Garcia

Camille Rose Garcia (born 1970) is a Los Angeles-based lowbrow artist. She produces paintings, prints and sculpture in a gothic, "creepy" cartoon style. She cites as influences Walt Disney and Philip K. Dick. Fact|date=February 2008

Biography

Camille Rose Garcia received her Master of Fine Arts Degree at University of California at Davis in 1994 and her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 1992.

She has built a body of work that has been exhibited at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery (Los Angeles and Berlin), the Grand Central Art Station (CSU, Fullerton) in Los Angeles, the Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle, and the Jonathan LeVine Gallery [ [http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/ Jonathan LeVine Gallery] ] in N.Y.C. Often using narrative and fairytale, Garcia’s depictions of cartoon children living in wastelands comment on the failures of capitalism. Her works examine themes of decadence and denial. Garcia says about her work, “the Earth is older than humans and will rebound, but the fate of our species seems to be precarious at best. I try to be positive and use humor in my work, even while knowing this.” Fact|date=February 2008

Garcia's work has appeared in "Modern Painters, Juxtapoz, Rolling Stone, Flaunt," and "Blab!" magazines. Fact|date=February 2008

She also contributed work to ohGr's second album, SunnyPsyOp.

She has published three books, "The Saddest Place on Earth," (Last Gasp, 2006), "The Magic Bottle: A BLAB! Storybook," (Fantagraphics, 2006) and "Tragic Kingdom " (Last Gasp, 2007).

Her work also appears in the permanent collections of LACMA and the San Jose Museum of Art.

Critical reception

Paula Rogers, a KQED-FM art critic and self-styled fan of Camille Rose Garcia, reviewed Garcia’s mid-career retrospective, "Tragic Kingdom: The Art of Camille Rose Garcia at the San Jose Museum of Art":

“Garcia’s pretty pictures (lack) specific meaning and specific context…their insistent vagueness, smugness, blanket pronouncements, lack of nuance and grating self-righteousness add up to a static portrait / shallow response to something complex: "I get it; things are bad". It's disappointing to find out that the impetus for these works isn't skillful.” [http://www.kqed.org/arts/visualarts/index.jsp?id=17680]

Sources

* "Camille Rose Garcia at Grand Central Art Center" Exhibition Review in "Artweek", December 2005/January 2006, pp. 17-18.
* Marisa Solis, "Army of Darkness: Camille Rose Garcia Fights the Forces of Evil," "Juxtapoz" #62, March 2006.
* Paula Rogers , KQED (San Francisco) Arts and Culture Reviews, "Art Review: Camille Rose Garcia: Tragic Kingdom", Jul 16, 2007. [http://www.kqed.org/arts/visualarts/index.jsp?id=17680]
* Manuel Bello , 2006 Interview [http://crowndozen.com/main/archives/001359.shtml]

References

External links

* [http://www.camillerosegarcia.com/ Camille Rose Garcia's web site]
* [http://www.sjmusart.org/content/exhibitions/current/exhibition_info.phtml?itemID=328 Exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art] Review of SJMA Exhibition: [http://www.kqed.org/arts/visualarts/index.jsp?id=17680]
* [http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/ Jonathan LeVine Gallery]