This Friday night is going to be banging, with a bunch of shows, not least of which is the latest offering from RTIST Gallery!

This next show looks pretty cool, with two artists from LA, Justin Fry and Codie Comrie, whose work has really caught our interest.

“The Bowery along with RTIST present Booze and Emotions. Works created by LA based artists Justin Fry and Cody Comrie. Proudly supported by Ashbury, Sailor Jerrys, Volcom and Palm.

Cody Comrie

The Inspiration for Cody’s work comes from his surroundings, the natural process, animals, decay, the Universe, the way things naturally evolve and change. How every action has a reaction, whether physical or emotional. He looks at the way we exist and how we relate to our surroundings, how we affect the natural world, and how we should be affecting it. It is a constant battle for him to exist within it, always questioning reality.
The process of his is very important. He never knows where to start or where to end, one thing happens and leads to the next, creating something unexpected, something that could never be conceived in the beginning of a piece. This is how he feels his work brings him closer to the natural world, letting the work happen as organically as possible.

He’d like to think his work reflects the natural process, letting the work have a life its own, creating itself in a way.

Justin Fry

In life we are surrounded by excess and over-stimulation, subject to the overwhelming flooding of our senses. This is the present condition that we are required to navigate, one which results in a loss of sharpness of sensory experience. It is Justin’s opinion we may have become a product of this heavily designed environment as it contributes to and constructs our belief systems and identities.
Justin Fry’s work mixes key elements of these visual languages that reflect his culture and that are used as beacons within the visual white noise that has surrounded him in his life. These elements can combine to create fractured hybrid characters that demonstrate the possibility that we are all now fractured individuals taking on parts of our designed environments. Researching memories has begun to show Justin clues to what effect these cultural surroundings have had on him, both positive and negative. Viewing anything from old cartoons, comics, film, magazines and art catalogs.

Justin hunts for bits of information that he is emotionally attracted to and moves to organise them to be used as a foundation to build a painting upon. These images can be very strong symbols that may hold significant meaning, or they may be attractive to simply because they have been seen many times in life, causing them to have been burned into his subconscious. After collecting, Justin begins to hunt for new uses for this familiar subject matter and begin stretching and distorting the images, using their recognisable features as a place of departure for his creative process. Justin’s paintings are a record of this process.”

Really looking forward to checking out this show, we’ll be heading there after our show to check it all out!

Who: Justin Fry & Cody Comrie
What: Booze and Emotion
Where: RTIST Gallery,
When: Show opens Friday 20th July from 7pm til 10:30pm

Check our the Facebook event page and RTIST Gallery for more info.