Camille Rose Garcia
Encyclopedia
Lowbrow (art movement)
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also...
artist. she produces paintings, prints and sculpture in a gothic, "creepy" cartoon style. She cites as influences Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
.
Biography
Garcia's parents met in art school. Her father was a film producer and anti-Vietnam activist, and her mother was a muralist from Northern California. Garcia's parents had divorced when she was young and her mother raised her and her sister, within close proximity to Disneyland.Camille Rose Garcia received her Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
degree at University of California at Davis in 1994 and her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
in 1992. Six years of art school left her disillusioned and bitter, so she decided to move back home on Huntington Beach, California, and started a band, The Real Minx.
Garcia's work has appeared in Modern Painters, Juxtapoz, Rolling Stone, Flaunt, and Blab! magazines. She also contributed work to ohGr
OhGr
ohGr is a band formed by Nivek Ogre, of Skinny Puppy, and musician/engineer Mark Walk. Although the pedigree of the group's members might suggest otherwise, early ohGr releases differed in sound to its related industrial bands, drawing more on hip-hop and electro-pop influences, incorporating more...
's second album, SunnyPsyOp
SunnyPsyOp
SunnyPsyOp is the second album by industrial band ohGr.-Track listing:All songs written by Ogre and Mark Walk.Note: "PawSee" is a hidden track that begins 23 seconds into track 13....
.
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) .
She illustrated a version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
, in 2010. "The original illustrations by John Tenniel
John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of England’s 19th century. Tenniel is considered important to the study of that period’s social, literary, and art histories...
have always been some of my favorites," said Garcia in a recent interview when asked about the book. "I have three copies of the book here because I collect children's stories. That's one of my favorite stories because it's actually a real dark story. She falls down the hole and no one is really nice to her at all. Pretty much every character she encounters, they're not really on her side. So re-reading it I realized I could do a little bit darker of an interpretation than the original illustrations."
Her work also appears in the permanent collections of LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
and the San Jose Museum of Art
San Jose Museum of Art
The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez...
.
Critical reception
Paula Rogers, a KQED 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
San Jose Museum of Art
The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez...
:
“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.”
Exhibitions
2000 - The Happiest Place on Earth - Merry Karnowsky Gallery2001 - The Soft Machine - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2002 - Retreat Syndrome - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2003 - Operation:Opticon - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2004 - Ultraviolence Land - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2005 - Plan B - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2005 - Dreamtime Escape Plan - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2006 - Subterranean Death Clash - Jonathan LeVine Gallery
2007 - Doomcave Daydreams -Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2008 - Ambien Somnambulants - Jonathan LeVine Gallery
2009 - Down the Rabbit Hole - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2010 - The Hydra of Babylon - Merry Karnowsky Gallery
2011 - Sneewittenhen und die Schwarze Lagune - Michael Kohn Gallery
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.
- Manuel Bello , 2006 Interview http://crowndozen.com/main/archives/001359.shtml