BIG NEWS!

Everyone knows that on Gallery Stroll evenings 3rd South is a hot spot. The area is abuzz with so many wonderful local businesses including: Kayo Gallery, Q Clothing, Retro Rose, The Red Ant, Nobrow Coffee and more. Walk around the corner and find Ken Sanders Rare Books, Fice, The Guthrie Studios, Este Pizza and Copper Palate Press. Walk a block west and catch a movie at the Broadway Theaters or eat out at the Copper Onion. Well, it's about time Blonde Grizzly joined the party. The store has moved to 213 E. 300 S. Salt Lake City. The store will have free parking behind the building and plenty of meters on the street. Hooray! It will be exciting to have all these wonderful businesses together, and hopefully more convenient for your evening strolls and shopping excursions. Stop by and see the new location this week.

Best of Utah 2012

City Weekly has announced it's Best Of 2012 Awards. Blonde Grizzly was given the title of Best Local-Pop Gallery. Read the snippet about our store on their website or pick up a copy of City Weekly to see the store highlighted as well as many other great things happening around the Beehive State.

Granny's Attic

One of the biggest movements in the current art world is pop culture referencing. If LA's recent art scene has proven anything to us, it's that people love reinventions. We can't seem to get enough paintings about our favorite cultural phenoms, whether it be Dr. Who, Zelda, Mario or horror icons. In the last few years, Comic Con has gone from being thought of as incredibly dorky, to incredibly hip. Don't believe me, check out Gallery 1988's insanely popular and ever-selling-out prints from their pop culture themed art shows, or just Google "zombie art." People can't seem to get enough of it. On the other hand, your grandma and the rest of the clueless-about-art population can't seem to get enough horrible paintings of serene landscapes. One of the most hated/beloved painters of these kitsch pieces of art is Thomas Kinkade, who recently passed away. It is estimated that one in every 20 homes in America is decorated with a Kinkade image. No wonder his work has garnered so much criticism, criticism which comes in many forms. One way to pay homage to bad art is to try and make it better. Many artists do this through photoshop, but a few, like local Kat Martin have turned to a collaborative painting process to combine some of the most beloved imagery with some of the most hated. As long as bad art has been mass produced, it has been subject to reworked replication. Lately these types of collage regularly employ pop culture. (You can even get a Threadless shirt of a robot taking out a Kinkade cottage!) Kat takes kitsch landscapes and adds in zombies, monsters and other imagery subtlety so that they are bound to get many double takes and closer inspections. Have one on your wall and your friends will definitely get a laugh. The images are funny, honor your favorites from pop culture and simultaneously back hand the art of your parent's, what's not to love?
Kat Martin will be showing her works at Blonde Grizzly from this Gallery Stroll, Friday April 20th. Check out a post I wrote a while back about her to see some more of her imagery and stop by the show to see her newest reworks.