Downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) is proud to announce their next major solo show Small Time Buffoonist, featuring new works from Chicago-based artist, illustrator, and toymaker Travis Lampe. Premiering Saturday, April 6th in Gallery 2, the show will be on view through May 11th.
The topsy turvy world portrayed in Lampe’s paintings is a trip out of pandemia. Inspired by an old-timey aesthetic, from Steamboat Willie to Bette Boop and Dr. Seuss, Lampe describes his work as “a mish-mosh of those old-timey influences with some Duccio-inspired mountains and the inevitable light-switch nose.” Since 2007, the artist has shown all across the U.S. and internationally (including in London, Berlin, and Italy).
Featuring acrylic and gouache paintings, as well as sculptures, Small Time Buffoonist follows Lampe’s last solo show at CHG, All Signs Point to No (Aug. 2022), and his mini-solo’s as part of the gallery’s seven-artist show, The Magnificent Seven (Feb. 2021), and three-artist show (Feb. 2019).
Regarding his new works, Lampe says, “What is the meaning of art? Philosophers have wrestled with this question since time immemorial. Thank goodness, the wait is finally over. Speaking through my latest body of work, art is ‘pictures and stuff.’ Each piece — whether it features a chain smoking bird, a pathetically drunken egg man, or the quotidien trials of hell-bat motherhood — speaks DIRECTLY to the human condition.” Adding, “You’ll see yourself in this show. It’ll be as if you were gazing at a reflection of yourself, but looking into a mirror. So, like, a three way reflection? It’s hard to explain.”
Open to the public and free of charge, Small Time Buffoonist is set to debut on Saturday, April 6th from 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm in Gallery 2, alongside a solo show by world-renowned Spanish painter and sculptor Okuda San Miguel, titled Kisses Between Universes, in the Main Gallery. Both shows will be on view through May 11th.