Culture Smash
Featuring the Art of Jacob Herring and Chris Stevens
First Friday Opening Reception: 5-9 pm September 6
Jacob Herring is Portland based artist highly focused on 1980s pop culture cartoon surrealism. The motivating force is to merge a darker underbelly of the universal human condition with the highly idealized icons of pop culture cartoons; in other words, the marriage of two realities: the darker hard truths of human life and the bright and colorful fantasies we create to escape the former. Jacob studied at a local art school in the Portland metro area and has been actively creating art for more than three decades. He utilizes the mediums of gouache, watercolor and acrylics to bring his secret worlds to life. His influences include the illustration style of John Camp (Ren and Stimpy) and the science fiction writing of Frank Herbert (the Dune series).
Chris Stevens is a visual artist currently residing in Vancouver, WA. He also goes by the name Pop Octopus. He takes a multidisciplinary approach to creating art but mostly works in screenprinting, acrylic, digital and spraypaint. Chris has an Associates degree in graphic design and illustration from Seattle Community College and has worked as a graphic designer and screenprinter. His work is influenced by pop culture, Andy Warhol, Jack Kirby, Science Fiction, Noble Hardesty, Sally Stevens, the designs of nature and the beauty in decay. You can see more of Chris’s work at www.popoctopus.com.