Opening Reception: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 8-11pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 pm

How do we transform the horrifying realities of this world into something beautiful? What are our psychological mechanisms for coping with subjects too painful for rational thought? These are the issues addressed in Edward Walton Wilcox’s second solo exhibition at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles.

With his Gothic sensibility and taste for the Romantic period, Wilcox imagines the distances and expanses we all must navigate in our own subconscious landscapes. He explores our warlike inclinations in an installation piece titled A Little Paranoia Goes a Long Way, featuring two large glass cabinets containing ten Belgian assault rifles preciously displayed as if they were artifacts of reverence, objects of aggressive meditation, or apocalyptic contemplation.

“Fanatic” includes paintings and sculptures that modulate between the stark realities of our age and the dreamlike musings of a mind in denial. Hauntingly beautiful, the work is overt in its reference to Gothic convention, in both content and physical facture. Wilcox's use of primitive materials such as wood, glass, rabbit skin glues, Italian pitch and gesso lend an old world authenticity to the crockets, tracery and other conventions of Gothic carpentry that caricaturize Wilcox’s multi-disciplined work.

Art critic David Cotner states, “Wilcox's work is a brilliant and romantic star hurtling through the same galaxy as fellow travelers Odd Nerdrum and Hieronymous Bosch, so if you like your aesthetic dread spiked with the imploding placid inevitable, then this is the art for you.”

Edward Walton Wilcox, who lives and works in the Hollywood Hills, received his BFA from the University of Florida with High Honors and the Presidential Award for Excellence in the Arts. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in Europe and has appeared in publications such as The LA Times, LA WEEKLY, Juxtapoz, Coagula Art Journal, O&S, Art Ltd. and FLAUNT Magazine.

This exhibition is Wilcox’s ninth solo exhibition in his twenty-year career. In addition to preparing for the upcoming exhibition, Wilcox recently published a ten-year overview of his work and is launching the subsidiary design brand Flying Dutchman in June 2010 with his wife, actress/writer Madeline Vail.

At the opening reception on Saturday, May 15th, complimentary beverages will be provided by Bear Flag Wine and Honest Tea.

For More Information, please contact Merry Karnowsky, (323) 933-4408, [email protected].
Press Contact: Ellen Thompson, [email protected]