ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Opening tonight at FIFTY24SF Gallery is “Mixed Messages,” a group show, featuring Mitsy Ávila Ovalles, Jessica (Cusik) Trippe, Jin Chon, Chris Jehly, John Casey, and Empte Eyes. The show opens at 7pm and will be on display from March 5ththrough March 26th. Check it out if you’re local or visiting the San Francisco Bay Area!

Mitsy Ávila Ovalles, a San Jose based artist, explores Latino culture through popular imagery, iconography, branding, and “b-list” celebrities. Her work explodes with rich layers, textures, colors, and narratives and ranges in media. Through her depictions of the Latino community, Ovalles celebrates her heritage and speaks of a common cultural, generational, and gender experience. Ovalles earned her BFA in Painting in 2004 and has been widely exhibited throughout California and Mexico.

Jessica Trippe (formerly known as Jessica Cusik), a native San Franciscan artist, depicts her fascination with “all things old timey” through her delicately hand-rendered collages. Her work is clean, subtle, and passionately mesmerizing. Trippe’s work is inspired by her research into the lives of pioneers and leaders and explores new narratives elicited from images rooted in the past. Trippe earned her BFA in Painting in 2005 and has exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

Jin Chon is a San Francisco based artist on the rise. Her work captures an alluring beauty that is both playful and serious in content and style. Though mostly working in acrylic, Chon’s paintings explore different aspects of mixed media to create layers of depth that add to the surreal quality that her paintings possess. Chon earned her BA in Painting in 2007 and has exhibited throughout San Francisco.

Chris Jehly is an Oakland based artist and his work is inspired by his profound interest in insects, arachnids, reptiles, and amphibians. Having collected and raised various kinds of mantids, phasmids, and arthropods, Jehly has developed an obsession with minute detail and the beauty of a cryptic pallet. His work ranges in media and is jam-packed with a wild use of color, perfectly rendered lines, and chaotic order. Jehly earned a BA in Intaglio Printmaking in 2006 and has exhibited throughout California.

John Casey, another Oakland based artist, specializes in fictitious human morphology. His work consists of ink drawings and small sculptures that depict self-portraits of the artist’s inner psyche in all of its multifaceted incarnations – some sad, some horrific, and some whimsical but all evoking responses of laughter, sympathy, disgust and/or discomfort. Casey’s work is very carefully rendered with the use of negative space as a tool for emphasis on his misunderstood creatures. Casey earned a BFA in Painting in 1988 and has exhibited throughout the world.

Empte Eyes is a former San Franciscan but is currently a Brooklyn based graffiti artist. He was mentored by graffiti veterans Fury, Twick, and Crayone during high school and was diligently active in the San Francisco art community. His artwork ranges in media and depicts whimsical scenes of urban life, street culture, as well as historic bits of San Francisco. Empte Eyes has no formal training in the arts but has exhibited throughout the country and has been featured in several publications.