Joe Ledbetter debuted 11 new paintings (acrylic on board) as part of the Unspeakable show with Andrew Brandou tonight at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight in San Francisco. The exhibit marked a stylistic departure for Joe: a move away from the stark black lines that have become something of his trademark. Joe said his style is evolving, and that the new work feels “more atmospheric and painterly.”
Joe’s paintings in Unspeakable evoke animation cells overlaid slightly askew. They have a lighter feel. Many of them seem animated. I dug the way the characters in Unspoken spilled around the edges of the board. At the time the gallery opened, all of the 8×10 paintings had already been sold, leaving the larger paintings (with pricetags up to $5,500) for the big collectors. Speaking of collectors, I mentioned the interview I’m doing with Joe’s biggest fan, Jtukka, for ToyCyte’s upcoming Superfan feature, and Joe knew exactly who I was talking about. It’s nice when an artist gets pretty big and still remembers his fans.
And speaking of fans, where was everyone? The crowd was pretty thin around 8PM and 10PM.
I asked Joe what he’s got in the pipeline: books; he’s working on some books. He said he’d love to do a second round of Finders Keepers; he’s got a list of characters at the ready. I asked if he could hook us up with a figure of the bat-winged skull character. Maybe next year.
May 17th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Wahoo! Some of those red dots are mine
May 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Nice! Besides “Monkey,” which ones did you score?