December 12, 2009 through January 2, 2010
Reception for the artist: Saturday, December 12,  7 – 10PM

BILLY SHIRE FINE ARTS
5790 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
phone: 323-297-0600
fax: 323-297-0601
www.billyshirefinearts.com
info@billyshirefinearts.com

on-line press release with images:
www.leejosephpublicity.com/show/bsfamars09   

Minneapolis-based artist Chris Mars brings his exhibition “In Preparation of Barrier Transcendence” to renown Culver City gallery Billy Shire Fine Arts this December, presenting the sole commercial offering of work from the show which debuts at The Longview Museum of Fine Arts (Texas) in September before traveling on to The Phipps Center for the Arts (Hudson, Wisconsin) in February 2010 and Mesa Contemporary Arts (Arizona) for an extended run commencing in March. 

Billy Shire Fine Arts, kingpin of the so-called “Low Brow” and “Pop Surrealism” movements, will display some twenty-five recent oil paintings by Mars, as well as a selection of his most recent films including the surrealist meditation “This is No. 14” and the animated tale “Flowers for Jupiter”.  In addition, Mars will be presenting for sale his first limited edition multiple, a series of exhibition posters celebrating each of the three public venues for “In Preparation of Barrier Transcendence”. 

Chris Mars is a self-taught artist.  Growing up in a family marked by mental illness, much of Mars’s work has served as an exploration of the issues surrounding the diagnosis, treatment, mistreatment and societal stigma associated with Schizophrenia, for which his eldest brother Joe was institutionalized when Chris was five years old.  At the state run mental hospital in which Joe was confined, Chris witnessed firsthand and at a very early age the sad fact of mechanized and dehumanizing treatment.  Today Mars, through his work, champions his brother and those like him.  Empathy toward “the other” and “the outcast” continues to serve as the basis for his work, now frequently manifesting in broader political and societal themes of prejudice, exploitation, conviction and redemption.  Says the Artist:

“It is my intent to instigate the viewer to look beyond surface attributes be they attributes of my paintings or of society at large. I seek through my work to break down the tendency that exists to prejudge and to move away from xenophobia..”

Curatorial attention for the work of Chris Mars continues to expand.  In addition to the museum venues mentioned previously, Mars’s work has been featured at the Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts (MN), Erie Art Museum (PA), Steensland Art Museum (MN), Ruby Green Contemporary Art Space (TN), Laguna Art Museum (CA), American Visionary Art Museum (MD), Frederick Weisman Art Museum (MN), Art Center South Florida and Haas Fine Arts Center (Eau Claire, WI), among others, and is held in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts, Tweed Museum of Art (MN), Erie Art Museum, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Minnesota History Center and Mesa Contemporary Arts.  His debut monograph, TOLERANCE, was released in 2008 by Billy Shire Fine Arts Press and is available at bookstores internationally. 

Reminiscent of both the German Expressionist painter Otto Dix (1891-1969) and Hieronymous Bosch (c. 1450-1516), Chris Mars’s haunting and often-repellent works are nonetheless mesmerizing. To the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Mars long ago answered, “Yes. I am.” - E.B. Boatner, LAVENDER MAGAZINE

Through his paintings, Mars brilliantly sums up the feeling of being right about something awful. - Gregory Scott, CITY PAGES

Chris' work is undeniably strident in its political message, but the rawness of the anger, the clarity of the shouting, is so compelling, and its all rendered with such admirable technical virtuosity. This guy is definitely the George Grosz of the 21st century.  - Gareth Branwyn, BOING BOING

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For materials or to arrange interview an the artist, please contact media@chrismarspublishing.com; (612)850-0803
BSFA publicity contact: Lee Joseph Publicity, p 818-848-2698 f 818-848-2699, leejemail@gmail.com