Diamond Bodine-FischerLos Angeles artist Clint Carney has spread himself pretty thin over the years but somehow continues to create elaborate and rich final products, securing a place as one of the leading artists in a quickly growing world of dark art. Though painting was his first artistic endeavor he has since picked up many others and continues to tattoo while maintaining the role of singer/songwriter in the bands System Syn and Fake as well as playing keyboards in Imperative Reaction and God Module.
On Saturday the Congregation Gallery hosted an enormous art opening in Hollywood for Clint Carney's “A Warring Tribe.” According to Carney, the collection illustrates the many horrors that man inflicts on one and other out of the misguided belief that we are not all “of the same tribe” and the problems in letting dogma decide for us what is right and wrong.
Linda Morr, Jon Siren and Lacey Conner
Carney started working on the pieces for Saturday's opening in January. When asked if it will be hard to let them go after spending so long on them he admits there is a definite connection to each piece, but accepted that as part of the cycle.
While his irreverent macabre paintings are violent and would likely be considered disturbing to most, there is also a sense of humor to them. In Invertebrate a girl having her spine ripped out has a string tied to her wrist and at the end of it hovers a bee like a child's balloon.
Clint Carney's Invertebrate
Another piece, They Have Their Father's Eyes, displays a blonde woman in a darkened room breast feeding her offspring — several parasites — as the father, an adult parasite in a white collar work shirt and red tie stands by. Out a window in the painting there's a suburban street — ah, home sweet home.
They Have Their Father's Eyes
Carney's personal favorite is a piece titled Happy Birthday, which features a man with knives in each hand stabbing himself as sickly colored octopus arms — one holding a Happy Birthday mylar balloon — reach up from below the frame and pull him down. All of the large paintings were placed in frames he designed and made specifically to complement each piece.
Bill Shafer of Hyaena Gallery
Purgatory from Steve Rodgers and A Place Of Skulls from Corey Urlacher were also featured. Rodgers' collection represents the second chapter in his study of the afterlife. Any one of his pieces would have made an excellent album cover. They were cold and clean, especially compared to the other two artists showing.
Inspired by the catacombs and churches of Rome, Urlacher's sculptures are beautifully delicate and warm with an enormous amount of detail. The marriage of beautiful and horrific created works that would have fit in naturally on a warlord's ornate meeting room walls.
Corey Urlacher's collection
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