Music, Hollywood, Fete ‘Anesthesia: The Art of Oblivion’
Photos and Story By MARCY KRAFT
“Anesthesia: The Art of Oblivion,” a pop-up gallery collaboration between rocker Billy Morrison and street artist Plastic Jesus brought rockers to Gibson Brands Sunset on Friday night for an opening reception.
The two artists have been fans of each other’s work for some time and “Anesthesia: The Art of Oblivion” is their first public collaboration.
Exhibit is ‘Everything we Hang Onto’
“Anesthesia: The Art of Oblivion” is described as “everything we hang onto in society to make us oblivious of our own plight and our own situation in life, such as idols, drugs … anything we pick up in culture.”
The artists were on hand to greet guests Friday night and Saturday.
Billy Morrison: Rocker-Turned-Artist
Billy, who is best known as the guitarist for Billy Idol, is a long-time art collector and began creating his own artwork a few years back. His work was also shown last year at the Mouche Gallery in Beverly Hills, and I enjoyed that work immensely, so I was eager to see his new pieces.
“Creating the art was the easy part,” Billy said.
Billy’s solo pieces for this exhibit were months in the making and there’s a joy in finally seeing them on display. The challenge, Billy shared, comes from watching 500 of your closest friends come to critique the work as a part of the process.
Star-Studded Reception Included Ozzy Osbourne
Judging by the pieces displayed, I doubt Billy will receive any negative input on his work. His art is a fun and provocative collection that the crowd at the opening appeared to enjoy. In attendance were celebrity friends Billy Idol, Ozzy Ozbourne, Carmine Rojas (from David Bowie), Fred Durst (from Limp Bizkit), Steve Jones (from the Sex Pistols), Brandon Boyd (from Incubus), Rob Zombie, Shepard Fairey, and new recording artist Steve Costello.
The Art-Crowd ‘Look?’
Billy told a newspaper recently: “Ultimately, I want people to walk away feeling like they were entitled to be there. My personal art collection is pretty substantial, and I’ve spent a lot of money on a lot of iconic pieces, and yet when I walk into some galleries I’m treated like a homeless guy because of the way I look, because I don’t fall into the art-crowd look.”
Most people I spoke said he looked like the rocker-artist that he’s known to be.
Plastic Jesus in Attendance
Plastic Jesus showcased a 12-piece mixture of his new and known works while Morrison created 12 new mixed-media paintings specifically for this showing.
Plastic Jesus is know around LA for having erected the 6-inch wall around Donald Trump’s star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame and erecting the life-size gold statue of Kanye West entitled “False Idol” that stood near the site of the Oscar Awards on Hollywood Blvd. This statue was also on display at the showing.
A full collection of Morrison’s work can be found at Billy Morrison’s website.
To purchase a piece from this collection, email info@billymorrisonart.com for more information.
