Collage artist known as Glue Pinella will be having an Omaha debut with an exhibition at Petshop, opening on First Friday, April 2. Entitled Occurrences and Emptiness, it features new work in which retro magazine images are combined to create familiar yet surreal narratives.
An admirer of the 1950s illustration, Pinella cuts out varied images of people, consumer goods, food and plants, reimagining them into fun and curious compositions. In “Cutting Edge Hairstyle,” a woman’s coiffure is replaced by a bouffant of table saws. In “Good Morning Afternoon,” a cigarette smoking woman arises from the center of a fruit and floral centerpiece like something out of an Esther Williams movie.
All collage elements are pasted against the blank background of paper, an empty space the artist describes as consonant with his feeling about his own life as “a series of bizarre occurrences spontaneously arising out of emptiness then returning to that emptiness.” Nonetheless, his choice of source material and their recombination result in alluring and whimsical view of the past, perhaps as prologue.
Glue Pinella: Occurrences and Emptiness opens on First Friday, April 2 and continues through Friday, May 28 at Petshop, 2725 N. 62nd Street. Please check the gallery’s Facebook page or email alex@bff.org for more information.