Miss Van “Wild at Heart” At Copro Gallery (Santa Monica, CA)

August 7, 2012 Artists, California, Events, Gallery, Opening, Santa Monica

Miss Van

Miss Van. Studio Photograph by © Stefan Kocev

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 11, 2012 8pm-11:30pm
On View: August 11 – September 1, 2012

Copro Gallery – Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave, Unit T5
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Tel: 310.829.2156
www.copronason.com

As part of its commitment to support art initiatives from around the world, Citizens of Humanity is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Miss Van’s Los Angeles exhibition “Wild at Heart” at Copro Gallery on Saturday, August 11, 2012.

Internationally known for her poupées, the French word for dolls, Miss Van’s dreamlike narratives are filled with spontaneity and lightness. Yet they also reveal a darker side that has evolved from her experience as an acclaimed graffiti artist.

Miss Van’s new series of paintings and drawings on paper and wood continues to combine her seductive and delicate muses with animals, adding a bestial element to her work. However, she introduces masks to her imagery, creating a trifecta of complexity, ambiguity and mystery.

Choosing to focus on details while isolating different body parts, such as eyes and mouth, Miss Van adds, “The masks allow me to show more feelings, other sides of a same character, hiding the face, partly or totally and embracing the animal strength, personality and attitude. I am illustrating the chemistry between the feminine delicacy and the bestial instinct, natural and raw and we all have this duality inside.”

To celebrate the opening of “Wild at Heart,” Citizens of Humanity will debut a new t-shirt collaboration with Miss Van, which will be given as a complimentary gift to guests at the reception. She will also be featured in the premiere issue of a new collectible print publication by Citizens of Humanity launching this August. Miss Van notes, “Thanks to Citizens of Humanity for its support, this show will definitely come out more complete and powerful than before.”

The opening reception for “Wild at Heart,” takes place Saturday, August 11 at Copro Gallery from 8pm-11:30pm, and is open to the public. The exhibition will be on view through September 1, 2012.

Miss Van
Miss Van started wall painting in the streets at the age of 18, initiating the feminine movement in street art. Her sultry female characters began to pop up on city center walls in the mid 1990s and they instantly possessed a timeless quality, as if women had always painted such graffiti in the streets. The more she moved into gallery work and could work with the nuances of more fragile media than the streets would allow, her characters grew more sensitive, subtle, and delicately rendered. She is now exhibiting all around the world from New York to Los Angeles, Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, etc.), and Asia. She has shown in art centers and museums such as the city gallery of Schwaz in Austria (curator: Karin Perrnegger), the Baltic Art Center in the UK and the Von der Heydt Museum, Kunsthalle in Wuppertal, Germany. Miss Van was featured in MoCA’s 2011 exhibition “Art in the Streets,” and she has shown with some of the greatest artists such as Os Gemeos, Mike Giant, Banksy, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Ryan McGinness, Takashi Murakami, Ed Templeton, and many others. For more information about the artist, please visit www.missvan.com.