Alpha Cult marks three years with ‘Urban Legends’

It’s hard to believe East Village’s Alpha Cult is only three years old, but the proof is in the toy store cum art gallery’s light-hearted third anniversary show, which spans much of modern pop surrealism. Graffiti art, assemblages, reinvented circus punks, kitschy giclées—the unusual suspects are here, in some surprising combinations.

Start with Tracy Tubera’s reading of the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s an awesome series of contrasts—greasy, slimy, trashy characters rendered on white canvas in black line art, while their sins explode in full pop color: hamburgers for the glutton, Nikes for the prideful, a cartoon gun for the wrathful. A banner explodes from the gun, reading “Bust a cap.”

Stylistically, it’s a cross between modern graffiti art and vintage Mad magazine illustrations; there’s an amazing two-dimensionality that may remind you of Spy vs. Spy.

Almost everything else is in full, glorious color. Paul Torres gives us Texas Cool Guy, a weathered pillbilly with mirrored glasses who must have roadied for ZZ Top. Mickey Me is our social conscience, delivering For the Sake of Beauty, a tragic but frighteningly engaging look at animal testing. His subject, a poor unsuspecting feline, seems picked from the same litter as Berkeley Breathed’s Bill the Cat.

More color beckons from the back of the room, through rows of limited edition Japanese vinyl.

Patrick Ballesteros is a first-timer here, but he delivers what amounts to a triumphant victory lap with a series of eye-catching giclée prints that look like Saturday morning cartoon stills.

His Conumdrum is a smart take on kids using the kitchen. But Cereal Killer is the one that has everyone talking: another kitchen messily rendered in softened sepia tones—Captain Crunch and the Trix rabbit slumped over, deceased, their mugshots on the wall above, while someone who looks like Tony the Tiger watches with glee. Coming in the door? Why it’s Count Chocula, of course.

URBAN LEGENDS ALPHA CULT | 408 E FIRST ST | STE 102 | LONG BEACH 90802 | 562.432.9144 | OPEN MON-SAT 11AM-7PM AND SUN 11AM-5PM | THROUGH SEPT 10 | FREE

Tags: alpha cult, art, Long Beach