SALON

Thursday, Jun 23, 2011 3:01 PM UTC

Crazy 4 Cult: L.A.’s premiere mashup of movies and art

Slide show: We speak to the founder of Crazy 4 Cult, a gallery show that's getting love from Kevin Smith and others

By

Topics: Slide Shows, Movies, slideshow,

Crazy 4 Cult: L.A.'s premiere mashup of movies and art 

View the slide show

An art show for cinephiles? Six years ago, that idea was being laughed right out of L.A.’s hippest galleries. But Jensen Karp, a USC film student who had spent his time post-college doing odd creative jobs like working at Interscope Records and writing scripts for the WWE (“Every time you hear The Undertaker talk, remember it’s some young Jewish kid who wrote that for him,” Jensen says in a phone conversation on Monday), knew that there was a market to merge the two.

In 2006, Jensen’s Gallery 1988  held its first exhibit showcasing artists’ renditions of famous movie stills, and called it Crazy 4 Cult.  The show was presided over by Kevin Smith, who had heard about it from his producing friend Scott Mosier, who had worked with him on “Clerks” and “Mallrats.” Now in its fifth year, Crazy 4 Cult is the premiere movie fanboy mashup show. Just don’t call it “fan art.”

“Fan art is what people on the Internet do, and it’s not usually that good,” Karp laughs, “What Crazy 4 Cult has is amazing talent, picking from a list of movies (so they don’t get the ‘Scissorhands Effect,’ where everyone chooses to do a Tim Burton film) and making art that speaks to them.”

And Jensen’s artists aren’t just all up-and-comers: Shepard Fairey has two submitted pieces in the gallery’s new “Crazy 4 Cult” book.

From “Donnie Darko” to the “Eraserhead” to “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” (with the occasional Jay and Silent Bob thrown in for good measure), “Crazy 4 Cult” showcases the work from over half a decade of art based on unconventional films. And it’s not only the movie’s fans who visit the shows to peruse and buy the art. Frequent visitors include Tarantino, Jason Reitman, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Richard Kelly, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Samuel L. Jackson and various other cult movie superstars.

“Do you find that directors and actors want to buy work based on themselves?” I ask Jenson.

“Oh, definitely. They love to see how artists interpret their work.” After all, what could be a bigger compliment than to see an homage to your movie

Gallery 1988 also does artistic promotions: They did the marketing for Season 6 of “Lost,” which I make Jensen promise to send me a print of. Currently, the gallery is hosting a show based on artist’s renditions of “Wet Hot American Summer,”  with the opening show’s guests including David Wain, Michael Showalter, and Joe Lo Truglio.

“It’s my favorite film,” Jensen admits of the summer camp comedy, “and the fact that the art is so affordable, some of the prints start at $10, means that there is something for everybody.”

You can order “Crazy 4 Cult: Cult Movie Art” today.


View the slide show

View the slide show

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

    View the slide show

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

    View the slide show

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

    View the slide show

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

    View the slide show

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

    View the slide show

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

    View the slide show

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

    View the slide show

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

    View the slide show

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

    View the slide show

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

    View the slide show

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 4 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
207 points208 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
147 points148 points | comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
51 points52 points | 8 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
62 points63 points | 23 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
24 points25 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations