VANESSA MATTHEWS & NANCY MANCINI - "SOREHEADS"
Jan 10 – Jan 31, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday Jan. 10, 7:00 – 10:30 pm
Black Maria Gallery Project Wall at Under The Table
3137 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039
Tel: 323.660.9393
http://blackmariagallery.com
Email: info@blackmariagallery.com
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm until 6pm (or by appointment)
online press release with images: www.leejosephpublicity.com/show/soreheads
A "Sorehead" is defined as "one who is peevish or disgruntled or one who is easily offended, annoyed or angered," so it is no surprise that the characters that became "The Soreheads" were born as an expression of the pent-up aggravations of life: Parking tickets, road rage, traffic, inflation, ignorance, control freaks and the annoyance of being forced to comply with pointless rules, sparked the lives of personalities who could speak artist Vanessa Matthews' suppressed language. Matthews' early paintings and drawings on napkins and post-it notes were ultimately brought to life with her business partner Nancy Mancini as soft sculptures known as "The Soreheads."
Matthews and Mancini, both having said goodbye to former careers in the film & television industries, left for Austin, Texas armed with drawings of the characters and worked tirelessly to see the 2D illustrations spring into 3D in the form of 5 individual plush personalities. Matthews and Mancini then designed over one hundred one-of-a-kind Soreheads plush individually in their Los Angeles studio, scouring downtown warehouses and vintage stores for the most unique materials to render the handmade creations to life. The Soreheads inaugural exhibit saw the 100 plus plush suspended from 30 foot ceilings and featured two life-size plushies including a 4 foot Evil Cupcake and 7 foot Heartboy, as well as paintings of the characters on wood.
The Soreheads cast of characters includes Heart Boy, Sad Girl, Little Man, Bag Head and Evil Cupcake. Each character has a story that parlays his or her particular grievances about the world we live in. Heartboy doesn’t want you to see how vulnerable he feels, so he won’t let anyone get too close. His heart has been ripped out too many times to count. Sad Girl plays Guitar Hero and is looking for happiness. Little Man is a germaphobe who is tired of being pushed around. Baghead is feeling so low, he wants to disappear, so he sits in the dark and listens to techno music, trying to drown out his sorrows. Evil Cupcake's power has corrupted him, and he is on a quest to fatten up hapless people everywhere.
The Soreheads are currently held in the private collections of Hollywood celebrities, as well as museum curators from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A lifesize plush Sorehead is currently on exhibit alongside “Just Love Me” at Royal/T, a concept art space housing the contemporary art collection of Susan Hancock.
The Soreheads plush dolls and paintings were on display at various exhibits and shows throughout 2008, including the solo exhibition, "Dissociate", at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, "Kawaii Eyes" at Royal-T in Culver City, "Where the Wild Art is" at the Wonderful World of Art Gallery in Culver City, the Annual "Skip the Mall Exhibit" with Black Market/Black Maria and the "Stuff this Show" exhibit at Rivet Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. A solo show is slated for January 2009 at the Black Maria Gallery and Under the Table in Los Angeles as well as at various galleries in New York City. The Soreheads will make their television debut on MTV's upcoming season of "The Real World: Brooklyn."
