Chet Zar, a painter, digital animator, and make-up effects artist, brings his dark, dystopic vision to Copro Gallery with the solo exhibition “DY5TOPIA.” Running through Nov. 5, the exhibition transforms the entire gallery to match the doom and gloom of Zar’s bizarre world of monsters. Yet, unlike other fictional worlds, the monsters and creatures in Zar’s images are sometimes suffering, fearful, or in a broader state of anxiety. Zar was last featured on HiFructose.com here, as part of his 3D group exhibition “Conjoined.”
Chet Zar worked in the film industry for years before taking the advice of Clive Barker and tackling in a career in making original art and experiences. His work can be seen in films like “Men in Black,” “Darkman,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” and he also had contributions to Tool music videos.
The backdrop for this current exhibit was transformed when the paintings were staged, with makeshift smokestacks and other installed props to fill out the world of DY5TOPIA. As the gallery states, “”DY5TOPIA appears post-appocalyptic, industrial and foreboding, the skies at times stained the color of blood, smokestacks jutting from the mountainous wastelands belching out murky black death.”
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More than 20 artists participate in the