Palm Springs, CA

For an encore to his celebrated NEO-MODERNISM Exhibition at the 2023 Palm Springs Fall Modernism Show, the spotlight will once again be on Gallerist/Curator James Bacchi when he presents MCM MONSTERS for MODERNISM WEEK, 2024.

Eric Rewitzer, Pink Palmzilla II, original collage and linocut

“MODERNISM WEEK may never be the same once PINK PALMZILLA sets foot in Palm Springs”, says Bacchi. This solo exhibition of collage and linocut works by Eric Rewitzer promises to show up and show out the Master Printmaker’s  remarkable skills and captive imagination.

Rewitzer recalls, “I grew up in 1970’s suburban Detroit.   At 3:30pm on Saturdays, I would turn on the television and tune to Channel 50 to be entertained by the Creature Feature.  I would wait in anticipation for the announcement of the afternoon’s film and would be beyond excited to see anything from the Godzilla genre begin to play.  Long before I knew the symbolism of these creatures, I would be captivated by the sheer spectacle of it all.  They truly captured my imagination.

As an adult, now living in California, I began to build an art practice around the carved line.  Taking sheets of linoleum, or blocks of wood, I would carve a relief into the surface, ink it up, and run it through a press.  The results were intriguing. There is something extraordinary about a carved line. 

My subject matter for these works began to evolve, and finally my creative impulses pushed me back to my childhood memories, where these creatures still lived.  So, I grabbed a 3 foot by 3-foot sheet of linoleum, and began to draw.  Monsters from my memories began to wreak havoc in San Francisco, and now Palm Springs, with a nod to Frank Miller, who could fill a frame with black ink like nobody else.

Eric Rewitzer, King Ghidorah In The Pink, 40”x40, original collage and linocut

The black and white images are the original iteration of the linocuts.  The color images are created by assembling cut paper on the surface of the inked plate before printing, creating a one-of-a-kind result.”

MCM MONSTERS opens at JAMES BACCHI CONTEMPORARY on Saturday, February 17, with a reception for the artist from 4-6pm. The gallery is in The Shops at 1345, a modernist building designed by E. Stewart Williams in 1955, on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.  Gallery hours are Thursday-Monday, 10-5.  MCM MONSTERS will be on exhibit through March 31, 2024.

For further information:  415-652-2915 www.jamesbacchicontemporary.com