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WOW Announces the Opening of Its Storefront Art Gallery

Friday, August 03, 2007 02:20 AM

Los Angeles, Aug 2 2007 – World of Wonder Productions founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato announced today the opening of ART IN AUGUST, a monthlong art exhibit co-curated by Steven Corfe and Thairin Smothers, inaugurating WOW's storefront gallery in the historic Shane Building on Hollywood Boulevard. Each week in August, World of Wonder will go full frontal on the Walk of Fame, exposing a hot new batch of artists.

Showcasing a different artist each week, ART IN AUGUST begins this Friday, August 3, with the celebrity portraits of Sham Ibrahim. On Saturday, August 11, Lenora Claire will show her collection of erotic paintings of TV’s Golden Girls in a show she calls Golden Gals Gone Wild. Homoerotically altered auction catalogues and scrapbooking by the SweaterQueens follow on Friday, August 17. Going out with a bang on Friday, August 24, the gallery will premiere the work of a very special and very controversial surprise guest artist, to be announced shortly.

Each of the four artists will have a separate opening reception broadcast live on the internet via www.ringmybell.tv, hosted by author and Club Kid extraordinaire James St. James, and archived at www.wowtv.tv. Gallery shows continue for a week with daytime hours, during which the works are available for purchase.

WOW's Storefront Gallery is located at 6650 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90028. (All opening parties are from 8PM to midnight)

Friday August 3: Celebrity Portraits by Sham

Saturday August 11: Golden Gals Gone Wild curated by Lenora Claire

Friday August 17: SweaterQueens by prvtdncr and Bodega Vendetta

Friday August 24: Surprise guest artist

Sham Ibrahim is one of Hollywood’s most important night fixtures having run the wild celebrity-filled nightclub Gossip. Over the years this has allowed him to befriend, film, and photograph a bestiary of Tinseltown’s most fabulous, including Heidi Fleiss, Janice Dickinson, Paris Hilton, Angelyne, Amanda Lepore, Andy Dick, and Tammy Faye Messner. This collection of portraits, in style and scope, invites comparison with Warhol’s celebrity silkscreen series. (More images available here)

Lenora Claire is the curator of Golden Gals Gone Wild, the first art exhibition devoted to erotic depictions of the Golden Girls. After Lenora purchased Chris Zimmerman’s portrait of a topless Bea Arthur and made international headlines, she pulled together her fancy friends and curated a vast collection of the Golden Girls gone hardcore. This irreverent iconoclastic send-up of America’s most sacred cows is a kinky celebration of liver-spotted bazooms everywhere. Featuring the following artists: Jackie Beat, Angus Oblong, Lenora Claire, Chris Zimmerman, Glen Hanson, Jason Mecier, My Secret Life In Glass, Thairin Smothers, Chuck Hodi, Michael Alig, Gidget Gein, Ed Mironiuk, Matthew Bone, Plastic God, Mad Puppeteer, Jim Winters, Austin Young, Selene Luna, Jtodd Irby, Chris McKim, Gay Bigfoot, Garilyn Brune, George Skinner, VK7, Big Tasty, Tattoo Trevor, Mama Spell, Lourdes Corugedo, Peter Adamyan, Adam Deville, Miss Fiend, Steven Corfe, Pam Holland, Elmer Presslee, and DJ Jason Savvy. (More images available here)

SweaterQueens are prvtdncr and Bodega Vendetta, who formed in the spring of 2005 and have been scrapbooking ever since. Created by a desire to make artwork that reflected the ridiculous shenanigans of contemporary gay life, they have created hundreds of homoerotically altered images, including auction catalogues, fashion plates, and commercial advertising prints. (More images available here)

“World of Wonder has long had a commitment to finding new, edgy talent across the media spectrum. Extending this search to the art world is a natural extension of the company’s vision,” said co-curator Steven Corfe. "We're fortunate to have found artists who share our subversive sensibility, and we're excited to have the opportunity to give their impressive collections a much deserved home. It will be a gagging extravaganza!” added co-curator Thairin Smothers.

World of Wonder (WOW) was founded when Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey met at NYU Film School in 1990. Since then the company has amassed a library of branded properties across all platforms, including such well known films as Party Monster: The Michael Alig Story, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, television shows Tori & Dean: Inn Love, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, Million Dollar Listing, and What Perez Sez – plus the entertainment blog The WOW Report (www.worldofwonder.net).

The producers have never shied away from controversial themes and have worked with every major network, including HBO, BBC, Showtime, and Bravo. Their latest initiative is WOW TV, an internet venture which allows users to create and brand their own broadband networks. WOW TV already has strong launch period traction with 180 channels and 2,600 subscribers. Their most popular online arena, The WOW Report, edited by legendary Details cofounder Stephen Saban, already boasts 500,000 unique visits per month.

For more information on ART IN AUGUST, contact Steven Corfe or Thairin Smothers at (323) 603-6300.