Everything After: New Art From Cindy Schnackel And Jared Aubel

R. Pela Contemporary Art continues its third season with a new gallery exhibition titled Everything After: New Art from Cindy Schnackel and Jared Aubel. Schnackel has spent the last year remaking prints of old masters she found in thrift stores, adding her own twist on well-known works by inserting her own painted figures into works we know and love. Thus, a Rembrandt might feature an otherworldly monster peaking out from behind a door, or a Picasso might feature a UFO hovering in the distance. In one print by Edward Kirkbride Thomas, titled “The Little Girl Who Loved Horses,” a giant, sinister toddler waits for an equestrian trio to cross her path. “My focus was on the classics,” she says. “I like that most people know these paintings, even if only fleetingly, so they know or suspect what was added, even if it doesn't always jump right out at them.” Also featured in the exhibit is new work from pop artist Jared Aubel, whose paintings of iconic faces—those of Audrey Hepburn and Jesus, for example—are grafted onto contemporary, high-color settings. Aubel’s work is inspired, he says, from childhood nostalgia and the contrast of positive and negative. “I like to mix the old with the new, highbrow with lowbrow,” he says. The inspiration for Aubel’s “love grenades”—3-D hand grenades reimagined as colorful sculptures—reflects his love of the duality of good and bad. The exhibit will open with an artist reception on First Friday, March 6 at 6:00 p.m., and a second reception on Third Friday, March 20 at 6:00. The gallery will be open for Art Detour, on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The show will remain on exhibit through March 30 and is otherwise open by appointment only, by calling 602-320-8445. R. Pela Contemporary Art is located at 335 West McDowell Road.