Chet Zar

Artist's Statement

When I start a painting, I let my intuition lead the way, just like when I was a kid, sketching without an obvious purpose, lost in a world of monsters. It felt like home then and it still does now.

The characters I paint may seem like creatures from another dimension, but I think they are simply us, here and now. Modern humanity without its masks, without the adornments that make us acceptable to whatever group we are a part of. From the straight-laced conservative to the anti-social rebel, we all cover up to fit in someplace. Yet the only place where we are truly the same is on the inside. We all share feelings of fear and loneliness. We feel insecure and vulnerable. We feel separate from our environment and each other. These are the feelings that I try to convey in my paintings. These are the feelings that connect us.

– CZ

Artist's Bio

Chet Zar lives and works in Monrovia, California.

Selected Recent Exhibitions: 2009 – Lilith, Copro / Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, California; When Worlds Collide, l'Imagerie Gallery, Los Angeles, California; October Shadows, Nucleus Gallery, Los Angeles; Magistrates, Strychnin Gallery, Berlin, Germany; The Monster Show, Copro / Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, California; Overdose, Copro / Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, California; Superschool, Copro / Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, California; This is the End, Alternative Café, San Francisco, California; Movers and Shakers, POVevolving, Los Angeles, California. 2008 – Ugly American, Strychnin Gallery, London, United Kingdom; We Are the Shadows, Copro / Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, California; Postapocalysm, Roq la Rue Gallery, Seattle, Washington.