June 19, 2007

Pin-up girls, wrestlers, beauties and cuties



Comical, kitsch, nostalgic, Mexican tatoo artist, Dr Larka gives us 50's Mexico with a twist.

Dr Lakra is a tattoo artist living and working near Mexico City. In his parallel activities here, however, Dr Lakra transfers his draughtsmanship onto the idealised figures in 50’s Mexican magazines. Pin-up girls, wrestlers, beauties and cuties are tattooed and 'enhanced' in ink with bats, demons, spiders and the faces of pouting vixens. Like pertinent graffiti, the relative innocence of another era is politicised and the images are infused with a relish for the diabolical. Beautification or social identification, the works are a carnival of the grotesque. Kitschy erotica, ancient ritual, and hallucinogenic visions are fused in a collage of ideologies.

A click on the title to glimpse a few more works from the selection of works from the Saatchi Gallery, UK.


image courtesy of http://www.deutsche-bank-kunst.com/art/images/471/63.jpg