Love for moody Russians......

It's only ever so often that I find an artist who's entire catalog of past paintings and anticipation of future paintings so irresistibly mouth watering. One of my biggest influences is Canadian artist Jon Todd. He's having a new state side show, 'Life Sentence' over at the pop surrealist mecca ThinkSpace gallery, which opens December 12 for all you lucky L.A folk. The new work seems to contain the trademarks of his older works: tattooed females cavorting with snakes and menacing men against highly patterned backgrounds, but with a more specific focus on Russian prison tattoos and political culture, implying much more darker moods. Above is 'Snake Pit', his impressive new painting used in all the press for the show and below is 'The Snake Handler", which I was lucky to purchase last year. I look forward to seeing the show in its entirety, but thankfully for me and you, there is a sneak preview over here.