Dave McKean
Nitrate & Kinogeists: New Works Inspired by Early Cinema
Exhibition: February 13, 2010 - March 6, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 12th, 7-10 pm
Closing party: Saturday March 6th, 7-10 pm

Billy Shire Fine Arts and Chicago's Century Guild bring legendary multi-media artist Dave McKean to America for an extremely special and extremely limited engagement, presented as the final exhibition in BSFA's historic 1925 Neo-Classical commercial builiding at 5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City. "Nitrate and Kinogeists" will display both Century Guild's inventory of historically significant and undeniably beautiful silent film posters, most of which have been lost and unseen by the public before now, as well as McKean's latest paintings from his haunting current body of work, Nitrate, inspired by the silent era of cinema.

The two-day event starts on Friday, February 12th, when Dave will be signing books, publications, CD & Album covers and DVDs from 6-9 PM at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., LA, CA 90046. (323) 666-7667. For each item purchased at Soap Plant/Wacko/La Luz de Jesus, Dave will sign one additional item.
NO EXCEPTIONS!

Then on Saturday, February 13th, Dave will appear in person to unveil his latest exhibition of fine art at BSFA, 5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. (323) 297-0600. The reception opens at 7 PM, and ends at 10 PM. McKean's exhibition features screenings of silent films that have inspired him, and other special surprises to be revealed. The show runs through March 6th, and will end with a bang, as steampunk favorites Unextraordinary Gentlemen perform a live set to commemorate the closing of Billy Shire Fine Arts, while ushering in a new era for La Luz de Jesus in Silverlake as the two galleries combine under one roof.

Original artworks and limited edition prints of both Dave McKean's artworks and the rare silent film posters on display will be available for sale, as well as the exhibition catalogue "Kinogeists", with text by Thomas Negovan and introduction by Dave McKean.

Dave McKean lives and works in Kent, England. His style has become inescapable to anyone cognizant of pop culture: he has illustrated and designed covers for the most respected comics of the late 20th century (The Sandman, Arkham Asylum) designed, illustrated, and photographed over 150 CD covers (The Rolling Stones, Tori Amos, Alice Cooper) and created imagery and designs for ad campaigns (Nike, Kodak, BMW) and magazines (The New Yorker, Mojo, Playboy). He has illustrated children's books written by acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book), has worked on film and book projects with Iain Sinclair, John Cale, Jonathan Carroll and Stephen King. He was a conceptual artist on the "Harry Potter" films and
developed the film MirrorMask with Neil Gaiman for the Jim Henson Company which he also directed.

Century Guild, established in 1999 by art historians Thomas Negovan and Stuart Tomc, specializes in brokering Art Nouveau and Symbolist art and objects 1880-1920 to museum collections. The Chicago Tribune listed them as "one of the must-see exhibits in Artropolis 2009."