Los Angeles movie-fan-turned-gallery-owner Jensen Karp had an idea four years ago: Ask artists to pay tribute to their favorite films, then sell the paintings in an exhibition.
With support from Joss Whedon, Quentin Tarantino and other directors, the Gallery 1988 theme show struck a chord among film nerds and became an annual event. Surreal selections from those exhibitions have now been collected in Titan Books’ Crazy4Cult: Cult Movie Art.
The $35 coffee-table hardcover includes wigged-out tributes to fan-favorite films including Pulp Fiction, Tron, They Live and Donnie Darko.
In his introduction to the book, Clerks director Kevin Smith describes the concept of movie-inspired art as “so brilliant that I literally leapt into the air and stamped down hard on the ground with both feet like a thwarted cartoon villain.”
Gallery 1988 opens its new Crazy 4 Cult 5 show Friday, with a book signing planned for Sunday. The exhibition of 100 artists’ interpretations of classic cult films runs through July 30. See a sampling from the Crazy4Cult: Cult Movie Art book in the gallery above.