Camille Rose Garcia (born November 18, 1970) is a California-based lowbrow/pop surrealism artist. She produces paintings in a

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, "creepy" cartoon style. She cites as influences

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

and Philip K. Dick.

Early life and education

Garcia's parents met in art school in San Francisco. Her father, filmmaker David Garcia, was of Mexican and

Yaqui The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are a Native American people of the southwest, who speak a Uto-Aztecan language. Their homelands include the Río Yaqui valley in Sonora, Mexico, and the area below the Gila River in Arizona, Southwestern United Sta ...

background, and her mother, Rosemary Garcia, is a muralist. Garcia's parents divorced when she was young and her mother raised her and her sister in

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

, in close proximity to

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

. Camille Rose Garcia received her

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree at

University of California at Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

in 1994 and her BFA from

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

in 1992. Six years of art school left her disillusioned and bitter, so she decided to move back home to

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

, and started a band, The Real Minx.

Career

Garcia's first solo show was in 1999 at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery, where she would go on to frequently exhibit. She was one of the artists whose work was featured in the 2004

Last Gasp Last Gasp or The Last Gasp may refer to * Last Gasp (publisher) * ''Last Gasp'' (''Inside No. 9''), a TV episode * '' The Last Gasp'', a 2007 album by Impaled * ''The Last Gasp'' (novel) * "Last Gasp" (song) {{dab ...

book ''Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art'', as an example of the genre''.'' In 2007, the

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centur ...

held a mid-career retrospective called ''Tragic Kingdom: The Art of Camille Rose Garcia.'' She illustrated a version of ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...

'' in 2010. "The original illustrations by

John Tenniel Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and poli ...

have always been some of my favorites," said Garcia in an interview when asked about the book. "I have three copies of the book here because I collect children's stories. That's one of my favorite stories because it's actually a real dark story. She falls down the hole and no one is really nice to her at all. Pretty much every character she encounters, they're not really on her side. So re-reading it I realized I could do a little bit darker of an interpretation than the original illustrations." In 2013, her art for the book was shown at

The Walt Disney Family Museum The Walt Disney Family Museum (WDFM) is an American museum that features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The museum is located in The Presidio of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. The museum r ...

, where her work was displayed alongside that of

Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as '' ...

. On November 2, 2013, Garcia was part of a four-woman show in Los Angeles called "Black Moon" with fellow female artists,

Jessicka Addams Jessicka Addams (born Jessica Fodera on October 23, 1975) is an American visual artist and retired musician. Best known by her stage name Jessicka, she was the frontwoman for the alternative rock band Jack Off Jill, and later for the noise-pop ...

, Elizabeth McGrath and

Marion Peck Marion Peck (born October 3, 1963 in Manila, the Philippines) is a pop surrealist painter based in the United States. Biography Marion Peck was born on October 3, 1963 in Manila, the Philippines, while her family was on a trip around the world ...

. In 2018, Garcia was honored at

Art Basel Miami Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...

Maestro Dobel Tequila Maestro Dobel Tequila is a Mexican brand of blended tequila owned by the Beckmann Family, who also own the Jose Cuervo tequila brand. Maestro Dobel is distributed by Proximo Spirits. History and description Dobel was created by and named after ...

for her work as an artist of Mexican heritage. Garcia's work has appeared in ''

Modern Painters ''Modern Painters'' (1843–1860) is a five-volume work by the Victorian art critic, John Ruskin, begun when he was 24 years old based on material collected in Switzerland in 1842. Ruskin argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of ...

Juxtapoz ''Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine'' (pronounced ''JUX-tah-pose'') is a magazine created in 1994 by a group of artists and art collectors including Robert Williams, Fausto Vitello, C.R. Stecyk III (a.k.a. Craig Stecyk), Greg Escalante, and Eric ...

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

Flaunt ''Flaunt'' is an American fashion and culture magazine based in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with an office in New York. History The magazine was founded in 1998 by the current C.E.O. Luis Barajas, and Creative Director Jim Turner, who had previousl ...

,'' and ''

BLAB! ''Blab!'' was an anthology edited by Monte Beauchamp that featured a mixture of alternative comics and illustrated features focused predominantly on illustration, graphic design, and Lowbrow (art movement), lowbrow art. The first two issues (198 ...

'' magazines. Her paintings are in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art and

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 196 ...

Sources

* "Camille Rose Garcia at Grand Central Art Center" Exhibition Review in ''Artweek'', December 2005/January 2006, pp. 17–18. * Marisa Solis, "Army of Darkness: Camille Rose Garcia Fights the Forces of Evil," ''Juxtapoz'' #62, March 2006. * Manuel Bello, 2006 Interview

References

External links

Camille Rose Garcia's web siteExhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art
Review of SJMA Exhibition

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Camille Rose 1970 births Living people Artists from California Fantastic art Otis College of Art and Design alumni Sympathy for the Record Industry artists University of California, Davis alumni Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts American artists of Mexican descent 21st-century American women artists