With her series, "Tacky Hawaiian Tourist Items",  Los Angeles based artist, Cristy Thom, pays homage to those fictive and common aquisitions of humanity that eventually get taken for granted. Ms. Thom paints her subjects with the dramatic stylings reminiscent of the most influential Neo-Pop artists of the 20th Century: Shag, Tim Biscup, Todd Schorr, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami, but Thom creates her own personal niche by rendering them boldly to suggest a sense of fun and preciousness. Of strong influence in this collection are items that carry with them memories and sentiment. Thom describes her work for this exhibit as "tourist items that represent a specific time and place. When brought home, the memories attached to a particular vacation or event,  are transposed into this tiny object. It becomes a treasure. But as memory fades, the importance once placed on this object is sometimes lost. ... [R]e-appropriating such treasures outrageously large in my paintings, amplifies the subtle nuances that make up their existence."

Exhibited in galleries throughout the U.S., including an exhibit at MOCA in 2005 and two featured exhibits at the prestigious Gallery C in Hermosa Beach, CA,  Ms. Thom and her art have been the subject of articles in magazines such as Playboy, New Ameican Paintings and Arbus.

The only public receptions will be on San Pedro's 1st Thursdays Art Walk Nights, December 4, 2008 & January 1, 2009 from 7-11 PM ADULTS ONLY (18 and over)."Tacky Hawaiian Tourists Items" can also be seen by appointment. Please call, 310.833.3633 or flazhalley@aol.com.

Flazh!Alley Studio is located at 1113 S. Pacific Ave., Suite B, San Pedro, CA. Park in the large city parking lot behind the Ramona Bakery at Pacific & 11th Street. Enter Flazh!Alley from the alley, of course.

www.flazhalleystudio.com

FLAZH!ALLEY STUDIO REPRESENTING

BOB BARRY'S DIANE ARBUS COLLECTION:  "HOROWITZ BY ARBUS"

RICHARD B. CHAUDAVIS

DANIEL DEROUX

GAYLE GOODRICH

WIM GRIFFITH

KEN MERFELD

JOHN MIDDELKOOP

MIRIAM PREISSEL

LIEZEL RUBIN

DON SABAN

MATTHEW STORK

MAX UBER