The 31st annual group show at La Luz De Jesus Gallery, titled Laluzapalooza 2017, brings 130 pieces from 64 artists into the space. There’s no theme to the enormous salon-style show, just a broad Post-Pop experience. The gallery says it sorted through thousands of submissions from “commercial illustrators, graphic designers, tattooists, scenics, students, street taggers, animators, and working gallery artists” to get to the final line-up.

Artists include Matthew Couper, Carol Connett, Matt Adrian, Gabi De La Merced, Dinosaurus Complex, Dos Diablos, Ashley Gallagher, Craig LaRotonda, Mavis Leahy, Dave Lebow, Tracy Lewis, and several, several others. Media used spans sculpture, oil and acrylic painting, ceramics, drawing, and more.

The space’s annual program began as a “Día de los Muertos” show in 1986. Breaking from work that reflected the Day of the Dead celebration, it took on other forms before becoming free of any one theme in 1998. Gallery owner/curator Billy Shire moved between the names “Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artists” and “Everything But the Kitschen Synch” before arriving at its current moniker. “Every year we manage to discover a new conglomeration of fresh talent, and among them a class of breakout successes,” says gallery director Matt Kennedy. “That’s really a credit to the accessible talent pool.”

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