Where was I when the hunting nightmares phenomena began; and why wasn’t I in on it? Acclaimed artist Alex Pardee is unveiling his brand new show “Vertigo: A Decade of Hunting Nightmares” starting tomorrow (Saturday, January 8th) at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA. The showing will take place through January 26th. In fact, if you check out the opening reception tomorrow from 7-10pm, the first five people in HATCHET gear will each receive a signed, limited edition HATCHET 2 non-theatrical print. More details on the giveaway can be found on director Adam Green’s blog.
Alex approaches the nightmare with an exploration of the feelings associated with such terror. Using artifacts and stories that `nightmare hunter’ Verti Parker provided, Alex has translated them into works of art for this one of a kind event. This is what Alex had to say about his re-imagination of the world of Verti Parker:

“I look for any and every excuse to draw or build or imagine new monsters. Teaming up with a guy who has actually hunted and killed monsters and being allowed to offer my interpretations of these beasts was an amazing opportunity. Because of the nature and secrecy of his work, little official documentation had existed about Verti’s adventures and the nightmares he exterminated until Verti crossed paths with Horace Chalem, a self-proclaimed `historian of the extraordinary.’ Horace and Verti became close friends and Horace, realizing immediately how `extraordinary’ Verti’s experiences had been, wrote this crazy 500 page biography documenting Verti’s entire life leading up to his unannounced retirement in 2009, when Verti simply packed up his life and relocated without so much as a simple note saying where he had gone. Horace passed away that same year before he got a chance to publish Verti’s biography. When Horace’s house was cleaned out, Verti’s biography, along with hundreds of other extraordinary historical tales, was sent to Mexico City to be catalogued in the Archive of Unpublished Works, where they were to be filed away and likely lost forever. But last year around June I was visiting Mexico and stumbled upon the Archive, where I ended up spending the entire duration of my trip discovering its numerous strange articles and absorbing as much inspiration as I could from diaries, songs, and other misfit documents that had been forgotten about for years. That’s when I read Horace Chalem’s entire biography of Caleb `Verti’ Parker. And, just like when I read the first Maxx, it was at that moment that I instantly fell in love with Verti Parker’s mysterious world of nightmares and made the decision to dedicate the next six months of my life to translating some of Verti’s most horrific `nightmare extractions’ onto canvas to share with the world in hopes that Verti’s discovery and his adventures would find new life amongst a new audience of people eager to be inspired by the extraordinary.”

For those of you who are interested in the exhibit, there are a number of resources, the first being the ten part `origin’ story Alex has revealed on the website www.vertiparker.com in anticipation for the showing. This is Alex’s first showing with The Corey Helford Gallery and information, including both location and hours, can be found on their website www.coreyhelfordgallery.com

Even if you’re not an art enthusiast, this looks like an interesting show for both horror and non-horror fans alike. Bloody-Disgusting also wants to give you a preview through some exclusive sneak peeks seen below:

SHOW ANDREA SOME LOVE ON HER BLOG, THE ALBIN WAY!

Andreaalbin.blogspot.com

FOR MORE ON ALEX PARDEE, READ: Fear File #2: Caution: Artists at Work – Alex Pardee