An art show that is particularly dear to Artsweek’s heart will open this summer in Los Angeles. PixelDrip art collective’s “Six Seasons and a Movie” art show began as an art-based personal coping mechanism for fans of the much-beloved TV show “Community,” which set viewers in a tailspin when it went on hiatus mid-season this year with no guarantee of future reinstatement by NBC.
Mark Batalla, 2004-2007 Daily Nexus art director and event curator, was pleasantly surprised when he found that he was just one of many people creating fan art to show his support of “Community.” Fans began using the phrase “six seasons and a movie,” which was taken from an episode of the show, to call for the return of “Community.” Aside from fan art, there were numerous petitions, flash mobs, Internet support groups and even articles (“NBC’s ‘Community’: Worth Joining” by Damion Damaske, Daily Nexus April 5, 2012) that essentially delivered the same message: “Community” is an amazing show that no one in their right mind should want to cancel, so bring it back.
“I thought that it would be a great idea to get these artworks together into a single group art show,” Batalla said in an email interview. “That would be our way of supporting ‘Community’ but also to showcase how such a brilliant TV show had inspired incredibly talented artists from around the world into creating such amazing pieces of art.”
Eventually the concept for the show was developed. Through PixelDrip, the Los Angeles-based art collective that was started in 2010 by former Nexus artist J. Ramos, Batalla began contacting fellow artists not only in Los Angeles, but all over the world.
“I made sure to get ‘Community’ creator Dan Harmon’s blessing before I went through with planning the event,” Batalla said. “Then I started sending off emails, not really expecting any of the artists would want to deal with the hassle of participating in the art show. Before I knew it, the artist roster had ballooned up to more than 130 individuals.”
While Harmon gave the go-ahead, this event is in no way affiliated with NBC Universal or Sony and was totally organized by PixelDrip. According to Batalla, much of the marketing and fundraising of the show happened online with the help of Kickstarter.com and many other social networking sites due to the particularly Internet-savvy fan-base of “Community.”
Aside from the numerous fans that have come together for this project, many UCSB alumni and former Nexus staff have helped to make this show a reality. These include Batalla, former Art Directors Rad Sechrist and Simon Estrada, Nexus artists Kevin Woody and J. Ramos, Nexus photographer/web editor Craig Calkins and UCSB alumni Annie Wilkes, Adriana Blancarte, Nancy Pham, Raffi Nakashian and Vanessa Zucker.
“Community” fans were recently informed that the series would be back for a fourth season of delicious, meta-humor. However, that does not make PixelDrip’s show any less important, nor does it make the incredible efforts of these former UCSB artists and artist fans from all over the world any less cool. The “Six Seasons and a Movie” art show will be open at Monk Space in Los Angeles from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., June 23 and 24. Admission is free and the cause is good, so get yourself to L.A. and support the work of fellow Gauchos. “Community” is the theme after all.
For more information about the “Six Seasons and a Movie” art show, visit www.pixeldripgallery.com.