STUNTKID & FRIENDS

Award winning artist and illustrator, Jason Levesque (AKA Stuntkid), is back again this summer and this time he has brought along 6 of his uniquely talented friends for a fantastical display of original paintings, drawings and digital artworks.

As guest curator, Levesque has selected a group of artists he has admired for a long time and whose artwork, like his, is inspired by illustration. According to Levesque, “I’m a huge fan of every one of them and was very excited to have the opportunity to invite these artists to exhibit in my hometown of Norfolk, VA. I consider them my contemporaries, as we all tend to get invites to the same group shows and appeal to a similar audience.”

Among the “friends,” three reside on the east coast, including Levesque and his wife Elizabeth Levesque of Norfolk and Brooklyn based artist, Allison Sommers. The others, Glenn Arthur, Nomi Chi, Cate Rangel, and Jessica McCourt hail from the West Coast where illustration derived artwork, often referred to as Lowbrow, has developed quite a foothold. Even though Levesque hesitates to categorize all the participants in the FRIENDS show as Lowbrow artists, he does concede that all are affiliated with the movement noting that, “the movement, call it Lowbrow or whatever, it doesn’t get a lot of exposure in Virginia. The artists tend to show in cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.”

According to Levesque, as co-curator of the FRIENDS show, his intent is to introduce to the Hampton Roads community a dynamic group of young, nationally recognized artists whose creative efforts reflect an edgy illustrative style and to deliver a gallery happening rarely experienced in the state of Virginia.