Instinct Gallery Announces Newest Exhibition 'Creepy Crawlies'

Creepy Crawlies



October 3, 2009 – October 31, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 10, from 7pm-11pm
1408 Locust Street - Des Moines, IA



Come view the latest works from local, national and international artists:

Christopher Umana
Ant Lucia
Buckskull
John Stuart Berger
Jason Vivona
Tyler Coey
Bret Miller
Amy Putney Koenig
Chris Roberts
Jeff Bonker
Matthew Ryan Sharp
Christine Benjamin
Jessie Ramey
JeffZ
Kyle Thye
Ron Wagner
Erin Bollman
Allison Hall and more!

Also featuring a full room installation by Monster Master D. Ryan Allen


Matthew Ryan Sharp is a painter, vandal and graphic designer with a BA in Visual Communications that resides in the dirty outskirts of Chicago, where he lives and works with his wife and three pug dogs. If you were to ask him what exactly it is that he does you may receive a response similar to “I paint stuff on things.” Even though the above response is not all that in depth, it is fairly accurate. Matthew smears, splatters, drips, draws and sprays his characters, textures and visual stories on paper, wood and any other piece of salvaged material he may have swiped from a local dumpster or construction site in order to create a one of a kind painting. These paintings often serve as a visual narrative as to who or what is surrounding him at that time…but sometimes they are just pretty pictures.

Jason Vivona currently resides in Santa Rosa, CA. He concentrates on creating visual art and music as well as serving as Art Director for WE RIDE AT NIGHT, an art/skateboard company that produces collaborative works with other artists in the form of limited edition skateboards and clothing. Also, Vivona currates WE RIDE AT NIGHT's quarterly group exhibition that showcases the artists that the company collaborates with. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries across the United States such as 111 MINNA in SF, The Museum of New Art in Detroit, and Vitale Gallery in Florida to name a few. Although mainly in group exhibitions, his work has been featured solo at Syracuse University and Homestar Modern in Portland, OR. among others Vivona's work has been published in Juxtapoz, Transworld Skateboarding, WARP, DIW, Skyscraper, RELAX, Portland FunBook 3 and many more. His newest work is constructed much like that of the abstract expressionists,where a mark is made, and the following mark is a reaction to the initial mark and so on. Vivona, in a sense, abstractly applies an extensive vocabulary of initially identifiable visual elements to create an ever-evolving narrative within the piece. The end result being a completely cohesive, realized image, often laced with curtural reference and satirism.

Christine Benjamin Creating my own universe populated with aliens, robots, monsters, cool and funky people and animals through my paintings and 3D sculptures is what I do best. I grew up watching Godzilla movies, Underdog and Rocky and Bullwinkle on TV, reading comics and eating Pop Tarts. Today my studio is filled with toy robots, bobbleheads, lunch boxes and other goodies from my childhood that inspire my paintings and 3 dimensional sculptures. I also illustrate for many companies such as Yahoo!, Hitatchi, Apple and Hasbro and paint commissioned pieces for people's homes and businesses. My characters can be found on various children's products including books, posters and clothing. Christine currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

Christopher Umana is a native of Southern California and now resides in Nevada. He is a graduate from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His work is influenced by the detritus and textures found in everyday life and he incorporates some of these elements into his work bycollaging them and painting over it. His work is also influenced by animation and animals/insects as representations of people. Animals and insects have personalities and traits that mimic our own. Everyone can be linked to a specific species if they look deep enough. Christopher focuses on this symbiotic relationship in his work with his anthropomorphic figures.