Two Tomata du Plenty art show flyers

Los Angeles: Tomata du Plenty, [1998-1999]. Offset and xerox. 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. and 6 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. Very good; light bumping to corners, and discoloration at the top of Beyond Baroque flyer. Item #8031

Two flyers promoting art shows featuring the work of Tomata du Plenty shortly before his death. The first show at the “”You’ve Got Bad Taste”” venue in Los Angeles in 1998 was an “”artistic salute to Punk Rock,”” titled “”Punish or be Damned! Reliving the Nightmare.”” It featured du Plenty’s woodcuts and paintings of punk rock and punk musicians. The second show at Beyond Baroque bookstore in Los Angeles in 1999 featured Tomata’s paintings of the Beats and other writers he liked.

Du Plenty, born David Xavier Harrigan (1948-2000) fronted the groundbreaking Los Angeles synth-punk band The Screamers in the 1970s and was a member of the counterculture theatre troupes Ze Whiz Kids in Seattle and the Cockettes in San Francisco. A multi-talented performer, actor, and artist, du Plenty greatly influenced the art and music scenes wherever he lived—in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, New Orleans, or Miami.

In 1982, Du Plenty found an old set of paints and brushes in an alley off Hollywood Boulevard and dedicated the rest of his career to painting. His work was classified as folk or outsider art, and he did not mind the distinction, often selling his paintings for only ten to twenty-five dollars each at local bars. He worked with watercolors on found sheets of paper, and later moved almost exclusively to paintings on wood boards. The subjects of his works were often pop culture heroes, artists he admired, local characters, and friends. A cult hero throughout his life and since his death, his paintings still resonate as documentation of the vibrant queer punk counterculture he moved within throughout America, and the cultural references that inspired him.

Price: $100.00