Chet Zar has a long history in dark art. Since childhood, he has been fascinated with the aesthetic of horror and the imagery of the macabre. This fascination led him to work in creature design and special effects makeup for movies like The Ring, Hellboy I & II, and The Planet of the Apes. He is also the mastermind behind many of Tool’s creepy live show videos. Basically, he has earned his stripes in the world of other people’s evil and dark creatures, but for the past decade he has focused on what lies in the dark corners of his own mind, bringing to life in oils the scarred and twisted creatures that he is currently displaying in the Last Rites Gallery in NYC. His show, Faces of Death, runs until August 19th, and until then the gallery will house a host of terrifying portraits. Skin eroded by the hot winds of Hell, his subject’s vacant eyes still manage to convey vast emotion, so that looking into their empty pits you see straight into sadness, loneliness or pure evil. Zar’s creatures a hewn from stone and flesh; they appear as if they are rough skin over a bony exoskeleton, and are otherworldly, yet completely human. His Doomsday Soldier hunches over looking sorrowful, smoking his death row cigarette, turned away from the burning landscape he dwells in. Doomsayer is my favorite of the series, but only by a narrow margin. Zar’s Death wields his organic scythe in an almost benign way, and although blood spatters and drips down the wall behind him, his pale face appears almost remorseful that his duty must be done. If you are in New York, try to make it over to Last Rites to view what must be a stunning series. After the jump, check out a preview of Faces of Death, and also some of Zar’s work in action via Sketch Theatre.
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