Contemporary Film Noir Artist Gina Higgins Introduces New Works

PRLog (Press Release) - Sep. 10, 2012 - In this new series of works, contemporary painter, Gina Higgins, demonstrates her affinity for all things Hollywood, complete with glamour, mystery, smoke, and neon. A New Orleans native who grew up on Mulholland Drive in the hills above Los Angeles, Gina credits her artistic influences to her childhood environment. “Both of my parents were artists. It was not unusual for my mother to record music all hours of the night or give impromptu concerts. My father graduated Art Center College of Design with a photography degree. Art and the pursuit of it was pretty prominent in our family hierarchy.” A graduate of the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts, Gina spent time in Europe absorbing the cultural richness of Florence and Paris, before returning to embark on a career in commercial illustration, garnering such clients as Liz Claiborne, Etienne Aigner, Alexander McQueen, A&M/Polydor Records, and CBS Studios.

Her “American Noir” style is an homage to LA nightlife, incorporating notorious femme fatales and dangerously enigmatic men into edgy urban backdrops, reminiscent of Hitchcock with a modern twist. Working by night under halogen lamps, she skillfully layers acrylic glazes onto canvas, blending methodically photo-realistic figures with evocative imagery. Gina’s works can be found in galleries throughout the west coast and the midwest. To view more, please visit the artist’s website at: www.ginahiggins.com. Opium Eyes Publishing is pleased to announce the release of 4 newly published Limited Edition Giclees. Each image is reproduced on archival canvas, a limited edition of 99 and hand-signed signed by the artist.



4 NEW RELEASES FOR FALL – 2012

Comments from the artist:

The 4 new originals,“Shadowplay,” “She Lives By Night,” “A Double Life,” and “Incident on Mulholland Drive,” were created during a feverish Arizona monsoon hibernation the months of July and August 2012, and were sparked by a preternatural range of visual and auditory influences.

Artistically, recurring dreams of the cat from Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, a specific scene from David Lynch’s Fire Walk With Me, and BJM’s long-awaited Aufheben, provided the inspiration for Mulholland Drive. Musically, Ian Curtis; my friend and noir muse, photographer, Steve Gullick (look for “End Of The Road” out in October), memories of Chinatown LA, Cathay de Grande, and discovering new sushi bars in Little Tokyo, were all instrumental in my sketches for Shadowplay. She Lives By Night was actually a rhetorical question…What if Tamara De Lempicka visited the El Rey Theatre in the rain? I grew up in Los Angeles and wanted to do a piece representing that beyond the gritty exterior, Hollywood will always remain a place of glamour and dreams, even if only by night…In Double Life, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks is a continuing noir inspiration for me. I used the likenesses of my two good friends and faithful collectors, along with the acoustics of fellow green-eyed creole, Jarboe La Salle Devereaux, to design and complete this painting – a smoky club, a sultry singer, and two awkwardly intriguing male characters – the perfect ingredients to conjure up every possibility that comes to mind. Where it goes from there is up to you.

To learn more about Gina Higgins’s paintings, please visit her at
http://www.ginahiggins.com

Exhibiting and Availability

Richard Danskin GALLERIES
http://www.danskingalleries.com/
73111 EL Paseo
Palm Desert, CA 92260
(760) 568-5557

Pierside Gallery Huntington Beach
7777 Edinger Ave. Suite 120
92647 Huntington Beach, CA
(714) 969-7979

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11971348/1