LOS ANGELES, CA.- These Five Kings, by Denver-based artist Ravi Zupa, is now on view through July 22nd at Subliminal Projects. For his second solo exhibition with the gallery, Zupa has taken over the entirety of the space presenting four different bodies of work that highlight his multidisciplinary practice, featuring a site-specific gun store installation, sculptures, print-based originals, drawings, and paintings.

At the entry of the gallery, viewers step foot into a retrofitted traditional American-style gun store featuring Zupa’s ongoing series “Mightier Than,” which originally debuted at Subliminal Projects in 2015. With intricate craftsmanship, Zupa welds vintage typewriter parts together to create realistic-looking modern assault-style guns. We invite viewers to reflect on this thought-provoking series that challenges ideas of violence and communication, as we reconcile over 200 mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. this year alone.

“When I started making these pieces, speech and gun violence were extremely relevant issues. And the near decade that followed they have only become more relevant and more charged. The sculptures themselves turn the adage “the pen is mightier than the sword” on its head and are meant to inspire communication. The most important thing for me is to incentivize, what are traditionally binary discussions around guns that often lead to fuel continued conflict, to a more mature democratic discussion between the two sides.” - Ravi Zupa

Entirely self-taught, Zupa sources his material exclusively from his own hand and creative universe, utilizing a variety of artistic techniques and extensive research. Finding inspiration from German Renaissance printmakers, Flemish primitives, abstract expressionists, Japanese woodblock artists, Mughal painters, religious iconography, and revolutionary propaganda from around the world, Zupa has created his own unique symbolic legend. The immersive exhibition takes the viewer through Zupa’s singular retrofuturistic aesthetic, challenging ideas of violence and communication, cultural familiarities, and the fantastical.

“Ravi Zupa is a thoughtful artist who poetically addresses firepower versus brainpower with his “Mightier Than” series of gun sculptures crafted from vintage typewriters. The concept is a clever way to engage the viewer around the dialogue of gun violence, a particularly American tradition. The pieces showcase Ravi’s precision and craft, and they are both incredible to look at and compelling to think about.” - Shepard Fairey

Ravi Zupa considers books the best way to experience art. He has spent decades studying books about the art, mythology, religion, and history of cultures from across geography and time. With a distaste for ironic art or the thoughtless appropriation of culture, he integrates seemingly unrelated images in search of something universal. Zupa does not create any of his art digitally; everything comes from his own hand.