LOS ANGELES, CA.- Merry Karnowsky Gallery presents Victor Castillo: Strange Fruit and Miss Van: She-Wolves. The two Barcelona-based artists unfold their unique personal perspectives on subjects like seduction, temptation, innocence, desire, and cruelty.

A moral allegorist, Chilean artist Victor Castillo pairs classical painting with cartoon-like characters. He paints children in dark secret gardens, where they innocently reenact violent media images with brutality and indifference.

Most of the characters in Castillo’s paintings have phallic, hot-dog shaped noses, humorously suggesting Pinocchio. He also makes reference to contemporary culture, human error and vices, politics, and the loss of values in the increasing consumption of modern life, which he sees as an insatiable desire that blinds us.

Castillo’s work has shown in Spain, Chile, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Germany, the United States, Canada, Belgium and Taiwan, and has been featured in Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose magazines.

French artist Miss Van has become one of the best-known female painters from the graffiti scene, gaining worldwide acclaim for her work. In She-Wolves, the ultra-feminine “poupées” (dolls) wear animal heads as they reflect on their dark, predatory natures.

Always seductive and mysterious, Miss Van’s characters reside in a mystical world of quiet introspection, as they get in touch with their feminine power and the dangerous animal within.

While Castillo’s work challenges the viewer with the consequences of allowing our weak human nature take control, Miss Van’s work asks a different question: What happens if we surrender to our animal nature?

Miss Van’s work has shown in the United States, France, England, Austria, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Australia, and has been featured in Juxtapoz and Swindle magazines.