Gary Baseman presents La Noche de la Fusion show which opened Saturday, May 2 at The Corey Helford Gallery - 8522 Washinton Blvd. Culver City, California 90232. La Noche de la Fusion runs from May 2nd to May 23rd at the Cory Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA.

For his much anticipated solo exhibition at the Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles- based artist Gary Baseman presents La Noche de la Fusion, an art show, a celebration, and a fusion of his colorful, cute, gooey, iconic Chouchou creatures, as they go on their mystical journey to the Enlightened Chorus. (Or at least that's what I thought.) Inspired from his travels to Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Spain, Israel, Argentina, Cyprus, Japan, Italy, and U.S, Baseman's bigger than life show was filled with live music, performers, skeleton and bubble girls, Brazilian dancers, and a couple of dirtbag artists like us covering it. If you missed the festivities, don't worry the show and all the works are viewable here on the Corey Helford Gallery website.

We headed over to Culver City Arts District on Roberts and Washington. The racial makeup of the city was 59.24% White, 11.96% Black or African American, 0.71% Native American, 12.02% Asian, 0.21% Pacific Islander, 10.16% from other races, and 5.69% from two or more races. 23.70% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

We arrived a bit early and saw them setting up the festival portion of the show – ring toss with Baseman's characters, outdoor sculptures, and music stuff. We decided to kill some time and get some food and beer.

Some nice window art.

We decided on this El Salvadorian food and here's the address and a nice little skatespot (address provided).

El Salvadorian Mason-inspired art

Food, Food, Beer.

The size of a small baby.

Rachel and VW bug that is not her own.

We arrived to see that there was a huge line and RSVP list to get into the main gallery. We slipped in line and I told the lady we were going to snap some photos for fecalface. She got another guy, who got another guy, who was really cool and let us in. Phew.

The Buble Girl, acrylic on wood panel – 36" x 48".

Hickey Bat Girl (SOLD) and M.O.D. Girl (SOLD)

The Crowning of the Enlightened One – acrylic on wood panel 36" x 24".

The Skeleton Girl – acrylic on wood panel 18" x 24".

Untitled Diptych – acrylic on wood panel 40" x 20".

This was a pretty cool shrine Basemen put together for the show. Sort of reminded me of a mixture of a Buddhist temple prayer set up.

Garden of Enlightenment – acrylic on wood panel 40" x 20" (SOLD).

This guy had a great Pee Wee Herman hat. I mean look at that thing.

The Sacrifice of the Chou – acrylic on wood panel 18" x 24".

The Enlightened Chou – acrylic on wood panel 18" x 24".

The Explosion of Dream Reality – acrylic on wood panel 36" x 48" (SOLD).

The Dawn of the Tree Nymph – acrylic on canvas 18" x 24" (above) and The Blooming of Venison – acrylic on wood panel 18" x 24".

La Noche de la Fusion – acrylic on wood panel 36" x 48".

Madonna & Chou – acrylic on canvas 12" x 16".

La Noche de la Fusion Drawing 2 (skfm book) colored pencil on paper 10" x 7.5". There was a room upstairs with a pretty big line. We managed to squeeze in there. The works upstairs were mostly these drawings on book pages.

Triptych Russian Book Drawings – colored pencil on paper each drawing is 5" x 7.5" (SOLD).

The Melding of the Minds – acrylic on wood panel 11" x 14".

Pretty packed show and this was just inside. We were trying to make our way outside until we ran into . . .

Wait for it.

This fellow!

Oh yeah, we just happened to catch the man of the hour on his way inside. That's my surprised face.

We headed outside which was totally insane. There were people dressed up, games, and bands. They were also passing out numbered and signed zines as well as masks.

This guy was staring me down all night. I don't know what his problem was, so I left.

I'm glad to know this was a wall projection because I was starting to think the drinks were getting to me.

Ring toss game. Winners won a cool bag of stuff and losers won a sticker.

I got a sticker from friend Ping Zhu who has been doing some intern work for Mr. Baseman. Pity sticker since my throws were not even close.

Hey, it's Sissy and Eddie from the Polyamorous Affair, who were just performing in London. Real nice folks these two.

Baseman Bra. Wocka wocka.

That's it folks. I definitely got my fill and was a Gary Basehead for the evening and had to head over to attend STOKED Sessions LA auction at Upper Playground LA. I'll be getting those photos ready soon!

Photographs by Phil Toselli and broken English by Michael C. Hsiung. {moscomment}