Happy Pit Bull

“Pits and Perception” exhibit opens in Los Angeles

Pits and Perception
paintings by Cyrus Mejía
Artology 101 Gallery, 3108 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
February 20 – March 18, 2010

Please join us for an Opening Reception Saturday February 20, 4 – 7pm.
Meet Canine Movie Star, Lucy, the 3-legged Pit, from Jackass 2 & Hotel for Dogs And our Canine Pit Ambassadors Including, Indy, Pit Bull Therapy Dog Winner, 2009

Cyrus Mejía, contemporary artist, is co-founder of Best Friends Animal Society. In this series of paintings Mejía challenges current-day perceptions of Pit Bulls by depicting them close-up, and invites viewers to question how they see and perceive these dogs.

Pits and Perception was made possible by a grant from the Culture & Animals Foundation.

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 5pm 323-644-0101

‘Pits and Perception’ Opens in Los Angeles

Artist Hopes to Change Way People View Pit Bulls

Best Friends co-founder and resident artist Cyrus Mejia says that when he was growing up, pit bulls were considered the ultimate family dog. One look at Mejia’s “Pits and Perception” art exhibit, and it’s easy to see why so many people through the years have revered the breed.

The show opens:

Saturday, Feb. 20 at Artology 101, 3108 Glendale Blvd. in Los Angeles, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m.

The gallery will be open that evening until 10 p.m.

The show will be on display until March 18. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“For me, pit bulls have always been ‘Petey on the ‘The Little Rascals’ rather than the dogs that have become associated with dog fighting and gangs,” says Mejia, who was part of a group of nearly two dozen individuals who founded Best Friends Animal Society in 1984. The organization is well known as the largest companion animal sanctuary in the United States, as well as home to a number of the pit bulls seized from the Michael Vick dog fighting case. Best Friends’ work with dogs is chronicled on the National Geographic Television series, “DogTown,” which entered its fourth season in January.

After watching the reputation of the pit bull change in a very short period of time, Mejia reasons: “If perceptions can change once, can’t they change back? That’s what I’m trying to do with this exhibit,” he says.

The 12 larger-than-life (49-inch by 56-inch) canvasses, completed in the last two years, portray Mejia’s vision of pit bulls—beautiful, strong, loyal, affectionate and regal. The collection also includes six full-sized charcoal drawings that served as studies for the project.

“With this exhibition I’m challenging commonly held public perceptions about pit bulls,” Mejia said. “Georgia O’Keefe made large paintings of flowers so that people would stop and look at the flowers. With these large paintings of pit bulls I’m hoping people will stop and look at the dogs!”

In preparation for this series, Mejia did color portraits of all 22 of the Michael Vick dogs that came to the sanctuary in January 2008. Those portraits of the “Vicktory Dogs” are on wine bottles in the Vicktory Dog Wine Collection, which commemorates Best Friends’ work with some of the most famous pit bulls rescued from dog fighting.

Funded in part from a grant from the Culture and Animals Foundation, Mejia also raised money through Kickstarter.com to build the crates necessary for transporting the paintings.