Artist Cristina Natsuko Paulos will present her drawings and paintings in an exhibit entitled “Help is on the Way” from July 5th through 29th at Blackbird Studios in Las Vegas’s 18b Arts District. “Help Is On The Way” is a gorgeous, powerful and ultimately haunting portrayal of emotional illness that the gallery-goer will not easily forget.

An award-winning artist, graduate of The California Institute of the Arts, and recipient of several Nevada Arts Council grants and fellowships, Paulos is an internationally recognized illustrator, animator, and fine artist whose work has appeared in Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose and IDM, in galleries such as Giant Robot (Los Angeles) and La Luz De Jesus (Los Angeles), and in film festivals around the country and theatrical puppetry performances. She has also produced an original animation short for Children’s Television Workshop children’s program The New Electric Company. Her work is also featured in the permanent collection of the Cirque du Soleil Contemporary Art Collection.

Paulos’ work incorporates a variety of materials and techniques, including ink, paint, dye, handmade paper, canvas, wood and mixed media, often focusing on her recurring illustrated characters  ”The Mirror Twins.” The illustrated characters are mirrored or presented as a reversed doppelganger.  The genesis of “The Mirror Twins” was a creation of accident, realized through the process of hand drawn animation during Paulos’ matriculation at CalArts.

In her exhibition, Paulos studies the extreme and difficult landscape of bipolar disorder, exploring an emotionally charged landscape using open, almost cartoonish characters, helping the viewer to relate to the challenges she documents, contemporary pop and existential anguish in equal measure.

In the main room of the exhibition, Paulos uses paper and cardboard illustrations to portray the contrasted and harrowing experience of bipolar emotional and mental peaks and valleys — kneeling, fractured, childlike female figures, gleeful mania mirrored and merged with dark depression. Several pieces were created through the process of “automatic drawing”, representing a stream of consciousness poured out onto the canvas.  An adjoining room features “Frigments” — a portmanteau of “figments” and “fragments”. In these works, Paulos’ girls are beset on all sides by the swirling phantasmagoria of bipolar delusion.

An opening reception with the artist will be held during First Friday, July 5, 6-10p.

This project is funded, in part by a grant from the Nevada Art Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Ladies and gentlemen and kids of all ages! The Greatest Show on Earth has arrived! Witness fire eaters, trapeze artists, clowns, and beasts from every corner of the earth performing for your visual delight! Once again, Blackbird Studios is proud to host a group exhibit featuring amazing artists from Las Vegas and around the country.

The Greatest Show on Earth is inspired by the circus, carnivals, and freak shows that paraded through American towns from the early 1900s through the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era.  The artists whose work is featured have put their minds and souls into their artistic impressions & interpretations of “The Circus” in all its glory — and all its shabbiness.

This new exhibit continues Blackbird Studios tradition of group shows following the success of Grimm Fairy Tales and Peewee’s Playhouse over the last two years.

Blackbird Studios has been transformed into a circus ring for everyone to enjoy death-defying artistic acts! During the opening night celebration, the artists will be joined by circus performers of all kinds – jugglers, fire breathers, acrobats, and musicians.

Come one, come all, and take part in this spectacle! As always, we hope to show once again that art is FUN as well as thought-provoking.

Opening Night, First Friday, June 7, 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm

(open Preview Thursday, June 6 as well)

Exhibit will be on display through June 22.