Thaddeus Strode | Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die

BORCH Gallery is pleased to present our first exhibition with the Los Angeles-based artist Thaddeus Strode.

The light sunny site and the dark site of California meet in Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die, a suite of 18 new prints by Strode.
Filled with contradictions the combined etching and offset prints incorporate Strode’s distinctive line and recognizable imagery from mass media and everyday life. Fragments that appear familiar yet somehow thwart the viewer’s ability to pinpoint definitive sources.

Born in Santa Monica in 1964, Strode draws freely on the youth culture in which he came of age – comic books, adventure stories, horror films – as well as the culture and clichés of the southern California lifestyle to produce cryptic – and captivating – fantasy worlds.

Since the late 1980s Strode has created wild, vibrantly coloured mash-ups in primarily large-scale paintings, drawings, graphics, sculpture and mixed media. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die is the first print project Thaddeus Strode has made in collaboration with BORCH Editions.

THADDEUS STRODE lives and work in Los Angeles, he took his artistic education at Otis/Parsons Art Institute and California Institute of the Arts, BFA (1982–1986). His work has been exhibited at Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis; the Kunstverein in Heilbronn, Germany; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany; the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Galleria Gio Marconi in Milan. Strode’s works are in public and private collections worldwide.