Opening Reception - Chad Hopper

Chad Hopper is an Austin-based collage and mixed-media artist; as well as traveling art peddler, member of Night Viking, and illustrator of the World Salad comic strip. Inspired by discarded objects, Hopper recycles the banal into a minimalist fusion of gag art and modern commentary. Thrift-store paintings, magazine clippings, coloring books, or vintage advertisements are all the raw materials of Hopper's salvaged and mixed-media work.

Reinventing consumer debris as well as the desire to create 'cheap' treats is also the motto of Palfloat, an artist collective founded by Hopper in Dallas before he moved to Austin in 2001. A host of other recycle art-projects Hopper has started include, JUNK-a-THON, a hybrid of an art show and garage sale that recently had their 5th showdown, as well as Science Bear Arcade, a mobile art/craft gallery that peddles recycled homemade goods.

This will be Hopper's first solo show with And/Or Gallery; he has exhibited at LMNL Gallery in Austin, Co-Lab in Austin, Diverse Works in Houston, his hero is Jim Henson and he recently turned 36 on April Fool's Day.