New Work By Glen Brogan Interview

New Work by Glen Brogan will be happening at Gallery 1988 East with a Opening Reception Friday May 31st 7-10 pm with Glen in attendance. 

Glen has been featured a multiple galleries in LA and been featured in well known magazines. He does great work with pop culture icons and drawing ladies.

Jonathan Bilski/Editor: Glen, the last time I interviewed you,  all the way back in 2012, you'd only been to LA once. Will this be your second time into our fair city of celebrity and car chases? If so are you going to try for another major theme park other than Disney? Do you think Seth Green will buy some of your art again or possibly a special step ladder, he's a very tiny man, but gets a lot done. He and Chris Hardwick are somehow apart of every nerd event in this city at times.

Glen Brogan: Yeah, this will be only my second time to LA. I live all the way on the other coast so making trips that far can be a bit of a trek and a drain on the wallet, but I loved it last time and I'm really looking forward to heading back again.

I was considering trying Universal Studios this time, mainly for the back lot tour, but being such a huge animation fan I think I might hit up Disneyland again. It will be strange to have visited it twice given that I'm (relatively) so much closer to Disney World.

Crossing paths with Seth Green for a second time at the gallery might be too much to hope for, but really I will just be extremely grateful to anyone and everyone who comes by to check out the show.

You have your own show in Gallery 1988 East. Can you tell us what it's like to get your own show as an artist? Really rub it in for artists who haven't yet.

I think the best way to describe it is equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking, and I mean that in the best way possible. I mean, in my eyes, Gallery 1988 is THE pop culture art gallery. I had admired their work for a long time before they started asking me to be in shows, and the first time they reached out to me I couldn't believe it. It seemed like a dream come true that my art was going to be shown with all these amazing artists that inspire me. To have my own show anywhere is an absolute honor, but having one at Gallery 1988; it's hard to put into words how much it means to me personally. That's why I say it's very exciting but at the same time it's hard not to feel some pressure. I've tried to put everything I have into making pieces for it, but I've also tried to treat it like any other show so I don't psych myself out.

What is like working with Gallery 1988, you've been with them for a long time. Does owner/curator Jensen really know you well or is he like, "oh, it's Glen again, ehhh".

They are one of the best galleries I've ever worked with, if not the best. They are always very responsive and helpful, keep everything in order, give you plenty of notice for shows, all that good stuff. I've only talked to Jensen in person the handful of times that I've been able to make it to Gallery 1988 shows, but he has always been very gracious and accommodating. Most of the communicating I do with the gallery is through emails, and I usually try to keep those short and sweet whenever possible because I know at any given time they are dealing with dozens of other artists and show details. Yet even with all that I've never felt like one of my concerns or questions has slipped through the cracks.

What will be the new work be on? Any hints? Video games, film, Muppets? By the time you tell me I'm sure another site will have the exclusive (Verge, complex or /film), but people reading here would like to know.

They gave me pretty much free reign with subject matter and I tried to take full advantage of that. The work mostly focuses on things from pop culture that have inspired me and my art, as well as a lot of fun stuff people my age will remember from childhood. So yes, lots of video games, comics, films, and maybe even some Muppets.

You had a Fionna and Cake post early in January on your site, are you a fan of Adventure Time? Perhaps you have some sort of deal with the kaboom comic for a short story? All the other Internet artists are doing it.

I love Adventure Time. I contacted the folks that do the Adventure Time comics a while back about maybe doing a cover or something for them, but I never heard back. I think they get a lot of requests from artists to do stuff like that, so they had a very specific way for people to submit work and have it reviewed. It's possible I may have not followed the process correctly, haha, I'm not really sure.
I have been a part of some official Adventure Time art shows in the past, though.

Any plans for an animated series? Ben Jones did it and I hate his work and now he's apart of the upcoming ADHD on FOX. Hate his work, but Axe Cop is going to be great.

I've done a small amount of work at the concept level on a few animation projects that some friends were wanting to pitch, but I've never put much thought into trying to develop something like that myself. I've just started seeing the promos for Fox's ADHD and I'm curious to see how that will play out. I don't think anyone else has ever tried to emulate and compete with Adult Swim so directly before, so it will be interesting to see what that's like.

Will there be any special shirts only available at the show? You've done some great t-shirts for Split Reason and other internet shirt sites.

No, no shirts at the show. Once the show is over, though, I'm hoping to dedicate some more time to coming up with new shirt ideas.

Visit Glen and his new work this Friday. If you work at Kaboom Comics or are Seth Green go to the show and talk to Glen, he'd like to meet you.