Tonight in Awesome Art: Like a Beer in Deadlights at Concrete Ocean Gallery

That's local artists Justin Tolentino and Jason Spencer (aka Killer Napkins) painting on the flood wall along the Mississippi River south of downtown earlier this summer. The pair call themselves Like A Beer in Deadlights and their stag-themed gallery exhibition opens tonight at Concrete Ocean.

Here's how the artists describe the project on their Facebook page:

Both artists work is primarily character based. Spencer twists together an adorable hoodie wearing creature with the horrifying gnarls of the flesh eating undead. His t-shirt business dements many of our favorite wholesome characters. Bill Cosby's eye balls pop out of his purple head, his month rendered like a marionette puppet is dropping green slim. The Power Puff Girls, kittens, blobs of mucus, all are living, dripping, breathing creatures in the head of Jason Spencer.

Tolentino's characters are just as ugly. Large gaped teeth, moles with hairs, botched surgery scars, blood shot eyes, these drunken cartoons are tattered and torn, yet rendered with a machine like precision. Tolentino, although more than half the size of Spencer is the seasoned artist. With over 30 years under his notched belt, Justin's name recognition alone should carry this event to the epic level.

It began last summer, with a dozen twelve packs of stag, a drawing board, and a some ink. Together they conversed hunched over the drawing pad, hackles of laughter ensued as the day continued and the drawings became more and more perverse. The Skeletor Clitoris still reigns as one my of personal favorites.

"Like a beer in dead lights" is a odd and skewed visual rendition of what the artists, Spencer and Tolentino, view as todays social racial and extremely American stereotypes. Through their looking glass topics such as rural America, drug use during this era, and social commentary covering a broad span will be touched on in this exhibition. If the title is confusing you, let it go, you're really never going to get it. But try not to feel self conscious as Justin and Jason laugh demonically at your expense.

Show runs from 7-10 p.m. More info here