Whether in life, art, or fandom, romance drives us all. We imagine ourselves with the one we love. In TV and movies, we cheer for characters to live happily ever after. And these days, even if those fictional people aren’t necessarily involved, we just “ship” them together. Easy-peasy.
That desire to see people truly connected is the heart of artist Nan Lawson’s ongoing art series called “Meet Cute,” which has its third exhibit starting Friday, February 1 at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, CA.
The series is made up of famous pop culture characters posed back to back, done in Lawson’s signature, “slightly stylised” realistic style. “The back to back overlay was something I did once for a parallel universe couple I did,” Lawson explained to io9. “But I loved how it looked [so much] I started doing all of my couples like that. It felt like they were on equal footing instead of one standing in front of the other. Like one couldn’t exist without the other in some way.”
Here are just some of Lawson’s sci-fi “Meet Cutes” from the upcoming show including, yes, Rey and Kylo Ren.
Since the show opening Friday is called “Meet Cute 3”, obviously, there have been two previous shows, the remaining pieces of which (including characters from Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade Runner, Space Jam, Fifth Element, and more) you can see, and buy, at this link. However, for part three, Lawson wanted to do something a little different.
“For this series I didn’t want to focus solely on romantic relationships,” she said of the new show. “I wanted to also focus on friendships and partnerships. Just characters with mutual respect for one another.”
Plus, in the future, she sees the series expanding even further. “I think I’d love to do a series of adversaries in the future,” she said. “There’s lots of pairings that I’d love to do that aren’t just romantic.”
For now though, we have these “Meet Cutes,” which you can first buy at the gallery opening — February 1 from 7-9:00 PM at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, CA. The show then remains on display through February 16 (so you can get some Valentine’s Day shopping done), and all remaining prints will go on sale Saturday, February 2 at the Gallery 1988 website.