Neil Young is putting down his guitar and picking up a paintbrush to honor a close friend and artistic collaborator of 52 years, the late artist James Mazzeo, at a retrospective of Mazzeo’s paintings and prints at the Blitzer Gallery at the Old Wrigley Building in Santa Cruz, California November 6.
The November event titled “Mazzeo” will showcase over 50 artworks from Mazzeo’s nearly 7-decade career creating numerous Neil Young solo and Crazy Horse album covers, books, prints and paintings. Mazzeo also worked closely with the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Frank Zappa, The Band, and many others. Mazzeo was a pivotal figure in San Francisco’s counterculture psychedelic rock scene, creating lightshows for touring bands that drew the attention of Andy Warhol, whom Mazzeo later worked with.
For the “Mazzeo” show, Young has teamed up with the legendary Santa Cruz, California-based artist Jim Phillips, creator of the iconic “Screaming Hand” on 13 new collaborative artworks in homage to Mazzeo. The new collaboration between Young and Phillips is a first for both artists and is titled “Sideshow” and will hang inside the “Mazzeo” show. Young, a bigtime car enthusiast, has drawn and painted cars from his collection of automobiles over many years.
“A great artist, Mazzeo defined what it is to be dedicated to your work,” Young said. “We had so many wonderful times together in our 52 years of friendship. He was wonderful in the way he approached his art and life.”
Mazzeo was close friends with both Young and Phillips. Mazzeo met Young for the first time in 1967 and in 1970 began working in earnest with the legendary musician. Mazzeo toured with Young’s first US band Buffalo Springfield doing lightshows across the Midwest and later teamed up with Phillips in Boston at a music venue called the “Crosstown Bus” where the two designed rock posters for the Doors, Cream and others in 1967 and also ran psychedelic lightshows.
Phillips is widely considered the creator of the Californian surf and skate art genre, and his works over a 70-year career are sold in 85 countries through licensing agreements with Santa Cruz Skateboards. Phillip’s artwork has featured in collaborations with the Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants, Spiderman, Star Wars and Garbage Pail Kids. Phillips was inducted in the Skateboard Hall of Fame in 2017. Phillips created the ubiquitous Santa Cruz “Red Dot” logo in 1973.
“Mazzeo was a surfing buddy, housemate, art collaborator and a connector of people and I’m forever grateful to him,” Phillips said. “I’m excited to be working with Neil and for us to be honoring Mazzeo together. The show will feature my work and Neil’s in a collaboration that’s a first for both Neil and I. It’s going to be a fun night and I’m really stoked. We all miss him”
Mazzeo passed away in Santa Cruz in 2022.
The Blitzer Gallery sits inside a massive concrete structure called the Old Wrigley Building that produced chewing gum from 1954 until its closure in the 1990s. The building on the Westside of Santa Cruz has since become a hive of creativity, with galleries, startups, biotech companies, and Santa Cruz Bicycles now inhabiting the space. The gallery features 40-foot ceilings latticed with steel beams and polished concrete floors with massive wall space.
For more information and press details, contact ArtByrne promoter Richard Byrne Reilly at 408.204.2331 or Robert Blitzer at 831.234.6813