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DAN
STATLER
After studying photography at East Texas State University, Dan moved to Southern California where he began working in movies and television. His first job was Matt Camera Assistant at Boss Films where he worked on Batman Returns, Cliffhanger, Alien 3, Far and Away, and The Last of the Mohicans, among others.
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Since then, Dan has worked for more than 15 years in the entertainment industry in the camera, art, and special effects departments on films like Ed Wood, Dante’s Peak, Volcano and Armageddon, as well as numerous TV shows. It was while working in special effects that he became indestroyedterested in working with metal. "After we the set, all that was left was the steel we'd built to hold the miniatures and air cannons. The framework looked like giant steel sculptures."
Dan became Monster Garage's Production Designer in September 2002, and designed the look and feel of the Monster Garage as well as creating “Monster Furniture”, props, and the giant 4 foot by 8 foot themed “Art Panels” that appeared in more than 80 episodes.
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In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine commissioned him to create a piece for their 35th Anniversary Issue: American Icons. In that same year, Entertainment Weekly commissioned him to create a piece for their “2003 It List Party” in New York. This piece was displayed for three years in the main lobby of the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Maryland. Discovery also dedicated a section in their website to Dan and his work on Monster Garage.
In June 2003, Dan and his wife founded Vulture Kulture, a company dedicated to the creation of metal artwork and its promotion. Vulture Kulture is currently working on a merchandising line based on Dan's artwork and designs.
In August 2004, Hot Rod magazine named him “Artist of the Month”, described his artwork as “plasma-cutting alchemy”, and featured his most popular Monster Garage panel, “Two Tone”, a 54 Chevy surrounded in flames.
That same year Dan was commissioned by Original Productions’ CEO Thom Beers to create a type of room-sculpture that is the reception area of Original Productions’ headquarters in Burbank, CA. Original Productions is the production company responsible for TV hit shows Monster Garage, Monster House, Motorcycle Mania, Biker Build-Off, Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, Axe Men, Black Gold, and many others. This four-year endeavor yielded several custom pieces including a wrap around metal reception desk, two couches, four end-tables, and eight giant metal sculptures representing the most popular of Original Productions’ television series.
In 2007, Koyo Cooling Systems (Koyorad), a Japanese radiator company, approached Dan with the idea of creating a corporate sculpture for their new building in Irving, CA, which would be automotive themed and would show their product. This resulted in a automotive sculpture of retro-futuristic design. In 2008, Dan created a corporate sculpture for Wilden Pump & Engineering.
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In 2009, the owner of Hurricane Harley Davison in New Orleans commissioned Dan to create a desk with flames on it for his office. Statler then designed and fabricated a desk consisting of two elegantly curved cabinets with hand cut flames and skull drawer pulls.
Dan Statler's metal artwork has been displayed at Gallery 212 & Studio (Seal Beach, CA), The Richman Gallery (Leucadia, CA), Barris Kustom City Gallery (North Hollywood, CA), Primer Nationals (Ventura, CA), Epoxy Gallery (Venice, CA), Traditional Ink Tattoo Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), and L’Imagerie Gallery (North Hollywood, CA).
In 2008, Dan was invited by Les Barany to participate in the “Carnivora: The Dark Art of Automobiles” at L’Imagerie Gallery in North Hollywood. Among other artists that participated in this exhibition were H.R. Giger, Shag, Robert Crumb, Coop, Robert Williams, and Ron English. |
In 2010, Statler’s sculpture ’54 In Flames won the first place at the First Annual SoCal Car Culture Juried Art Show at Gallery 212 & Studio.
Dan's artwork has been featured in several magazines, including: Rolling Stone, Popular Mechanics, Entertainment Weekly, Rod & Custom, Hot Rod, Rumble, Import Racer, Frontend (Japan) and El Diablo Magazine (Spain). His work has also been featured in music videos (Velvet Revolver’s “Little Dirty Thing”, Baby Bash's “Suga' Suga'”, Three Bad Jacks “Crazy in the Head”), TV shows (Monster Garage, Monster House, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Driveshaft, etc.), as well as in many feature films.
Dan’s metal artwork has been included in the book “Merge: art + craft + design,” which will be published by Basheer Graphic Books later this year.
Dan's passions include the creation of different art disciplines, including photography, literature, film and music.
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