Creative Properties Celebrates Elvis' Birthday with Peter Mars Exhibits
Memphis Galleries Display Work of Official Artist of Elvis Presley Enterprises
01/13/09
New York—Images of Elvis Presley, created by renowned Avant Pop artist Peter Mars, will
premiere in Memphis in January, in conjunction with the celebration of Elvis' birthday. Creative
Properties, the New York-based licensing company, recently added Peter Mars to its portfolio,
representing his work in new lines of product featuring his paintings.
The public unveiling of four of Mars’ original paintings of Elvis will be at the Elvis Insiders
Graceland Tour and Reception on January 9 in Gallery Elvis located at Graceland Plaza.
Through his collaboration with Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc., Mars has access to over 60,000 images of Elvis from the Graceland Archives, which will inspire his new series of paintings to be sold through galleries and to appear on high-end, officially licensed Elvis merchandise.
A larger collection of approximately 15 Peter Mars artworks will be on exhibit for a limited engagement in a separate display at the Jay Etkin Gallery, beginning January 30. The gallery is devoting more than 30 feet of wall space to the exhibition. The artist will attend a launch party planned for January 30, 6-9pm. While in Memphis, Mars will conduct interviews with local media to introduce the Memphis audience to his work, as well as interviews that will air nationally on the Elvis Radio channel on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio.
Peter Mars has been hailed as the leader of the Avant Pop movement, celebrating the melding of pop culture, consumerism and mass media, richly layered with an avant-gard sensibility of innovation. His work has been praised as "witty and excitingly of the moment" (New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper).
Mars is frequently asked to create original works of art for a wide range of high-profile corporations, events and exhibitions including Cows on Parade in Chicago and Cool Globes, a public exhibition presented in Chicago and San Francisco, created to raise awareness of global warming and Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Mars also designed the cover and interior art for the fifth album of the rock band The Redwalls. His work was commissioned by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and is featured in the private collections of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Michael Jordan, and Sheryl Crow. Peter Mars artwork has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Late Show with David Letterman.
About Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.
Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE) is based in Memphis, with additional offices in Los Angeles. In addition to Graceland and its related attractions in Memphis, including the Heartbreak Hotel, EPE is aggressively involved in a worldwide licensing program, merchandising, music publishing, and television, film, video and Internet projects. For more information on EPE and Graceland, visit www.elvis.com. EPE is a subsidiary of CKX, Inc. (www.ckx.com), a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market® under the ticker symbol CKXE.