Cary Lewis Long

Cary Lewis Long is a conceptual artist and sculptor based in Yucca Valley, California. He was born in Bakersfield, California and studied fine art and philosophy at UC Berkeley. He is the creator and artist behind the singular Nova Express Cafe which was intended to be a direct experience of relational art: ”As a fun and welcoming art space, it was meant to be a place where people would  be inspired to experience a heightened sense of their own individuality and of the creative possibilities of life.”

For more artist info: https://artcommune.blogspot.com/p/cary-lewis-long.html

CONCEPTUAL  ART

"My mission is to reveal art as an experience of consciousness which is the foundational and creative element of reality. By this I mean that art is an open-ended structure capable of shaping consciousness and reality.   I am inspired by expansive and singular visions of artists that contribute to an imaginative and ecstatic reality.  Two of my favorite artists’ works are the conceptual art of Marcel du Champ and the raw creativity of Antonio Gaudi. "  

“Our world is full of ancient thought forms that are replicated sometimes out of tradition and duty. The sculpture is a visualization of especially aggressive neural synapses. Ancient ideas can have a sense of wicked beauty to them. Their nature is manifested with scales and teeth, symbolizing the fear and control manifested in the perpetuation of behavior that may be greatly detrimental to our well-being. It persists through time, intangible yet spreading. Our hope lies in examining and transforming the thought forms that are at the foundation of reality.”

PRESS

A huge green dragon looms out of one wall, like something that belongs in a Flash Gordon movie.  "It's a fragment of some alien architecture," Long say.  "I used some leftover garden hose, two screen doors, and  a couple of buckets of plaster.  The building inspectors didn't quite know what to make of it."    Read more Los Angeles Times, A Fantastic Voyage … http://articles.latimes.com/1995-02-26/news/ls-36149_1_nova-express

Cary Long’s Nova Express Cafe takes its name and sub-cultural orientation from the novel by William Burroughs. Decked out with glowing amoeboid tables, intimate black-light vortices and a sculptural astral ogre with gaping floor-to-ceiling jaws, Long's "walk-in sculptuers that sells pizza" was createwd largely from scrap materials.    Read more… Los Angeles Times, A Fantasy Getaway

With its fluorescent lighting, a plaster space creature known as the "giant alien sex machine" and a looming mass of orange lava hanging over the front door, the Nova Express Cafe is probably the closest one can get to outer space short of stepping on a sound stage or blasting off a launch pad.      Read more... Los Angeles Times, A Decor That is Out of This World.  http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-11/news/ls-34664_1_nova-express-cafe

 Nova Express Cafe 1994-2008

Created by sculptor and conceptual artist: Cary Lewis Long. In existence from June of 1993 to March of 2008, Nova Express Cafe was “a state-of-the-art, Earth-calibrated hyper dimension of nourishing food, musical amusement and thought forms from outer space all synergized to provide a delightful and luxurious sense of the mystery of life”.

Long time Nova fan Joseph De Mario arranged his friend Los Angeles-based photographer Joel Mark captured the last photos of Nova Express which are featured at Architizer website, link here: https://architizer.com/projects/nova-express-cafe/