We didn't know that there was such a thing as "fantasy coffins," much less that there was a grandfather of the craft and that two US presidents have visited the Ghanaian master craftsman who holds the title! Paa Joe, has been hand-crafting coffins into anything from lions, airplanes, tanks, and even Coca-Cola bottles for almost 50 years. The intricate, month long intensive process produces a work of art that is then buried under the ground, never to be seen again. Since 2008 his business declined to the point that he had to move into a dusty roadside shack from his central Accra-based workshop. Paa is now the subject of a documentary, Paa Joe and the Lion....

Fresh off of his "Relics of the New World" exhibition and just in time for October's festivities, Bay Area mask maker and sculptor Lucien Shapiro continues to expand his unique universe this Friday October 5th at LeQuiVive Gallery in Oakland, CA as part of a 3-person exhibit called "A Show of Heads" with fellow artists John Casey and Brian Robertson.