Additional viewing hours: Fridays, August 1 & 15, 6:30-8pm.

SPACE 242 proudly announces its seventh exhibition of 2008, SECRET PRIZE INSIDE, featuring illustrations, paintings, and mixed media by Dave McMahon and Chi-Yun Lau. The opening reception, Friday, July 25, runs from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in Boston’s South End, 242 E. Berkeley Street, 2nd floor (Between Albany Street and Harrison Avenue), Boston. The artists will be present and artwork on view is also for sale. RSVP is required for attendance at www.space242.com.

SECRET PRIZE INSIDE! marks Dave McMahon’s first major exhibition, featuring a variety of original work, a collection of pen & ink, gouache, watercolor, marker and collage. The collection includes colorful and textured images of sad robots, angry mutant vegetables, humanized sushi, mechanical insects, – emotive objects that otherwise would be blank.

According to McMahon “I’ve drawn since I could pick up something to draw with.” He cites influences including comics, music, and artists Ralph Steadman, Herge, Chris Ware, Heironymus Bosch, Jeff Soto, Shag, Gary Taxali, Lane Smith, and friend George Pfromm II.

A professional illustrator and animator, McMahon’s work has appeared in Make and Craft, on Children’s Television Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Noggin. As an art director, he has overseen the creation of interactive art for LeapFrog, PBS, Scholastic, and The Wiggles. A long-time organizer of Boston’s alternative craft fair Bazaar Bizarre and co-founder of the independent hipster craft boutique Magpie, McMahon lives in Brookline.

SECRET PRIZE INSIDE! is also Chi-Yun Lau’s first full exhibition. A collection of original work and gilclee prints, Lau’s images feature bright, vivid colors amidst unusual characters and scenes – from alien ghosts running across a highway, to a wispy, romantic Medusa, to a roller derby filled with skating Zombies.

Mr. Lau notes an array of influences including David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar Wai, Haruki Murakami, Paul Pope, Dan Clowes, Katsuhiro Otomo, Batman, X-Men, and Lou Reed. According to the artist, “I think one thing my art reveals about me is my eclectic interests in all of these things.”

His work has been exhibited in the area, has appeared in The Weekly Dig, Beer Advocate, and Realms of Fantasy Magazine, and was selected for the Communication Arts Illustration Annual (2005). A senior designer for an online game company, his freelance clients include Harvard Smithsonian, Treanor Bros. Animation, and Lineplot Productions. Originally from Florida and raised in Colorado, Mr. Lau earned a degree in Illustration/Animation from The Art Institute and resides in Somerville.

BUFF (Boston Underground Film Festival) will show shorts in the SPACE 242 Mini Theatre.

SECRET PRIZE INSIDE! is sponsored in part by The Weekly Dig and ArtScope Magazine.