Top of the Pops

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville features returning Invited Artist David Amoroso for the exhibit “Top of the Pops” with two additional exhibits and an Open Studio event. The December 2nd First Friday evening opening will run from 5pm – 9pm. Enjoy additional exhibits – “Luminosity” with Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 Artists exhibiting their latest work. David Amoroso’s work is highly sought after across the DMV.  Music has always influenced David Amoroso’s life.  Whether sitting in the basement and listening to 45s or creating mix tapes from the radio, popular music captured his naïve perspective on life, love and the world.  As a teenager, frequent trips to Kemp Mill and Waxie Maxie’s introduced David to new genres of music, and he began to buy records based on the album covers.  By the 80s, it was David’s dream job to create oversized paintings of album covers for Tower Records.  New Wave, Punk and Alternative Rock were his favorites and eventually inspired him to join a band.  Amoroso discovered that being in a band was exciting at times, but it was mostly like being married to five people you would not marry. Album art developed his aesthetic, highly shaping the way he photographed people and eventually painted them.  David loved the way that musicians were captured in photos and art.  As a photographer and painter, it has always been his desire to create images that look iconic and make everyone look like rock stars – even those who have never picked up an instrument and should avoid karaoke! “Top of the Pops” is a series of paintings featuring music icons that found success, despite their troubled lives and the obstacles they faced.  Are they Amoroso’s favorite musicians of all time?  Not necessarily, but each of them was omnipresent at some point in his life and impacted the world around us in a significant way. “Top of the Pops” was the world’s longest-running weekly music show, and it featured performances of the week’s best-selling popular music records, cruelly excluding any tracks moving down the chart. 

“Top of the Pops” with Invited Artist David Amoroso
“Luminosity” with Resident Artists
The Artists of Gallery 209

Opening Reception
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, December 2nd, 2022

Artists & Makers Studios
11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210
Rockville, MD 20852

Meet the Artist with David Amoroso – December 10th, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Exhibit runs from November 29th – December 21st