Melissa, 2006, C-print, 23.5" x 30.5"

On his recent visit to attend the Midnight Mass organized by Peaches Christ, John Waters looked as graceful and entertained as he usually does on public appearances. Seeing him around a truckload of ardent fans, hard-core enthusiasts dressed up as characters from his movies and too many glamorous drag queens, one could not help but wonder for the umpteenth time: Who is this guy?

If his movies are any indication he is godfather supreme to all things Porkyesque and Jackassy before there was ever a mainstream version of his outlandish antics. Although he hasn't matched the glorious immensity of his first features, it is always a wicked pleasure to submerge in the Buñuelian freak show he puts in each of his filmic concoctions.

A unique commodity in his own right, but probably not for his own good, Mr. Waters has made it quite difficult for his followers to keep up with his artistic practice: he ventured into music compilation, awards ceremony hosting, book publishing and also art making.

His most recent escapade into the snooty terrain of visual arts is currently on display and what a naughty indulgence it is to be able to appreciate the aesthetic output of the most famous Baltimoreian amidst the pristine walls of an art gallery instead of the cushiony comfort of a dusky movie theater.

You inevitably and immediately feel "better" yet the experience of smirking and giggling at his unhygienic humor is still "rewarding" even in broad daylight. His freakishly elegant photographic equations are the haven of a very peculiar film history, one that was certainly nurtured on endless sittings during the wee hours of many mornings, hunting for an apparently hidden value in campy, serious, arty, mainstream and whatever movies happened to come before the eyes of Mr. Waters

We know him as writer and director--and sometime actor--but seeing his exhibition we are reminded of his early editorial skills: his choppy and blunt cinematic ellipses are present and at the heart of these small framed narratives. Mr. Waters turns a simple exercise in cut and paste into a nirvana of hilarious eloquence, squeezing his stash of beloved movies until he manages to make new, twisted versions out of them using his favorite frozen images.

Spiriting us away from the world of the jittery jump cut and the endless one-take, Mr. Waters leads us into a welcoming environment for contemplation: either with single pictures, doubles, or various permutations of a polyptych, from the same or from different movies, He creates comic strips where the punchline springs out of collision, succession or accumulation. And this time around, the declared media junkie has also ventured further into his spatial experimentations adding a kind of trompe l'oeil et l'oreille installations to his sculptural works making him a full rounded contemporary artist.

Just like the new version of his worshipped "Hairspray" is a movie about a musical based on a movie, "Reckless Eyeballs" could be described as an exhibition about photographs from films taken from a TV screen. For anyone interested in purging the mainstreamization of the Pope of Trash, a dive into the pool of Mr. Waters is what's called for. That might even give you a chance to use the towel he has on display at Rena Bransten Gallery.

John Waters: Reckless Eyeballs will be on view at Rena Bransten Gallery through August 18th.