After the jump you’ll find many photos taken by /Film photographer Alyssa Saucedo at an exclusive preview reception. I have included photos of my ten favorite pieces — I didn’t want to post too much because you’ll want to see a lot of these pieces for yourself when the show officially opens. We also have some shots of the “street” art painted on the gallery walls, a few crowd shots, including some photos of Avengers directorJoss Whedonand starClark Greggadmiring the artwork (see above).

And we also have some photos of the awesome Avengers-themed cupcakes created byThe Cake Mamas(the 2012 winners of Cupcake Wars). I took a brief lapse from my diet to have half of theThorcupcake and it was pure heaven.

There is so much great and unexpected art at this show, a lot of affordable prints and some really really cool originals priced in the hundreds. I almost boughtJoebot’s awesomeAvengersrecord adaptationbut one of the Marvel producers got to it first (and by almost bought it, I really mean that I debated about buying the piece before deciding it was more money than I could afford, and after I saw it sell, quickly changed my story to “someone bought it before I could”). One piece which I love isFernando RezaofFro Design Co’s"Avengers Assemble" poster, which almost feels like somethingOlly Mosswould have created — some really clever work connecting the characters through minimalism.Give it a long lookor else you might miss many of the details.

I was invited to an early preview, but the show will be open to the public beginning on Thursday, May 3rd from 7-10pm for a grand opening reception, and will run through May 6th, 2012. This is the first show at Gallery 1988’s newest location at 7021 Melrose Ave, just across the street from their original space next to Golden Apple Comics. If you’re in Southern California, I strongly urge you to check it out.