LA ART Machine
The L.A. ART MACHINE is proud to present VOX HUMANA, a large-scale, live art installation by celebrated international artists Edward Walton Wilcox, Andrew Hem, Shark Toof,and Chor Boogie at the 2011 L.A. Art Show, January 19-23, 2011. Taking place over five days and covering more than 500 square feet of canvas, this unique art happening invites visitors into the esoteric world of the artistic creative process. You are cordially invited to join us for this special art happening.
Schedule:
January 19: 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM (VIP Opening)
January 20-22: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
January 23: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Completion ceremony January 23, 2:00 PM Location:
Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall
1201 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, California 90015
map it
Presented in partnership with:
LeBasse Projects, FIND Art Magazine, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Sister Cities Los Angeles, and Castelli Framing
for more information contact: voxhumana@laartmachine.com or 323.702.3594
In May 2011, BritWeek, in collaboration with the L.A. ART MACHINE (LAAM), will produce a landmark, large-scale, museum-quality art installation by world-renown artists MEAR ONE (USA) and D*FACE (UK). This exhibition will be the centerpiece of the entire BritWeek Contemporary Art Program and will run approximately two weeks at L.A. MART second floor exhibition hall.
Utilizing approximately 25,000 square-feet, BritWeek & LAAM will encourage the artists to entertain an entire range of expression, employing any media that fits the artists’ concept (i.e. sculpture,digital media, paintings, prints, performance, etc.) The overarchingtheme, which may be interpreted loosely, is the U.S.-British experience and whatever that may mean to the artists.
In addition, D*FACE and MEAER ONE will commandeer chair sculpture in the parking lot of the L.A. MART as a special project piece for the artists to embellish, paint, and post. This outdoor sculpture may remain in perpetuity as a gift from BritWeek to Los Angeles and an internationally-recognized symbol of the L.A. MART.
Time/Date:
Friday, May 6, 2011 at 7:00pm – Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 7:30am
Location:
LA MART (entire 2nd floor)
1933 S. BROADWAY
Los Angeles, CA
Crewest Gallery X Abztract Collective present:
STREET DEGREES OF SEPARATION
An art opening featuring the artwork of:
CHRIS CLARK
CHRIS RWK
CLOWN SOLDIER
DAMON GINANDES
DAVID FLORES
ERNESTO YERENA
EYEFORMATION
FAKE
GABE COPELAND
GAIA
HIDDENMOVES
JOE IURATO
JMR
PHILIP LUMBANG
SHAI DAHAN
and special guest artist and Pro Skater:
DANNY GONZALEZ
Opening Reception: Jan. 8th
Downtown Artwalk: Jan 13th – 6:00-10:00
CREWEST GALLERY
110 Winston Street
Los Angeles CA 90013
213-627-8272
info@crewest.com
www.crewest.com
For 11 days we’re presenting 11 artists and BSA readers and their wishes for the new year, 2011, in no particular order. Together, they are a tiny snapshot of the people who are creators and fans of street art. Individually, each has added their expression of the creative spirit to the year now ending.
Today’s wish comes from Kimberly Brooks, a California-based artist and recent founder/editor of the Huffington Post Arts Page;
I wish for less precision and more spontaneity; less virtuality and more meals with people I care about; less talking heads and more artists exposing their work; less email and more kissing.
For 11 days we’re presenting 11 artists and BSA readers and their wishes for the new year, 2011, in no particular order. Together, they are a tiny snapshot of the people who are creators and fans of street art. Individually, each has added their expression of the creative spirit to the year now ending.
Today’s wish comes from Los Angeles based photographer, videographer and BSA contributor Todd Mazer, who sends this image of Saber, the artist;
I wish for us to all remember, no matter how unbearable the load we find upon our shoulders, weightlessness can always be sparked by a moment of inspiration.
It’s hard to believe that Jeffrey Deitch censors artists.
One quick look into his adventurous past incarnation as the director and owner of Deitch Projects in New York shows a guy who has championed the work of artists outside the mainstream and given them a forum to speak. Hard to see the same guy who mounted a burned-out meth lab by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, (Black Acid Co-op) being queasy about offensive content. Did you ever see the parade he sponsored through the streets of Lower Manhattan for a few years? Don’t remember anyone crying censorship in those very public multi-membered panoplies of costume and conceptual art. The fact is there is a very public record stretching back many years that shows he routinely encouraged his artists to expand intellectually and explore new ideas regardless of how difficult or controversial they might have been.
The public controversy of the buffing of a large wall on the side of the Geffen Contemporary Wing of MOCA by internationally known street artist BLU shortly after it’s completion last week feels more like an easy way to pile on him, maybe by those who didn’t like him in the first place. Sometimes people just like to see successful people fall. If you were to listen to the wailing of the Censorship Battalion you would have thought that Mr. Deitch himself had run screaming, bucket in hand, through the streets splashing paint on the mural and all over his pink suit, ranting about the dollar-draped coffins BLU had arranged in formation across the massive wall. But the timeline of how Deitch mismanaged the quickly exploding events after the buffing really points more to being obtuse than obstreperous. He didn’t handle the information communication very well.Looks like he made some rookie mistakes in his new position as the head of a major public institution of art. And?
Only a year ago in October 2009 BLU finished another giant mural on the Deitch Projects location in Long Island City in Queens that some said was a fun-loving jab at Deitch himself. So it looks like this curator-artist relationship has some history.
Blu at Deitch Studios in Long Island City, New York, October 2009 (photo @Jaime Rojo)
It just doesn’t add up.
Censorship in this country, especially art censorship, is always a hot spicy topic – Why, did you hear about the Smithsonian? Less obvious is the ongoing sort of cleansing across our increasingly corporate mono-culture and this alien creature politics-as-sports media that exhausts the populace into confusion and conformity. That kind of censorship of the many gray areas simplifies everything to an Us vs Them mentality. Rather than the knee-jerk suggestion of boycotting his upcoming show of Street Art, let’s give the new guy a chance to acclimate to this new position he’s had for six months.
That said, if Deitch was being sensitive to the Veteran Affairs neighbors and cognizant of the history of the Japanese community in the US, his timing was a bit late. And if we are talking about sensitivity and communication, it looks like BLU got left out of the equation altogether. How can this be? A very prolific artist travels to LA to paint a big commissioned wall and there wasn’t a sketch?
We all censor ourselves every day. Sometimes for honorable reasons like not mentioning your co-workers’ deceased wife, or even pragmatic reasons, like rolling down your sleeves to hide your tattoos from your girlfriend’s dad.It’s all about context, and nuance. In the end, this microscopic chapter in Street Art is between BLU and MOCA, and only they know the contracts they have and the inner workings of their relationship. Maybe we can all find something else to speculate about.
Los Angeles based street artist David Choe recently had a show in Japan but unfortunately Japanese authorities banned him from attending it. Here he is in a beautiful video shot by Willie T where he presents himself as an artist in his own words along with his fellow artist James Jean.
Belgian-born Street Artist ROA is back in The US, this time on the West Coast. On the occasion of his debut solo show in Los Angeles presented by the indefatigable Andrew Hosner (of ThinkSpace) at the pop-up “New Puppy”, ROA has brought a modest zoo’s worth of wild friends.
Here are exclusive set-up pictures of ROA’s prep for the show.
ROA Image Courtesy of Think Space Gallery
ROA’s animal kingdom contains singular images, realistically depicted with influence from fairy tales, biology books and urban decay. Using discarded materials (sometimes in new constructions) as his canvas in the white box setting, the surfaces can be rusted sheets of metal, abandoned cabinetry doors, discarded window panes and wooden planks. The materials lend context, dimension and texture while summoning old animal biology plates from veterinarian school books.
When he works on the street ROA paints large, sometimes even monumental portraits of birds of all kinds, rodents, squirrels, hogs, skunks and myriad animals that are often not in the graces of their fellow earth inhabitants: The Humans. All cans, this dude keeps true to his graff roots even as he perfects a style that lands him in the street art catalog.
ROA Image Courtesy of Think Space Gallery
To the artist, these animals are survivors. “I think it is fascinating that certain animals really did not die out because of humanity but instead they use humanity to survive. I think it is interesting to see birds making nests in old buildings,” says ROA.
ROA Image Courtesy of Think Space Gallery
As he told us on an interview when he was in Brooklyn for his solo show at Factory Fresh this year in May, difficult surfaces are an inspiration. “I like when a wall, or an area, or a building tells a little bit of a story. It is sometimes really boring to paint on a wall that is just one color. It is always better to start from something that is interesting,” he explains. He likes to create “lenticulars”, rigid surfaces, geometrically organized, that play with perception and angles to bring a level of wit and discovery. Mostly monochromatic, his palette adds occasional vivid reds and blues to highlight the inner working of subjects.
ROA Image Courtesy of Think Space Gallery
To experience ROA’s art, first hand, please visit the gallery if you are on the West Coast or go to the gallery site to see his new work. ROA’s show is currently on view at the pop-up shop space “New Puppy Gallery” located just outside downtown Los Angeles at 2808 Elm Street (at Cypress Ave).
The young Hold Up Gallery in the Japantown section of Los Angeles currently has a sleek and smart-alec show that shouts for attention. Drawing a clear connection between today’s graphic design-savvy Street Artists and their anti-corporate fascist/ punk rock/ culture-jamming roots, this show is a delicious collection of disgusted discontent. Thanks to its relative proximity to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is assembling an inaugural Street Art spectacular next spring under it’s new director, Jeffrey Deitch, the show has an added dimension of interest. A collection of polished pungency, “Marxist Glue” heralds the smooth collection as a survey of current LA street artists.
Artist and Columnist Gordy Grundy says the show is “Sticky” in his Huffington Post article:
“Marxist Glue, a new street art show curated by Toks Shoyoye, redefines the Los Angeles community and challenges MOCA. Curator Toks Shoyoye has stomped his foot and the earth has quaked. Marxist Glue is a group show, actually a historical gathering, of 13 Los Angeles artists. This show covers an epoch and illustrates the motivations of a movement. Los Angeles street art shall be redefined”
Not to be confused with the similarly named C215 show opening in Paris tonight, “The Community Serviced” this Sunday showcases 12 uniquely produced Showpaper newspaper boxes designed by 24 artists. After the opening night, the works will be placed around the city to serve the community both as public art pieces as well as an expansion of Showpaper’s distribution network of their bi-monthly publication.
Sure to be a raw fun show free of pretension with artists: Amy Smalls , Dennis Franklin, Maggie Lee ,Jennifer Shear, Oliva Katz ,Keith Pavia, Peter, Andrew Sutherland, ADAM COST, DARKCLOUDS , SADUE, FARO, GROSER, COOLCAT, GEN 2 , OZE 108, GOYA , NSK, NET, DROID, VUDU , INFINITY,WOLFTITS , CAHBASM
Invader Goes To Hollywood…and gets chased by the police
“Block Party”
The Carmichael Gallery is throwing a “Block Party” tomorrow (10/13) and they have a stellar line up of artists that will be showing work at the Culver City gallery. Some street art roots on display in the lineup: Boxi, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Gregor Gaida, Simon Haas, Dan Witz and Sixeart.
Like Martyn Reed says, this local photographer in Stavanger, Norway, where the Nuart 2010 festival of street art murals happened this fall, shows some of “Street Art photography at its finest”.
A free one-day festival of conceptualized and thematic group exhibitions that focuses on curatorial experimentation and collaboration. There will be over 50 shows, including the work of over 400 individual artists, in spaces ranging from galleries to studios to apartments to mobile trucks and smart phone apps.
Ernesto Yerena knows about borders. The Mexican-American has been crossing them since he was born on the national border in tiny El Centro, CA.Now the 24 year old is crossing the border from Obey Giant studio assistant to featured artist in his first solo show at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco this Saturday.
For the past few months Ernesto has been at work in his garage/studio in Los Angeles preparing. With help of the talented photographer Todd Mazer, we get to see these exclusive images of Ernesto finishing his final piece for the show, “Ganas 20/20”.
For someone with an acute eye and the sensitivity of an artist, growing up in a border town 15 minutes from Mexicali, daily life in such a culturally rich and tumultuous environment can also be a wellspring of inspiration. The mundane, daily crossing over the border after school as a boy to visit with his grandmother and family in Mexicali, gave him insight into the complex lives of families who just happen to be geographically sprouted along an invisible political dotted line.Today that dotted line has razor wire that cuts everyone it touches.
Ernesto began some cutting of his own when he received a stencil cutting set for his tenth birthday from his grandfather. During time away from his business painting cars and doing auto-body repair, his father encouraged the boys’ painting projects and showed him how to cut stencils. As a youth Ernesto felt motivated and supported by his family to go to art school and sharpen his artistic skills.
As he got older, the geopolitical realities of the harsh cultural and social landscape where he was growing awakened his intellectual curiosity and desire to better understand his social surroundings.
A teen listening to his own bi-national music collection including Public Enemy and Mexican rockers Mana, he got a better handle on the underlying racism and social inequities that plague the American landscape. When his artistic chops got him an opportunity at age 19 to work alongside Shepard Fairey, the street artist known for frequently incorporating social justice and political themes into his work, Ernesto found a stronger voice.
Ernesto’s world of two countries, difficult border life, socially conscious music, a deep interest in history and human rights have prepared him to face, as an artist, the recent fierce issue of immigration in this country and in Arizona in particular. In collaboration with Shepard he produced, at his imprint “Hecho Con Ganas” or HCG, one of the posters that protesters in Arizona have used as a tool to denounce the racist and demonizing rhetoric coloring the immigration debate as well as SB1070, a bill that codifies racial profiling into law.
This Saturday night Ernesto crosses another invisible border as the White Walls Gallery provides a space for his new work in his first solo show.
Ernesto’s solo show “Ganas 20/20” Opens this Saturday, November 13 at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco. The gallery is located at 835 Larking Street. San Francisco, CA. 94109
Thanks again to photographer and videographer Todd Mazer for these images he shot exclusively for Brooklyn Street Art.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
