OPENING RECEPTION MAY 12, 7-10 PM LA CANVAS PRE-EXHIBITION PARTY WITH LIVE PAINT PERFORMANCE MAY 12, 4-7 PM
*featuring limited edition FRENCH INVASION print sale to benefit Inner-City Arts
Fabien Castanier Gallery is proud to present the first exhibition in Los Angeles dedicated to the work of France’s leading street artists today. FRENCH INVASION features brand new work by: JonOne, Nasty, Rero, Speedy Graphito and Tilt. The exhibition will present an extensive range of work by these artists including paintings, installations, silkscreens and sculpture. Speedy Graphito, JonOne and Tilt will be present at the Opening Reception on May 12th, spraying a collaborative mural live from 4-7pm.
Paris has always been an important source of creative inspiration for artists across the globe, giving rise to some of the most important art movements in history. Though born in NYC, graffiti made its way across the pond, becoming firmly rooted in the neighborhoods of France. Whereas art produced on the streets was previously relegated to neighborhood walls and the metro, today it can be seen in galleries and museums. Street art in France has become one of the most considerable art movements of this century.
FRENCH INVASION highlights the differences in media, context, audiences and issues that these artists maintain both on the street and in the art market. Common to all these artists is their investment in the streets of Paris during the past decade but also their evolution in galleries in France and abroad. Contemporary urban art is now the movement of today and tomorrow.
German Street Artists and collaborators Hera and Akut have been in San Francisco recently for their solo show “Loving the Exiled” and while there they also had time to get up in the street. With roots in crews in the graffiti scene when they were both in their mid-teens, the two are twice that now and have a strong practice of fine and street art that takes them around the world. With distinctly different styles, the tension and contrast compliment one another in their mainly figurative work, and each considers the other a perfect counterbalance in an ongoing conversation.
While preparing for their show at the 941 Geary Gallery, photographer Jennifer Goff captured some of the newest street work for BSA readers. We had the opportunity to interview Herakut and learn about their process, their preferred materials, their prose, and the importance of finding your own voice as an artist.
Our thanks to Herakut for stealing away some time to speak with us and to Jennifer for her photography.
Brooklyn Street Art:Your work is truly collaborative and integrated. In what way does it seem like a conversation between two people?
HERAKUT: In every way. And there are more voices than just our two. We open up the dialogue when we come across a great thought, quote it and work with it, like we did in SF with the poem “LASH” by the exiled Iranian writer Mehrangiz Rassapour – a woman who has seen a lot of pain. She added some strong thoughts to our conversation and raised questions for us to come clear with.
Brooklyn Street Art:There are a number of loners – single graff/Street Artists on the street today, as well as those who like to run with a partner or a crew. Which approach helps an artist to develop their own voice?
HERAKUT: Only when you have found your own voice you have something to contribute to a conversation, right? So, fit is probably best to find your own artistic identity first because then you know what it is that you are lacking. Akut and Hera are like Ying and Yang. That is what makes the work in our duo so effective. We don´t step on each other´s feet, because we have separate territories.
Brooklyn Street Art:If you had very similar styles, do you think it would bore you? Do you think the tension between the more fine art approach of Akut and the raw expression of Hera is what we see in a finished piece? HERAKUT: Yes, the contrast between our styles highlights each one. And the is another bonus to being so different from each other – there is no competition between the two of us. We don´t try to exceed the other, we try to add on to the other one´s work.
Brooklyn Street Art:It seems like your work has some of the same cadences and lyricism found in the written word. Have you illustrated a classic piece of literature or poetry? Do you want to?
HERAKUT: It´s like we are sitting in this boat in a stream and we grab and work with whatever happens to be floating close to us. We don´t stretch out too far, it has to find its way to us naturally. Therefore, we don´t even check for it´s qualities in terms of having a classic value. If it sounds good, we´ll work with it, like with this line “COWARDS DIE MANY TIMES BEFORE THEIR DEATHS”. Loved it, and then later found out it was something Shakespeare had written. Supposedly.
Brooklyn Street Art:Sometimes your pieces contain text – are those pieces of poems? A bit of inspiration?
HERAKUT: When we really quote, we always try to reference to the writer. Other then that we use our own words. They are the titles of each piece, but more so – it´s the words that add the twist to the painting. It is another layer of communication and we don´t want to miss out on that one, since communication is the whole reason for us to create art.
Brooklyn Street Art:Most favorite surface : wood, concrete, canvas, bricks, rusty metal.
HERAKUT: Brick is not a good one, because it causes too much disturbance on the realism bits. It´s too busy to begin with. Like wood. And wood is often so beautiful that it doesn´t need anything to it. Just like rust. Rust is actually a performance art created by water and air. Pretty good combo. For us concrete is probably the best one. There is something very frustrating about it. So many horrible walls and boundaries have been built of concrete. It´s not a friendly medium. It needs to be attacked, we think.
“Loving the Exiled” is currently on view at the 941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco. Click here for more details regarding this exhibition. With our sincere thank yous to Jennifer for sharing her photos with us.
LALA Gallery in downtown Los Angeles had a well attended inaugural show last week to realize physically something that had up to this point been a dream for Street Art fan and champion Daniel LaHoda. With names like How & Nosm, Cryptik, Cern, Shepard Fairey, and Dan Witz among others on display (and in the flesh) the gallery welcomed many of the LA Freewalls crowd inside and off the street where they were less likely to wander into traffic – A good move considering the refreshments that many of the clamoring crowd appeared to enjoy as they milled around the gargantuan outdoor rooftop gazing upon the glowing orbs of Cern One punctuating the LA night.
Talented photographer and BSA collaborator Todd Mazer was on hand during the opening and sends some original inside photos for BSA readers to get a sense of the raw industrial space and environment.
It’s not often that a major city gives a spotlight to a graffiti / Street Artist and issues a formal proclamation about it, but that is exactly what happened Saturday in Los Angeles. AskewOne, a native of one of LA’s sister cities, Auckland, New Zealand , was honored by the City as his new mural “Under the Influence” was unveiled as part of the LA Freewalls Project.
“It’s much more likely in this city that a graffiti artist will be arrested than be recognized for positive contributions to the community”, as LA Taco reports, but really when you consider the major inroads that the LA Freewalls Project has made into the dialogue around the value of Street Art in LA’s local politics, it can’t be entirely surprising. It probably helps that the image itself incorporates the American flag into the composition– sort of disarms that whole negative rant that some politicos use when lumping Street Artists together with other social scourges like drug addiction, domestic terrorism, and the Ice Capades, doesn’t it?
“AskewOne is one of the world’s preeminent public artists, and one of the most accomplished contemporary graffiti writers,” says Daniel LaHoda, who spearheads LA Freewalls and who also hosted the inauguration of the new LALA gallery Saturday night with many of today’s best known Street Artist’s work on the walls. According to an official press release, the now famous LA mural moratorium will soon be lifted and “Kamilla Blanche, Senior Deputy for Arts and Culture, and the Director for Sister Cities, is excited about the possibilities to expand Los Angeles’ place as the national epicenter of public art.”
BSA is very pleased to be able to share with you these images of the new piece as shot by photographer Todd Mazer.
1. ROA at StolenSpace “Hypnagogia” (London)
2. Katowice Street Art Festival 4/20-29 (Poland)
3. LALA Gallery Inauguration Saturday (Los Angeles)
4. Herakut “Loving the Exiled” at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
5. Marsea Gives You the “High Five!” at New Image Art Saturday (LA)
6. Erica Il Cane “Una Vita Violenta” at Fifty24MX Gallery (Mexico City)
7. Brett Amory “Waiting 101” at Outsiders Gallery (Newcastle, UK)
8. OLEK in Barcelona with Botero (VIDEO)
9. C215 “About Copyrights” (VIDEO)
10. The Bushwick Trailer (VIDEO)
ROA at StolenSpace “Hypnagogia” (London)
With his current show, now on view at the StolenSpace Gallery in London, ROA will demonstrate how you can be asleep and awake at the same time. His solo show “Hypnagogia” opens today to the general public and offers a dissected view of ROA’s fantastic world of animals and beasts. ROA’s hand crafted book “An Introduction To Animal Representation” by Mammal Press is on sale at The Old Truman Brewery on 91 Brick Lane. Hurry there are only only 125 tomes being offered.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Katowice Street Art Festival 4/20-29 (Poland)
Katowice, a Silesian city in Southern Poland celebrates Street Art with their own Street Art Festival, now on its second year, from April 20 through April 29. The gray, concrete architecture that dominates this town will be imbued with color, shapes and fantasy with the help of this city most prominent daughter, OLEK aided by an illustrious list of first rate of fine and Street Artists including Mark Kenkins, Escif, Boogie, Moneyless, Ganzeer, Ludo, Mona Tusz, Swanski, 0700 Team, Tellas, Dan Witz, Hyuro, M City, ROA, Goro, Kilo, Nespoon, Aryz, 108, Wers, Ciah-Ciah, Etam Crew, Otecki, Razpajzan, Sepe, Chazme, CFNTX Crew, Onte, Jezmirski, Terry Grand, Dast, Impact, Malik, Turbos and Mentalgassi.
For further information regarding this festival click here.
LALA Gallery Inauguration Saturday (Los Angeles)
The West Coast continues to assert itself as a power house in the art world and as a Street Art mecca with the inaugural show of LALA Gallery. A brand new gallery conceived by Daniel Lahoda, the mind and soul and legs of LA Freewalls Project.
LALA’s line up of artists for this first show augurs an auspicious beginning and a successful life which we hope last for a long, long time. “LA Freewalls Inside” is the title of this show and artists included are: Anthony Lister, Askew One, Becca, Cern, Chris Brand, Cryptik, Cyrcle, Dale VN Marshall, Dan Witz, Daze, Dee Dee Cheriel, Evan Skrederstu, How & Nosm, Insa, Jaybo, Kim West, Kofie, Lady Aiko, Ludo, Mear, The Perv Brothers, Poesia, Push, Pyro, Ripo, Risk, Ron English, Saber, Shepard Fairey, Swoon and Zes.
For further details regarding this show click here.
Herakut “Loving the Exiled” at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
Herakut, the indefatigable German collective are a busy duo with an impressive craft and a mastery of the can and paint brushes. Never compromising their artistic output regardless of their environment or medium they set their collaborative standards high with an output rich in earthy colors. Their palette of ores, reds, grays, oranges, blues, browns and yellows give birth to a universe of characters that are fantastic and mysterious and in pursuit of you, the spectator. In San Francisco at 941 Geary Gallery Saturday the reception will be open for the artists and you at “Loving the Exiled”.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Group Show “High Five!” at New Image Art Saturday (LA)
HIGH FIVE! the new group show at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles opens tomorrow and the artists include Alia Penner, Ashely Macomber, Curtis Kulig, Deanna Templeton, Maya Hayuk and Vanessa Prager.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Also happening this weekend:
Tomorrow, Saturday April 22 will be the last day to see Erica Il Cane show “Una Vita Violenta” at the Fifty24MX Gallery in Mexico City. The gallery will also participate with Erica Il Cane at the Zona Maco Mexico Arte Contemporaneo Art Fair in Mexico City. April 18 – April 22. For further details about “Una Vita Violenta” click here. For more details about Zona Maco, Mexico Arte Contemporaneo Art Fair click here.
Brett Amory solo show “Waiting 101” At the Outsiders Gallery in Newcastle, UK opens today to the general public. Click here for more details about this show.
OLEK in Barcelona with Botero (VIDEO)
Still working on that scarf you’ve been knitting for OLEK’s birthday? You missed it.
When your budget is so large that a violation fee is merely an operating expense, “illegal” is a quaint term.
The power of advertising in the public sphere on our propensity to purchase raspberry-scented shampoo is so effective that hand-bill postering and billboards pop up all over our built environment (and natural environment) like mushrooms overnight. As cities everywhere debate or ignore the appropriate growth of advertising messages, entrepreneurial billboard builders often take the initiative to spread the paid messages in legal grey or red zone because the opportunities for making green are aplenty. Talk about bombing.
The Los Angeles Street Art collective Desire Obtain Cherish favor the billboard for a bit of culture jamming periodically and they have just raised the irony a notch. In these new photos from photographer Birdman, we see what appears to be Desire Obtain Cherish using illegal billboards for installations – raising awareness of just how many un-permitted, unsanctioned, unapproved, and illegal billboards are in our midst. You can’t even rightly call this new installation campaign hi-jacking because it’s medium is already illegal. Compounding the fact is that this can also all all be done in broad daylight with foot traffic and cars whizzing by.
Is this art? Conceptual art? Street Art? Art Activism? Community Service?
If your illegal message is on an illegal billboard in an illegal location, have you committed an illegal act? Do all those compounded “illegals” cancel one another, or create a cognitive dissonance-induced inertia?
Dang those kids for making us think about commerce, art, policy, and public space. In one of the videos below the end text clearly takes some positions but there are many to be taken. This will only mean trouble for the simple-minded who are in search of black and white answers at any cost.
Opening Reception Saturday, April 14, 2012 from 7‑10pm
On View April 14 – May 5, 2012
On Saturday, April 14, Los Angeles street artist Buff Monster returns to Corey Helford Gallery to unveil the “Legend of the Pink Cherry,” his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery and his most ambitious to date.
Internationally known for his super bright, happy, and bold imagery, the paintings in the main gallery will celebrate the last eleven years of Buff Monster’s career, culminating in a timeless epic tale of good vs. evil. For the “Legend of the Pink Cherry,” the artist draws inspiration from Renaissance paintings. Buff Monster will introduce his latest creamy creation, a soft serve ice cream cone with human-like arms and legs. Each acrylic-on-wood panel piece in the show is delicately rendered with airbrush, a first for the artist.
Buff Monster’s narratives are more character and figure-based than before, and the series of paintings created for the exhibition will also reveal a new direction in Buff Monster’s career. “I’ve always thought of my work as inspired by and representative of Los Angeles—Hollywood more specifically. Los Angeles is the birthplace of Buff Monster. Part of why I feel compelled to tie everything together is that I feel that this chapter of my life and my work is coming to an end, and I’m looking to the future. It’s time to go East.”
The upstairs gallery will feature the second half of the exhibition, the debut of a project Buff Monster has been working towards his entire career: “The Melty Misfits,” a set of 60 collectible trading cards honoring the the Garbage Pail Kids. “I know more about Garbage Pail Kids than anyone you will ever meet,” Buff Monster adds, and in keeping true to the original form, each painting is 5”x7” on watercolor paper with acrylic and airbrush. The cards will be released on opening night, and the original paintings will be on display. Buff Monster notes, “I am going through a ton of work to make these as close to the vintage cards that we grew up with as possible. They’ll be printed offset using a custom paper stock and custom-mixed inks, and will come in wax packages just like cards from the 80s.”
The opening reception for the “Legend of the Pink Cherry” takes place Saturday, April 14 —Buff Monster’s birthday —at Corey Helford Gallery. The reception is open to the public, and the exhibition will be on view through May 5, 2012.
Buff Monster
Buff Monster lives in Hollywood and cites heavy metal music, ice cream and Japanese culture as major influences. The color pink, a symbol of confidence, individuality and happiness, is present in everything he creates. Buff Monster’s creative endeavors began by putting up thousands of hand-silkscreened posters across Los Angeles and in far-away places. His frequent poster missions developed into a productive street art career, and he now works on fine art paintings, collectible toys and select design projects. He paints on wood, taking great care to create his images as flat as possible. His work has been shown in galleries worldwide, often accompanied by large installations. Buff Monster has released numerous signature vinyl toys through leading vinyl toy companies, and has many other projects in the works. His art has been published in a variety of magazines, websites, newspapers and books, including Juxtapoz, Paper, Nylon, Cool Hunting, Angeleno, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The New York Times, and many more. He was recently featured in Banksy’s movie Exit Through the Gift Shop. And in January of this year he painted a mural on the exterior of The Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Buff Monster works tirelessly day and night to spread happiness, joy and a love of pink. For more information about the artist, please visit buffmonster.com.
Corey Helford Gallery
Located in the Culver City Art District, Corey Helford Gallery was established in 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer and creator, Bruce Helford (Anger Management, The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, The Oblongs). Corey Helford Gallery represents a diverse collection of Contemporary artists influenced by today’s pop culture, encompassing the genres of New Figurative, Pop Surreal, Graffiti and Street Art. Artists include Josh Agle (Shag), Ray Caesar, D*Face, Chloe Early, EINE, Ron English, Natalia Fabia, HUSH, Kukula, Lola, The London Police, Sylvia Ji, Eric Joyner, Michael Mararian, Brandi Milne, Buff Monster, Risk, Amy Sol, TrustoCorp, Martin Wittfooth, and Nick Walker. Renowned for its notable exhibitions, the gallery has presented “Charity By Numbers,” which was co-curated by Gary Baseman and featured an unprecedented lineup of artists including Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Shepard Fairey, Todd and Kathy Schorr, Camille Rose Garcia, and Michael Hussar, as well as “La Noche de la Fusion,” an epic Carnivalesque festival and solo exhibition for Pervasive artist Gary Baseman. In 2010, Corey Helford Gallery partnered with Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery for the transatlantic collaboration “Art From The New World,” a world-class United Kingdom museum exhibition showcasing work by a formidable group of 49 of the finest emerging and noted American artists. Corey Helford Gallery presents new exhibitions approximately every four weeks. For more information and an upcoming exhibition schedule, please visit coreyhelfordgallery.com.
Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
T: 310-287-2340 www.coreyhelfordgallery.com
Open Tuesday – Saturday, Noon to 6:00pm
We are incredibly proud to announce the opening of LALA Gallery on Saturday, April 21, 2012 where we will be presenting LA Freewalls Inside.
LA Freewalls Inside is a group show featuring over 40 artists who have helped make Downtown Los Angeles one of the biggest and most recognizable public art spaces in the world, including Shepard Fairey, SWOON, HOW and NOSM. Keep a lookout as we unveil the final line-up over the next two weeks.
So spread the word, bring a friend and help us break-in the space for the first of what will be many, many, more events.
gaze out at us with eyes both sad and resigned, asking nothing of us but a basic empathy.
From the Artists:
We like to see each Herakut piece as the sum of a dialogue between Hera and Akut, a synthesis, a conclusion. And often this final thought is the first line of a new discussion, a new dialogue that will lead up to a new piece of art. That is how we have worked ever since we teamed up in 2004. Over the past years of collaborating, our palette has changed, of course, and we have learned to blend our different techniques, my sketchy lines and Akut ́s realism, ever smoother. It’s actually pretty funny that we do not even talk about the actual painting process. We only talk about the content. Our discussions take place in the world of reason and philosophy. What our hands actually do with our spray-paint is left up to them really. We just focus on telling a story. If the piece turns out pretty or not, is just a side-effect. The thoughts they carry are what we worry about. The messages are what we spend our days on.
To the San Francisco show we will be bringing characters that have fallen from grace. We took a look to the banned and exiled, the abandoned child that first cries of fear and then of rage, flocks of scapegoats, a choir of arch enemies, the outlawed, the out- numbered, the ones that know they are very last of their kind, the extinguished. When will we end up in their place?
Herakut is an artist duo made of Jasmin Siddiqui, born 1981 in Frankfurt, West Germany, and Falk Lehmann, born 1977 in Schmalkalden, East Germany. Their artistic style is as symbiotic as their name, which in itself is the symbiosis of the two individual graffiti synonyms Hera and Akut. A love for traveling and painting for the public eye are just a few of the things of the things Akut and Hera have in common. Their work, however, is based on bringing together contrasting elements: masculine vs. feminine, Eastern vs. Western, the roughness of Street Arts vs. the detail of Fine Arts.
Since 2004, Herakut has painted and exhibited in prestigious big cities like London, Berlin, New York and Paris, but have also spent a lot of valuable time painting the dirty sides of less glamorous cities such as Ekaterinburg, Russia or Campeche, Mexico. Both of Herakut ́s publications, The Perfect Merge published in 2009 and 2011’s After the Laughter have received great success, with the two books selling over 10,000 copies worldwide.
New Image Art is excited to present “High Five,” a group-show featuring six artists with six very distinctive styles and voices beloved by New Image Art. Alia Penner, Ashley Macomber, Curtis Kulig, Deanna Templeton, Maya Hayuk, and Vanessa Prager will be filling the gallery with new paintings on paper and canvas, as well as a photography installation.
While remaining anomalous, Ashley Macomber’s thought-provoking paintings pay homage to the female surrealist movement and offer a nod to the technical styling of René Magritte. In a similar acknowledgment to the feminine surrealist movement is work of self-taught painter Vanessa Prager. Prager’s highly saturated works give way to a false sense of reality; her study of the universe feels accurate. Her portrayal of human behavior scratches at life’s emotional ups and downs, and the contrast between the bursts of color in the foreground and stark backgrounds reflects this natural turmoil. Curtis Kulig, maybe better known for his moniker “Love Me;” seen freely scribbled in a calligraphic-style both as graffiti and over canvases of solid fields. Focusing on the beauty of the line and word his signature leads the viewer to ponder the implications of “Love Me.” Is it the artist’s own insecurity or is it our own? Either way the honesty of the simple phrase – the desire, makes us smile and wish! And on the topic of Love, the psychedelic and geometric paintings of Maya Hayuk when boiling the combined components of light and dark, punk, and folk, can be reduced to reveal their truth, which is none other than Love. In the artist Alia Penner‘s eyes, everything looks better covered in rainbows. Not girly, pastel rainbows, but brilliant acid hues that bring to mind Peter Max and Sonia Delaunay. (Extract from NY Times Magazine) Documentary, and internationally acclaimed photographer, Deanna Templeton will be installing her iconic photographic images in a network of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines that will read as a single unit.
C.A.V.E. Gallery is proud to present new works by:
BAYO – “Inside-Outside“
Bayo’s paintings depict visceral worlds, where the main character is the psyche as an axis of conflicts. His paint strokes signal a constant path where anxiety is inescapably contagious. Characters tend to avoid frontal sight, turning their eyes towards themselves and exposing their fragility. Dispirited forms allow us to prove that their author does not follow the statutes of reason. Each piece simultaneously depicts the rigor of obsessive details, the vagueness of repetition, and the sudden explosion of motion. All in an effort to express the architecture of his emotions, with a complexity that can never remain subtle.
HELLBENT – “A Quilted Life“
For his new series – “A Quilted Life”, Hellbent employs a variety of techniques that add a unique 3D quality to his work. He has developed a stencil technique that creates a kaleidoscope “quilt” of color in cubist patterns. The complex compositional puzzle of the background seems to push and pull behind bold imagery. Instead of a paint brush, Hellbent often uses a power drill to etch forms into wood panels. Always looking to expand his craft by exploring different techniques and mediums, Hellbent has also experimented with colored liquid glass – adding to the vibrant spectrum and resemblance of stained glass in his work. The complex color patterns are intricately layered, creating a dynamic and bold new collection.
HAUNTED EUTH – “All Gone Wrong“
“My new work is entirely autobiographical – calling upon, navigating and negotiating the complex relationships and experiences I struggled to balance last year. Themes of addiction, love, struggle, fear and anxiety are paramount in the work I produced for this show. This new body of illustrations is a open acknowledgment to the past and signifies a new, positive outlook on the future.”
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
