Gallery

Signal Gallery Presents: TRXTR “Pretty Lethal” (London, UK)

February 22, 2012 , , , , ,

TRXTR

 

Trxtr solo show – ‘Pretty Lethal’.

Date: 1st Mar – 24th Mar 12

The artist known as Trxtr has been building himself a very strong reputation on the Urban Art scene over the past five years, the evidence for this success being some recent notable auction results. He has shown his work in around the Bristol area and also in group shows in London and Los Angeles. This will be his first solo show in London

Trxtr believes that in using a wide variety of techniques, he can create the effect of spontaneity and freedom that he is aiming for. His own (incomplete) list of techniques used ‘Chemical, digital and Polaroid photography, high resolution scans, large format archival printing, collage, painting, drawing’ says a lot about where he is coming from. This is not an artist who is wedded to any particular medium, but for him a rather more Machiavellian ‘ends justifies the means’ approach is favoured. He sees purist attitudes to techniques and mediums as ‘Ludditism’.

The work Trxtr has produced for the ‘Pretty Lethal’ show at Signal is the culmination of this period of experimentation and creative self-discovery. The works will show us as an eclectic mix of atmospheres and emotions, as the techniques he uses to produce them. Their overall effect is disturbing and alluring in equal measure. Concerns about exploitation, globalization and corruption appear over and over again, but the tone is ambivalent. He is not preaching to us, but reproducing some of the sickly sweet images of commercialism in a way that it is genuinely hard to tell if he is celebrating them or railing against them. This interesting and unsettling approach has something of effect of Jeff Koons work.

The works Trxtr has produced for the ‘Pretty Lethal’ will make a very strong introduction to his work for London audiences. Like Koons, we may find that audiences are split, between those who can and those who can’t see beyond the surface seductiveness of the work.

 

Signal Gallery, 32 Paul Street, London EC2A 4LB
Opening Times: Tues-Sat 12-6 pm, and by appointment.

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Fifty24sf Gallery Presents: Saner new works (San Francisco, CA)

February 22, 2012 , , , , ,

SANER

 

We are excited to welcome Mexico City based fine artist and muralist, SANER, to our FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco this March 16, 2012. The artist will be showcasing a new series of works with his first solo exhibition ever in San Francisco. After making waves in Los Angeles and Art Basel in 2011, and showing at our sister gallery, FIFTY24MX in Mexico City, this is our first time working with Saner in the States.

FIFTY24SF GALLERY
218 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA
94117-3504
(415) 861-1960
GALLERY@FIFTY24SF.COM

HOURS:
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY: 12-6

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Troy Lovegates. The King and the Artist.

February 20, 2012 ,

Ask a room full of artists living here in New York if anyone every feels like a chump for making soul-sucking mediocre commercial work just to pay the jacked up rent. Hands will fill the air like ‘Amen’s at the Brooklyn Tabernacle at a Sunday morning sermon. Compound the cost of live/work space with the fact that, if you were lucky enough to get an education, your student loans debts are like a massive cinderblock around your neck. Many of today’s artists are expecting to labor long hours doing commercial or corporate art for years, often now without benefits or security – leaving them with ever-less time and energy to build a career, let alone a body of artistic work.

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist Troy Lovegates is colorfully skewering the King in this County of Kings with his new surreally comedic metaphor called “The King and the Artist”, painted directly on the wall at the Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn.  Like days of olde when the Church and Royalty held the purse for most creative expression, the 99% is waking up these days to the unholy marriages that wield growing influence over the entire cultural and institutional landscape, including areas of creative expression. With “The King”, Lovegates depicts a well equipped megaspender imperiously dictating what will be art and claiming it as his own with his platinum sword waving wildly while the barefoot creator, a mind bubbling with a multitude of other ideas, tries to fend himself with tools laughably inadequate.

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s a tug of war that is historical and contemporary of course – from faux communist capitalists to gold encrusted power families to religious gangs gilded in sanctity, artists have always procured the propaganda and painted a world view according to someone else’s vision. With signs ever more obvious around us, Mr. Lovegates informs us here that the game is still the same and some young artists are painfully aware of the rigged class system they’re working within.  Hopefully someone will buy it.

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates. No he doesn’t paint with his eyes closed. He closes his right eye when he paints details and when he is drunk. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Ocean Size”, a group show, is currently on view at the Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery. Click here for further information.

 

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Cake Studio Visit : Inside Out

February 16, 2012 , , , , , , , ,

The Street Artist Readies for Her Show “Inside Out” with Don Pablo Pedro

Inside out. The words capture the dynamic of an artists journey to the canvas – and the Street Artists trip to the wall. Cake, her street name, has been hitting New York streets for five years with some of her innermost dialogues; stories of love, loss, addiction, emotional turmoil. The act of painting, cutting, and wheat pasting her figurative work on decayed and battered walls bears witness to the story. The thought of what can happen to it frightens and thrills her, an experience she has referred to as therapy.

“Because it’s relinquishing control, which I have huge problem with doing in my life, so that helps me,” she explains while glancing out at the Brooklyn street below the window of her warm studio in a former factory on a recent winter day. “You put it there and then you leave it. Someone can go over it, or destroy it the next day, you know? That – I mean that would kill me when that happened. I mean I hate when that happens but it helps me – it makes it so that everything is not so precious.”

 

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s all part of the game for Street Artists. You know it’s temporary but it still feels entirely necessary. The new work by Cake for her show at Brooklyn’s Mighty Tanaka this month is not far from the exposed portraits she has pasted on the street – layered and flat, stiffly lifelike, healthy and gaunt, painfully…pretty.

“These are all of my friend Emily mostly. Usually I take pictures of the models myself, because I know what I want. Instead of that, since she’s kind of an actress and an artist too, I told her to pose herself and to take the pictures herself so she wouldn’t be inhibited by my presence. And so she did… and the pictures turned out f*cking amazing.”

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When you see the pretty torment of a Cake wheat-paste on a brick wall low to the sidewalk, the exposed raw uncomfortable nature of the portrait surrounded by graffiti tags, it can be an oasis from falseness, and a mystery. Like the 4, 5, 6 layers of paint she uses to build the canvas, these figures have more drama stirring than is obvious on the surface. Each painting is almost an unconscious act she says, and with the help of talking with others, she gradually peels back the layers of meaning, becoming conscious. One thing is evident; She’s lived this, and she’ll tell you about it when she’s ready.

BSA: When do you realize the underlying stories in your work?
Cake: Usually by talking about it, or from someone else.
BSA: So sometimes with the aid of another person
Cake: No, like a LOT of the times. Because it helps me when other people see things that I can’t see because I’m too close to it.

She explains how she coached her friend to model for the pieces. “I basically told her to think of these dramatic words, like ‘agony’. Like f*cking rip yourself apart and feel that, you know? Like I wanted to see how you look when you are experiencing that kind of reaction to life.”

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Her intensity when describing this tells you that pain is not abstract. Ironically, that is exactly how she painted before becoming a Street Artist.

“I was an abstract painter for like 13 years, in Pratt and in Parsons. I didn’t do this figurative work or Street Art. But the second I got out of Parsons in 2007 I was doing it. Because I was an abstract painter for so long… paint is like my – like I can really do f*cking sh*t with paint, just because I’m always doing it – Working with the material.

BSA: You have a deep love and regard for it.
Cake: The paint? Yeah I’ve always been like that. I’m such a f*ckin formalist that way. I’m really obsessed with the material.

BSA: So you are a trained fine artist?
Cake: Yeah, well my grandmother taught me how to paint when I was nine, because she was a fine artist. So I was always doing it.

BSA: There are many fine artists on the street now.
Cake: Yeah, that’s good, I like that.

BSA: Yeah it’s like it has changed the whole nature of Street Art.
Cake: What do you mean?
BSA: Previously in graffiti, and when it kind of morphed into what we call street art, there weren’t many art majors, or graduates, or art school kids, or whatever you want to call them.

 

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake: Yeah, Street Artists are art-school kids, right?
BSA: Now there are many, yes. The disciplines are many, the techniques. It’s not limited to say, aerosol art, or stickers or massed produced wheat pastes. It seems like the second half of the 2000s there started to appear more one-offs, more highly individual pieces…

Cake: Well I think that’s because there are just so many out there you really have to work harder to make something beautiful. I mean I do it for beauty. I don’t have any political stances or anything like that. Like I don’t give a sh*t about that. I probably should though, huh?
BSA: I don’t know why you should.
Cake: I don’t know. I mean you should be higher quality, that’s for sure. I don’t know. I think everything should be high quality though, like workwise.

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So this one is like “The Virgin Mother with Child in Outer Space”
Cake: (laughs) Oh I got this from this picture in Metro over the summer. I’ve never done this before, but I saw this picture. The thing is, do you see this? – the mother’s face, like she’s not panicking. She’s very peaceful and calm, and somehow she’s okay but she’s holding her like dying f*cking baby. I don’t know …it like hit me really hard so I just painted it. But it took me a long time. I started this picture in the summer and then I stopped working on it. And then I was able to finish it with this series. And I usually don’t take so long, I can finish a painting in a f*cking week.

Cake. Her inspiration for the painting above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: What stopped you?
Cake: I don’t know. I didn’t know where to put them. Then I placed them in the night sky. I was looking at all these Renaissance portraits too for this show and there were like f*cking UFOs inside of them. Did you know that?

BSA: No!
Cake: Yeah! In some Renaissance paintings you’ll see a UFO. I’m not kidding you, and it’s totally weird.

BSA: Is it like an aura, an aurora borealis?
Cake: No it’s clearly like a UFO. And in some of them there is a person in them. It’s really bizarre. It’s kind of hokey but I don’t know. It’s like this; everyone is always in wonder “the universe is so big, what does it matter?”. But look at this. This matters. Oh my God I just figured this out. That’s good.

Cake. The first layer of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inspiration in Cake’s studio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Portrait of the artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake and Don Pablo Pedro show “Inside Out” opens Friday February 17, 2012 at the Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO. Click here for further information regarding this show.

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Black Rat Projects Present: “Invisible Cities” Swoon, Banksy and Sheparad Fairey (London, UK)

February 15, 2012 , , , , ,

Invisible Cities

Our first show of the year will open on Friday 24rd February. Invisible Cities features secondary market works by Banksy and Shepard Fairey alongside works by Swoon. This diverse group of artists are eponymous with the current Street Art movement in their retrospective cities.  While these three artists work in very different styles addressing a range of different themes and concerns, what unites them is their creation of Invisible Cities; laid out over the pre-existing landscape in unexpected places – in these we find moments of unrestricted creativity and human connection. We will be holding a preview evening for Invisible Cities on Thursday 23rd February from 6.30pm – 9pm.

the black rat projects
through cargo garden
arch 461, 83 rivington street
London EC2A 3AY

tel: +44 (0)207 613 7200
fax: +44 (0)207 739 6304

info@blackrat.com

Opening Hours – Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri 10-6 Sat 10-4

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Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery Presents: “Ocean Size” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)

February 15, 2012 , , , , ,

Ocean Size

Troy Lovegates (image courtesy of the gallery)

Kunsthalle Galapagos presents:

Ocean Size

February 18 – March 4th 2012

Opening Reception: Saturday Feb. 18, 2012 6-9pm

Image: David Enters Adulthood by Jebediah Long, 2012

Tony Ingrisano, Sylvia Jeffriess, Jebediah Long, Troy Lovegates,

James Moore, Fumi Nakamura

Kunsthalle Galapagos is pleased to present Ocean Size, a group
exhibition of six artists who question our perceptions of reality.
Their works coax us to join them in fantastical worlds of bold colors,
precise lines, and mutated patterns. Distorted characters and
fragments morph and fray into an ordered chaos. Disjointed narratives,
found memories and alter-egos situate us, then shift our perceptions
of our own state of being. The work compels us to reach beyond our
own comprehension to something bigger than ourselves, something “ocean
size”.

Along with the exhibition, Kunsthalle Galapagos presents a new limited
print edition by Troy Lovegates,

published by Marginal Editions.

Ocean Size is curated by Julie McKim, Erik Hougen, Albert Shelton, Gracie Kazer

Kunsthalle Galapagos

16 Main St.

DUMBO

Brooklyn, NY

www.kunsthallegalapagos.com

Gallery Hours: Thurs – Sun 1-6pm

F train to York St

A/C train to High St

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Dorothy Circus Gallery Presents: Mr. Klevra “Animal Landing” (Rome, Italy)

February 14, 2012 , , , , ,

Mr. Klevra

DOROTHY CIRCUS GALLERY 

Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 3:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11:30 am – 7:30 pm
Via dei Pettinari, 76 00186 Roma • ph: +39 06 68805928 – +39 338 9499432
Dal 18 febbraio al 7 Aprile 2012
From February 18th till April 7th 2012

Il capodoglio, il cane, l’orso, l’ara e altri animali “lunari” sono rappresentati in 7 tavole e una scultura che Mr. Klevra presenta in questa mostra. L’artista “veste” gli animali come veri astronauti, li correda di cose che li rappresenta. Il bestiario approda sulla luna dove tutto è cupo e buio, e gli animali con i loro colori, suoni e comportamenti renderanno questo pianeta pieno di vita, cosa che l’uomo ancora non è riuscito a fare. Non è un‘arca di Noè, ma singoli e solitari animali che partono per conoscere, dare vita, dove non vita non c’è, lontano da un mondo che odiano. E’ una partenza forse senza ritorno (come la povera Laika). Animali dentro tute spaziali di ogni epoca, come fossero veri e propri pionieri spaziali. Si tratta della preparazione non per un viaggio spaziale, ma per un viaggio in un mondo molto più remoto, quell’aldilà che tanto ha affascinato e tuttora affascina l’ansia di mistero dell’uomo moderno. Ma c è anche un altro aspetto: come appare agli animali il mondo da lontano? Ammirare la Terra dal di fuori è uno spettacolo affascinante, esserne gli abitanti un po meno. E che dire della sensazione completamente nuova di chi si trova improvvisamente a galleggiare senza peso? È un’emozione diversa da tutto quanto si può provare sulla Terra, che lascia un’impronta indelebile nella memoria: un’esperienza che sembra allargare la sfera dei sensi, introducendo una nuova dimensione, una diversa percezione del proprio corpo. Anche quando si torna ‘con i piedi per terra’ alla fine di una missione, nella mente rimane incancellabile il ricordo esatto di quella sensazione e qualche volta, durante il sonno, si sogna di volare senza peso, come quando si è in orbita.
Gli animali vengono scelti per le proprie caratteristiche, o meglio, per quello che all’uomo rappresentano: il cane e la sua fedeltà, il gatto per la sua elegante riservatezza, l’orso per il suo isolamento, la balena per la sua capacità di autonomia, l’ara che con i suoi colori rallegra il mondo, il cerbiatto per la sua eleganza nei movimenti, il primate che segna le nostre origini, il boa smeraldino che non uccide ma che sa solo mimetizzarsi. Che la missione della space crew sia quella di partire e non tornare più in dietro?

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New Image Art Gallery Presents: Anthony Lister. A Body Of New Work. (Los Angeles, CA)

February 13, 2012 , , , , ,

Anthony Lister

 

ANTHONY LISTER

OPENING RECEPTION

THURSDAY

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

6PM – 9PM

 

Opening Thursday, February 23, 2012, with a body of new work, New Image Art is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by returning artist Anthony Lister. Lister’s work takes influence from street art, expressionism, and pop art. Taking inspiration from his immediate surroundings he paints the parodies of modern life. His distinctive style is a visible tension between figuration and abstraction executed with bold confidence.

For his new exhibition Lister has created a montage of figurative renderings with special focus on the central theme of the beautiful and sometimes twisted form of the dancing ballerina. Along with a special print release and new series of sculptures, this new body of work promises to wow the viewer in its technical skill and refinement derived from sketching a live model. The opening reception will also feature a live dance performance as well as a hanging installation.

Born in Brisbane, Australia in 1979, Lister is a renowned painter and installation artist with an international profile. Lister graduated from Queensland College of Art in 2001, shortly after, he went to New York and worked under the mentorship of New Zealand painter Max Gimblett in 2002 and was the recipient of the 2004 Education Queensland Minister’s Art Awards, with a further mentoring workshop residency at Blender Studio, Melbourne. A selection of Lister’s work was the focus of the monograph, Twice on Sundays, published by Fox Galleries (Brisbane, AU) in 2005. Recently, he undertook a research residency in Berlin, and his travels have extended him to take part in an impressive list of sell-out solo and group exhibitions around the world. Lister’s work has been acquired by the National Gallery, featured in Juxtapoz magazine, and he was a finalist in the 2007 ABN Amro Award. In 2010 Lister was named one of the top 50 collectable artists in Australia by Australian Art Collector. He has held solo exhibitions throughout the US, Europe and Britain, straddling the boundaries of street art and the gallery world. His work has been featured in numerous publications including Forthcoming title, Wooster Collective, Taschen and Beyond the Street, 100 Leading Figures in Street Art, Gestalten.

New Image Art

7920 Santa Monica Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90046

323.654.2192

www.newimageartgallery.com

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A-Gallery Presents: “Art Happening” A Group Show (Goteborg, Sweden)

February 13, 2012 , , , ,

Art Happening

 

Welcome to “ART HAPPENING” at A-Gallery
Thursday, February 16 at 17-21.
It will be a fantastic evening with wonderful art;
nice mingling and wine tasting with champagne
and Italian wines from the French company.

REBECCA LUNDH: abstract painting
LIU BOLIN: photography, “hiding in the city“
SHAI DAHAN: urban art
JÖRG DÖRING: contemporary pop art
JOHNNY BOY ERICSSON: urban art
VINCENT EDMOND LOUIS: photography, portraits
Jan Jörnmark: photography, urban art

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Klughause Gallery Presents: “Snowblind” A Group Show (Manhattan, NY)

February 13, 2012 , , , , ,

Snowblind

Carnage & Making Deals Zine Present:
SNOWBLIND + Carnage Zine Release featuring New Yorkʼs ATM Crew at Klughaus Gallery, NYC

Opening Reception: Friday, February 17th, 2012 from 6-10pm Show Runs Through Sunday, March 3rd, 2012

With SNOWBLIND, Klughaus Gallery, in conjunction with Carnage and Making Deals Zine, is proud to present a group of artists who have captured the gritty pleasures of the winter season.

Photographs from renowned urban documentarian Martha Cooper and Carnage zine creator Ray Mock show slush, sludge, and frozen faces contrasted with empty, peaceful city streets and the blinding white of last nightʼs snowfall. The show also features clever, snow-inspired artwork and photography from Jesse Edwards, Mike P, Alexander Richter, Michael Fales, Oscar Arriola, Graham Shimberg and Bob Barry.

The showʼs opening reception will mark the launch of issue #2 of Carnage, a limited edition zine featuring the prolific and highly distinctive work of New York Cityʼs ATM Crew.

Klughaus Gallery exhibits a variety of contemporary art. The gallery works primarily with artists that have roots in graffiti and street culture and seeks to develop itself as a leader in fostering urban art appreciation within the local (Chinatown/LES) community.

Klughaus Gallery is located at 47 Monroe Street, New York, NY 10002. Gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 1-7pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 12-6pm. For more information, please email info@klughaus.net or call (646) 801-6024.

www.klughaus.net www.carnagenyc.tumblr.com www.makingdealszine.tumblr.com

Sponsored by www.snowbeverages.com
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SNOWBLIND Artist Information

Martha Cooper is a documentary photographer who has specialized in shooting urban vernacular art and architecture for over thirty years. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and published extensively in magazines from National Geographic to Vibe. Some of her publications include Subway Art, New York State of Mind, Going Postal, and most recently, Tokyo Tattoo 1970.

Ray Mockʼs mission as a photographer is to capture the uncooptable core of city culture and make ugly look pretty. His work has been featured in books, in magazines and on countless websites. He publishes Carnage and likes to hang around trains.

Jesse Edwards is a Seattle based artist who focuses on oil paintings ranging from classic landscapes to more unconventional still-lifes. In addition to his paintings of guns, marijuana plants and graffiti tools, he is known for his pixilated nudes as well as his quality work with ceramics. He has studied at the Cornish School of the Arts and Gage Academy and has exhibited his work throughout the United States in many prominent galleries and museums including Seattleʼs Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA), Woodside/Braseth Gallery, BLVD Gallery, Deitch Projects, The Hole NYC, and The Museum of Sex. Edwards has also been featured in many prestigious publications including the New York Times, Seattle Times, Vice Magazine, Seattle PI, and City Arts Magazine.

Mike P is a New York City based artist who works in a wide range of mediums focusing on painting and illustration. His art can be found in one form or another in many of the places that he has traveled around the world.

Alexander Richter is an NYC based commercial photographer specializing in portraits for editorial, advertising and the music industries. When he is not making pictures, he can be found with his wife in Maine drinking fresh squeezed lemonade and eating lobster rolls.

Michael Fales can be found photographing the streets as the city comes alive in the morning, or exploring itʼs tucked-away nooks. His photos have appeared on numerous websites, books, and exhibitions. He currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and two cats.

Graham Shimberg is a photographer, track-walker, freight-nerd, and bindle-stiff.
Bob Barry documents graffiti amidst the paranoia and the Disney-fication of a post-9/11 New York.

Oscar Arriola is a Chicago-based photographer who has enjoyed documenting graffiti, city life, tuxedo cats, rogue cops, and artists since the mid-80’s. His photography has been featured in the recent Chicago Street Art book.

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