All posts tagged: CA

Barry McGee Mid-Career Retrospective at Berkeley Art Museum

August 28, 2012 , , ,

“Barry McGee” Opens at UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

After witnessing Mr. McGee working on his vast installation of the “Street Market” last year for the LA MoCA “Arts in the Streets” exhibit, we can imagine him working steadily and quietly, half meander and half engineer, on this retrospective of his prolific career so far.

He likes a certain colorful eye-popping clutter, in an ordered way that makes sense and envelops even as it unfolds. Words, signage, objects, color, patterns, characters, odes to freight riding and garbage sifting, finding gold in a dumpster – part of the DIY ethos and graphic designer’s hand that took hold among the many Street Artists who followed his 1990s San Francisco forays from graffiti.

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

“Throughout his career,” writes Alex Baker in the exhibition catalog, “Barry McGee has continued to surprise and contradict expectations.” Time passes, his tags and monikers cycled through, and this is now called “mid-career”, an exhibition of the timeline up until this splattered dot.  Bringing the street and the studio and the exhibitions under one large roof, the generous McGee gives us a huge attic of curiosities, a treasure-filled, salon-style, tag-burnished buffet.

We are happy to know that this exhibition will travel to ICA in Boston next spring. We will be there.

We want thank photographer Gareth Gooch for sending these exclusive images for BSA readers from his time spent with Barry as the artist worked throughout the museum galleries to install the show.

 ‘The huge dripping “SNITCH” tag on the exterior of the brutalist concrete Berkeley Art Museum exterior was my first sign that this was going to be a truly great exhibit. Among all the visual sensory stimulation, at our first introduction I was impressed with Barry’s attention to his guest. In the crunch of finalizing the installation to open in a few hours, Barry was calm and generous with his time allowing me to shoot without restrictions.

The beautiful concrete and glass galleries were filled with paintings, installations and collections of multiple works in such proliferation, I had to wonder if he ever slept! The scale of work from small ephemera collections to his signature large scale installations with life sized “taggers” and upended FONG TV delivery van and store fronts was awesome! His work is so unique and eclectic, I honestly felt I was in the presence of a modern master!” – Gareth Gooch

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee installation. (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

Barry McGee (photo © Gareth Gooch 2012)

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Barry McGee at BAM/PFA is organized by Director Lawrence Rinder, with Assistant Curator Dena Beard and will run through December 9, 2012. http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/

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Fun Friday 08.24.12

August 24, 2012

DUUUUUUUDE, it’s Fun Friday! We changed the sign today. Looks fresh right?

1. ICY & SOT “Made in Iran” (NYC)
2. Barry McGee at Berkeley (CA)
3. BORF Solo in Newcastle (UK)
4. “Klimpt Illustrated” at Lazarides (London)
5. Lush Does “Shitty Drawings in New York City”
6. Shepard Fairey Does “Americana” (LA)
7. Dabs & Myla: Artists Driven (VIDEO)
8. CYRCLE “Beautiful Disaster” (VIDEO)
9. ALL STYLES Dance Battle at Postmasters Gallery in NYC (VIDEO)

ICY & SOT “Made in Iran” (NYC)

Two Street Art brothers, Icy & Sot, born in Iran and encouraged by their parents to pursue their dreams and aspirations have ventured outside their country and landed in New York, their first foreign trip, their first international city, their first art show in which they were able to attend. “Made in Iran” is now open to the everybody at the Open House Gallery in Manhattan.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Barry McGee at Berkeley (CA)

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) mid-career survey of San Francisco based artist Barry McGee.  From the press release: “Using a visual vocabulary that borrows elements from comics, hobo art, sign painting, and other sources, McGee’s work addresses a range of issues, from individual survival and social malaise to alternative forms of community”. This exhibition is now open to the general public.

Junior, what up with the car? Barry McGee in Miami for Primary Flight 2009 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this exhibition click here.

BORF Solo in Newcastle (UK)

Detroit native BORF has traveled to England for his solo show “Walls Are Two-Sided” at The Outsiders Newcastle. With this new body of work, Borf illustrates the derelict aspect of Detroit and elevates the decay to art by zeroing in on a detail of the building’s peeling and corroding facade and transporting that vision on to the canvas. The result in the words of the press release is: “Rothko talked about wrestling with opposing and competing elements to eventually discover an equilibrium, what he called a pocket of silence” says BORF. “For this show I was fighting through layers of ambivalence and opposites: graffiti as youth expression and Rothko as adult expression; the art market and property rights; education and improvisation, youth and adulthood.” This show is now open.

Borf on the streets of Brooklyn C. 2007 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Klimpt Illustrated” at Lazarides (London)

Gustav Klimt the famous Austrian painter is turning 150 years old and The Vienna Tourist Board has teamed with The Lazarides Gallery in London to give Klimt street creed in the hopes that younger audiences will start following him on Twitter to gain knowledge on the secrets of his longevity and hopefully on his craft as well. To this effect curator Sydney Ogidan tapped nine international artists to take inspiration from some of the master’s most iconic masterpieces and create their own paintings. The opening reception for this show “Klimt Illustrated” is tonight at Lazarides Gallery in SOHO.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Lush Does “Shitty Drawings in New York City”

We thought we noticed a change in the air when the Australian storm called LUSH landed on these shores. Well here he is, likely to offend a few uptight prone-to-nose-bleeds stiffs and even more likely to amuse a lot more of us loose New Yorkers. LUSH has been madly working on a series of drawings/illustrations for his show “Shitty Drawings In New York City” opening Saturday night at the Klughaus Gallery in Manhattan. Half political cartoons/ half comic book with a blunt appreciation of the mechanics of the male and female reproductive organs, LUSH’s commentary on social, political and popular culture can be right on the spot. Dimwits need not apply.

LUSH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Shepard Fairey Does “Americana” (LA)

Shepard Fairey needs no introductions at this point in his career or this point in our dang blog. One can always be certain to find him busy at work and getting involved in as many projects as he can humanly fit in his schedule. Mr. Fairey is constantly looking for inspiration and finding it often in popular culture that is around and accessible to all of us. For his new show “Americana” opening tomorrow at the Perry Rubestein Gallery in Los Angeles the artist has created a new body of work inspired by the songs of the great artist-musician Neil Young.  Shepard has found material for his canvases in the songs of Mr. Young new album “Crazy Horse”.

Shepard Fairey in Miami for Wynwood Walls 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Dabs & Myla: Artists Driven (VIDEO)

CYRCLE “Beautiful Disaster” (VIDEO)

ALL STYLES Dance Battle at Postmasters Gallery in NYC (VIDEO)

You gotta give it up peoples! These are some of the best kids doing their thing right now. BSA Love to all of y’all.

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Perry Rubenstein Gallery Presents: Shepard Fairey “Americana” (Los Angeles, CA)

August 21, 2012 , , , , , ,

Shepard Fairey

AMERICANA
New Paintings by Shepard Fairey

RECEPTION: Saturday, August 25th
7pm – 10pm

Perry Rubenstein Gallery (LA) presents a special project by Shepard Fairey and Neil Young in celebration of the recent release of Young’s new album with Crazy Horse, “Americana,” which features reinterpreted classic, American, folk songs. Fairey has created eleven new paintings, each one inspired by the songs, such as Oh Susannah, This Land Is Your Land and Clementine. The new Shepard Fairey paintings will be on view to the public at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in Los Angeles starting August 25th. In addition, Shepard will have a limited quantity release of the Americana Print Edition Box Set at the opening on August 25th at Perry Rubenstein Gallery. The Box Set will include a collection of screen print versions of all the new paintings, more info and official release date on the prints to come shortly, so STAY TUNED!

The “Americana” project developed as a result of Shepard Fairey’s relationship with Neil Young and his long-time manager Elliot Roberts. Fairey created a portrait of Young for the artist’s May Day show in 2010, based on his view of the musician as a social commentator philosophically aligned with people like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Joe Strummer. Young and Roberts then asked Fairey to design the art, CD and DVD packaging for the 25th anniversary of Young’s Bridge School charity. Fairey states, “Neil really liked the art and I was thrilled he asked me to collaborate by making paintings inspired by the songs on his “Americana” album. I’m a huge fan of Neil’s music in general, but when I heard the album I realized how much the subject matter of several songs reflected the aspirations and tragedies of those pursuing the American dream tied into issues relevant to the 99% movement which I have been supporting.”

Fairey says he listened to the music and lyrics to come up with concepts for visual representations of the songs. Then for each song, Fairey presented Young with ideas about a visual image that would best capture the meaning and/or protagonist/s in each song. The artist enjoyed hearing how Neil interpreted aspects of the songs that moved him the most musically and lyrically. Fairey states, “I showed Neil sketches, and then we discussed the ideas and refined them. He was very open to my ideas and encouraged me to go with what inspired me the most. Latitude for interpretation is something that Neil utilizes and seems to value as an important way for the listener/viewer to personalize their interaction with art and music. I also was excited about this project because the concept of re-interpreting pre-existing songs filtered through Neil’s unique sensibility parallels what I have often tried to do as a visual artist by building upon iconic images that are an accessible part of the cultural dialogue.”

Each of the new Fairey paintings resonate powerful messages presented in the songs, some depicting a hopeful outlook on the pursuit of a better tomorrow, while others reflect the hardships that come in trying to achieve that dream. One painting related to Clementine, which captures the words of a mourning lover whose “darling,” the daughter of a California Gold Rush miner, drowned. Here she is represented by the levitating body of a young woman draped in white, with the text “And Gone.” Another painting is related to the 1848 minstrel song Oh Susannah that features a dungaree-wearing banjo player with the text “DON’T YOU CRY FOR ME.” Other works feature a wanted poster (Travel On); an iconic image of Queen Elizabeth embroidering an American flag (God Save the Queen); and, a lonely tree, stripped bare of its leaves, in a desolate landscape (Tom Dula).

For Young and Crazy Horse’s rendition of the famous 1940 Woody Guthrie song known to every school-aged child in America, This Land Is Your Land, written in response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, Fairey has depicted the hopeful face of a youth, set against a dramatic Western Landscape. Three rows of sharp, barbed wire cross the boy’s path with the text “NO TRESSPASSING / THIS LAND IS MY LAND.” The text is derived from a variant verse Guthrie added as a social commentary during a 1944 recording session. Fairey’s paintings are mixed media on canvas, including techniques such as stenciling, collage, and screen-printing. All of the paintings measure closely to the 30 x 44 inch dimension, which is one of Fairey’s standard choices of size. “Americana” is Neil Young with Crazy Horse’s first album together in nine years and is being released on June 5 on Reprise Records.

Perry Rubenstein Gallery
1215 N. Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038
T (310) 395-1001 / F (310) 395-1019
http://www.perryrubenstein.com

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Epic Lounge Presents: “Bumblebee Loves You” A Short Film By Handi (Downey, CA)

August 19, 2012 , , , , ,

Bumblebee

BULMBLEBEELOVES YOU

A film by HANDi

With new work by Bumblebee

Sunday, August 19, 6-9pm

Epic Lounge
8239 2nd Street
Downey, CA 90241

Reception: Sunday, August 19, 2012, 6pm (Screening wil commence at 7pm.)

Carmichael Gallery is pleased to announce a special screening of the new documentary short Bumblebeelovesyou, a visual profile of Los Angeles-based artist Bumblebee. Presented by The Downey Arts Coalition, Bumblebeelovesyou was produced by HANDi, a team of Downey-based filmmakers.

There will be a reception and screening at the Epic Lounge in Downey on Sunday, August 19, 2012, followed by a discussion on the documentary and the growing art scene in Downey. A series of new works by Bumblebee will also be on view.

About the artist:

Bumblebee’s work first came to life on the streets and abandoned buildings of Downey, a city located in southeast Los Angeles County. With a focus on themes of innocence, communication and coming of age, his stencil and sculptural works are most often rendered in the simple, but instantly identifiable color palette of yellow and black. Ongoing campaigns range from the remodeling of urban furniture such as abandoned phone kiosks and newspaper boxes to large-scale mural projects that address and work to raise awareness of issues such as youth homelessness.

Bumblebee has exhibited his work in group exhibitions at Carmichael Gallery, Mark Moore Gallery, Thinkspace Gallery (who also included him in their curated exhibitions at Together Gallery and London Miles Gallery), LeBasse Projects and the Portsmouth Museum of Art. Online and print media outlets in which he and his work have been featured include tasj magazine, Ekosystem, TEDxBloomington, The Downey Patriot, Unurth, SlamxHype, Arrested Motion, PSFK, The Dirt Floor, Vandalog, GOOD, Wooster Collective, My Modern Met, Sour Harvest, Daily du Jour and The Daily Portsmouth. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

About the filmmakers:

The person next to you has a story. If you could see the world through their eyes for a moment or two, your heart would open up just a little more. With each story we tell, we hope to highlight what makes us human and show that we can all relate to each other in some way. We want to erase the lines that divide us so we can see each other clearly.

HANDi is a team of filmmakers based in Downey, CA.

The name HANDi is synonymous with the prefix “handy” which is associated with a convenient and useful product. “Handy” also pertains to the hands and a handmade quality. Our philosophy is embedded in this single idea. Being handmade, we use whatever we can find on a shoestring budget and craft everything ourselves.

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ThinkSpace Gallery Presents: Dabs & Myla “Marvelous Expeditions” (Culver City, CA)

August 14, 2012 , , ,

Dabs & Myla

Thinkspace is pleased to present the highly anticipated Marvelous Expeditions by Dabs Myla and Friends. In the spirit of travel and all things wonderfully itinerant, acclaimed duo Dabs Myla will take over the gallery space and will feature new work and an installation alongside curated selections from 32 of their closest and most inspiring artist friends. The gallery will in effect become a locus of meeting and communal exchange, as artists from all over the world are brought together by Dabs Myla to share their experiences of traveling through its landscapes.

Dabs Myla’s meticulously executed work combines narrative illustration, photorealistic drawing, and architectural rendering with a playful bawdiness and irreverence. Cast frequently as themselves in their imagery and host of characters, the artist pair create worlds of contentious and playful encounters against the seductive chaos of the urbanscape. The city features prominently in their work as the stomping ground for their numerous adventures. When looking at their pieces one has the impression of aesthetic confluence and fluidity, of two minds toiling together as one. The viewing experience is the keen pleasure of looking into another world and enjoying a story, and just as it is with the unrelenting freneticism of the city, there is always a new discovery to punctuate every observation right around every corner – and we’d be remiss to exclude mention of the donuts and street meat.

As artists and urban enthusiasts Dabs Myla translate their experience of the world through a distinctly collaborative amalgamation of their styles and rendering strengths. Their work conveys a synchronicity of vision and aesthetic uncommonly allied and collusive. It is constituted by their shared love of travel, food, graffiti, illustration, and urbanity. Just as all productive chaos emerges from unlikely places, the momentum of travel fosters unexpected discoveries and collisions of worlds. Dabs and Myla, originally from Melbourne Australia and now currently based in LA, are no strangers to this productive geographic disruption, and this project seeks to celebrate the unexpected encounters and inspirations catalyzed by travel. They have invited each of their featured friends to produce a piece for the exhibition on a 16” x 20” wood panel, and with these set material parameters each artist will work their magic. The series is loosely meant to invoke exploration and travel, and each participating artist will metabolize their impressions of the theme differently through their respective styles, voices, and memories.

Marvelous Expeditions showcases the duo’s love of friends, collegiality, exchange, and the proliferation of vision and variety that thrives alongside constant movement and displacement. These are the exploratory impulses of travel that lead to constant revisions, reconstitutions, influences, and to the indelible encounters that change everything.

Featuring 16×20” works from: 123 Klan Aaron, De La Cruz, Askew, Augustine Kofie, Axis, Cat Cult, Dscreet, Dvate, EINE, Elliot Francis Stewart, Ephameron, Greg Lamarche, Honkey Kong (aka Adam Hathorn), Johnny ‘KMNDZ’ Rodriguez, KC Ortiz, KEM5, Logan Hicks, Luke Chueh, Mark Mulroney, Meggs, Misery, NEW2, Pose, Remi Rough, Revok, Rime, Stormie Mills, Tatiana Suarez, Tom Gerrard, Tristan Eaton, Witnes and The Yok.

Dabs Myla:

Melbourne natives Dabs and Myla are a dynamic duo who have lived, worked and soaked in the sun of Los Angeles since 2009. Dabs started painting graffiti in 1995, and began teaching Myla the ropes of writing about ten years later, after they met while studying illustration in art school and fell in love. Soon afterward, they decided they liked their collaborative pieces better than their individual work, and from that point on, they worked together exclusively, as Dabs Myla. Inspired by graffiti, food, travel and their wonderful chaotic life together as a couple, their paintings play Dabs’ mischievous and sometimes ribald characters off Myla’s photorealistic cityscapes. Since their move to California, they have never spent more than a few hours apart. They say, “I guess we are pretty lucky… two peas in a pod! Two crazy, workaholic, mad dorks in a pod! After years of living, painting walls and working together, we have only become closer, stronger and even more in sync. Every day we wake up, paint all day, and keep each other entertained with constant chatter and stupid jokes. Who could ask for more out of life?”

Reception with the artists:

Sat., September 1st 5-9PM

Thinkspace

6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232

T: 310.558.3375

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Fun Friday 08.10.12

August 10, 2012

Happy hot sticky Friday live from New York! Lots of cool stuff on the street and in the exhibition spaces this weekend – just bring a water bottle. Here are some of our picks for you on BSA.

1. Détournement, Carlo McCormick at Jonathan Levine (NYC)
2. Chris Stain and Joe Iurato at Mighty Tanaka (BKLN)
3. Peeta Solo at ArTicks (Amsterdam)
4. “You & Me” – Low Brow’s Second Group Show (BKLN)
5. Miss Van at Copro Gallery “Wild at Heart” (Santa Monica)
6. Part2Ism “New Horizons & Future Love Songs” at Red Gallery (London)
7. “Who’z Got Game!” ? at Sacred Gallery (NYC)
8. Numskull ,”Dance Like a Video, Sting Like a Gif” at Mishka (BKLN)
9. “Primeveal” group show Carmichael Gallery (LA)
10. Futura Live Painting  (Richmond, VA)
11. KFC Loves The Gays with John Goodman (Video)

 

Détournement, Carlo McCormick at Jonathan Levine (NYC)

Carlo McCormick, Paper Magazine Senior Editor and NYC cultural intuitor, is guest curator at the Jonathan Levine Gallery with a show titled “Détournement: Signs of the Times” Carlo has assembled an interesting list of artists to tell his story with the works of AIKO, Dan Witz, David Wojnarowicz, Dylan Egon, Eine, Ilona Granet, Jack Pierson, John Law (Jack Napier), Leo Fitzpatrick, Mark Flood, Martin Wong, Max Rippon (RIPO), Mike Osterhout, Posterboy, Ron English, Shepard Fairey + Jamie Reid, Steve Powers (ESPO), TrustoCorp, Will Boone and Zevs.

Mining a vein that has been here in front of us all the time, the composition of the selected works reveals a powerful undertone about how we engage and communicate with our artwork, and hi-jack the messaging of others. Says McCormick, “We do not need to follow these signs, we need to make our own so as to find a way out of the mess we are in.”

It’s also one of the few shows that seamlessly blends Street Art and non-street art practices without needing to draw a distinction for its own sake. This show is now open to the public.

Posterboy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Chris Stain and Joe Iurato at Mighty Tanaka (BKLN)

Tonight at Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO the inevitable pairing of Street Artists Chris Stain and Joe Iurato finally takes place. With a show titled “Deep in the Cut” these two stencil artists will bring the knives out for the love of art and the perfection of their craft. Style and mannerism distinguish the differences between these two, and Stain has been at it much longer with a lot of work on the street, but metaphor and empathy to the human condition is the overlap in these guys work. Grab the F train to DUMBO and come see what new common ground emerges from this combination.

Chris Stain. An old all time favorite on the streets of Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato for Fountain Art Fair 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Peeta Solo at ArTicks (Amsterdam)

Italian Graffiti and Fine Artist Peeta has been writing his tag on walls, trains and many other surfaces since 1993. Like a few of his generation who have been stretching graff style past it’s outer limits and morphing it with abstraction, his work has slowing gelled into it’s own distinctive style. He focuses his lettering and his tag by feeding it through Chinese and Islamic calligraphy as a departure from the traditional Latin and Greek lettering. A collaborator of New Yorks RWK collective, he resides in Venice and tonight opens his solo show in Amsterdam at the ArTicks Gallery.

Peeta in Brooklyn with fellow RWK Chris. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“You & Me” – Low Brow’s Second Group Show (BKLN)

The Low Brow Artique Gallery in Brooklyn has decided to enter the matchmaking business and Saturday their second show titled “You & Me” artfully combines the work of two at a time. While many of these artists have worked collaboratively on the street in the past, crossing freely between sanctioned and unsanctioned Street Art and graffiti, the results of merging their styles and techniques always creates new creatures with the combined DNA. Sometimes it’s a mutt, and sometimes it is purebred brilliance. Artistic couplings here include: Cash4 & Smells, Chris & Veng (RWK), EKG & Dark Clouds, Matt Siren & Fenix, OCMC & This Is Awkward, Royce Bannon & Russell King, and Veng & Sofia Maldonado.

Sofia Maldonado and Veng collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash4 and Smells collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smells and Cash4 on the streets of Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Miss Van at Copro Gallery “Wild at Heart” (Santa Monica)

Miss Van, the French Street Artist and fine artist has a new solo show “Wild at Heart” in Santa Monica, California this Saturday at the Copro Gallery and the ladies are again strutting their stuff across her rich canvasses. Painting since the age of 18 Miss Van has chosen her appearances carefully while being very active within the smaller pool of female Street Artists, maintaining a continous presence with her unique doll-characters, a rich color palette and plenty of erotica.

Miss Van was included in the now famous “Art in the Streets” exhibition on April 2011 at MoCA Los Angeles.. April 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

Part2Ism has a new solo show “New Horizons & Future Love Songs” at the Red Gallery in London, UK and it is now open to the general public. Click here for more details on this show.

Wanna know “Who’z Got Game!” ? Head over to the Sacred Gallery for this group exhibition opening today in Manhattan. Click here for more details on this show.

Numskull will “Dance Like a Video, Sting Like a Gif” at Mishka tonight in Brooklyn. Click here for more details on this show.

“Primeveal” a group exhibition including Emol, Stinkfish and Zio Ziegler opens tomorrow night at the Carmichael Gallery in Culver City, CA. Click here for more details on this show.

Futura will paint live in Richmond, Virginia this Saturday.

Screen Shot from Futura’s Hennessy NYC Video.

Master Graffiti Artist and fine artist Leonard “FUTURA” is touring the country to promote this project with a spirit maker and this Friday he will stop in Richmond, Virgina where he will paint live on a canvas inside the ABC Store located at 101 North Thompson Street. The live painting will commence at 2:00 pm.  It is a rare opportunity to catch Futura in action.

A recent ad featuring Futura for this campaign (not a sponsor)

KFC Loves The Gays with John Goodman

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Miss Van “Wild at Heart” At Copro Gallery (Santa Monica, CA)

August 7, 2012 , , , , ,

Miss Van

Miss Van. Studio Photograph by © Stefan Kocev

 

MISS VAN
“Wild at Heart”

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 11, 2012  8pm-11:30pm
On View: August 11 – September 1, 2012

Copro Gallery – Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave, Unit T5
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Tel: 310.829.2156
www.copronason.com

As part of its commitment to support art initiatives from around the world, Citizens of Humanity is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Miss Van’s Los Angeles exhibition “Wild at Heart” at Copro Gallery on Saturday, August 11, 2012.

Internationally known for her poupées, the French word for dolls, Miss Van’s dreamlike narratives are filled with spontaneity and lightness. Yet they also reveal a darker side that has evolved from her experience as an acclaimed graffiti artist.

Miss Van’s new series of paintings and drawings on paper and wood continues to combine her seductive and delicate muses with animals, adding a bestial element to her work. However, she introduces masks to her imagery, creating a trifecta of complexity, ambiguity and mystery.

Choosing to focus on details while isolating different body parts, such as eyes and mouth, Miss Van adds, “The masks allow me to show more feelings, other sides of a same character, hiding the face, partly or totally and embracing the animal strength, personality and attitude. I am illustrating the chemistry between the feminine delicacy and the bestial instinct, natural and raw and we all have this duality inside.”

To celebrate the opening of “Wild at Heart,” Citizens of Humanity will debut a new t-shirt collaboration with Miss Van, which will be given as a complimentary gift to guests at the reception. She will also be featured in the premiere issue of a new collectible print publication by Citizens of Humanity launching this August. Miss Van notes, “Thanks to Citizens of Humanity for its support, this show will definitely come out more complete and powerful than before.”

The opening reception for “Wild at Heart,” takes place Saturday, August 11 at Copro Gallery from 8pm-11:30pm, and is open to the public. The exhibition will be on view through September 1, 2012.

Miss Van
Miss Van started wall painting in the streets at the age of 18, initiating the feminine movement in street art. Her sultry female characters began to pop up on city center walls in the mid 1990s and they instantly possessed a timeless quality, as if women had always painted such graffiti in the streets. The more she moved into gallery work and could work with the nuances of more fragile media than the streets would allow, her characters grew more sensitive, subtle, and delicately rendered. She is now exhibiting all around the world from New York to Los Angeles, Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, etc.), and Asia. She has shown in art centers and museums such as the city gallery of Schwaz in Austria (curator: Karin Perrnegger), the Baltic Art Center in the UK and the Von der Heydt Museum, Kunsthalle in Wuppertal, Germany. Miss Van was featured in MoCA’s 2011 exhibition “Art in the Streets,” and she has shown with some of the greatest artists such as Os Gemeos, Mike Giant, Banksy, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Ryan McGinness, Takashi Murakami, Ed Templeton, and many others. For more information about the artist, please visit www.missvan.com.

 

 

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Carmichael Gallery Presents: “Primeval” A Group Exhibition. (Culver City, LA)

August 7, 2012 , , , , ,

Primeval

 

Primeval

Emol, Stinkfish, Zio Ziegler

Opening reception

Saturday, August 11, 6-9pm

Carmichael Gallery
5797 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

Please RSVP to rsvp at carmichaelgallery dot com

Exhibition open to the public August 11 – September 1, 2012

Carmichael Gallery is pleased to present Primeval, a group exhibition featuring works by Emol, Stinkfish and Zio Ziegler. The exhibition will be on view from August 11 to September 1, 2012. Zio Ziegler will be in attendance at the opening reception on Saturday, August 11 from 6-9pm.

Cities and their streets put the three artists in daily contact with the urban elements that in turn influence their work. Be it architecture and propaganda for Emol, the texture of old walls for Stinkfish, or the color of pavement after a rainy afternoon for Zio, inspiration for these artists is inextricably drawn from the outdoor environments they encounter in their respective cities. Their individual mastery of line, sources of form, and choice of color share a compassion for and understanding of history and humanity. Such honest and considered motives translate into works that are powerfully evocative and, though indigenous, universally approachable.

Emol finds the connection between art, artist and city crucial to his practice. He believes that to paint outside is the best way to grasp what is happening at the moment and to know how one’s art affects communities. Emol considers his work an embodiment of antenna to roots, capturing that which is current, but with a strong link to the past and ancestry. He achieves this largely through his color choices, which symbolize Brazil’s wealth of distinct cultures. Through traveling the various regions of his home country and closely observing their different traditions, Emol combines the tropical colors he encounters, each offering a different vibration, with lines and forms to infuse sensorial joy into urban landscapes.

Stinkfish is equally indebted to the street, having spent his childhood playing soccer and going for bike rides around his neighborhood. He is drawn to bringing his work to as many people as possible, favoring busy crossroads and streets as locations for his murals. The texture of highly trafficked, decrepit areas gives Stinkfish the feeling that he is continuing the history of a wall, mixing his story into a larger narrative of crumbling paint, grit and wear. Stinkfish also remembers having an affection when he was young for the cameras his father would buy and sell, spending hours “playing” with them, discovering their mechanisms and teaching himself techniques of framing and focusing that would become essential to his art form. His transposition of photo to mural enhances the fleeting moments of human nature he captured with his camera, leaving the final interpretation up to the public.

Zio too finds that the balance of working publicly and privately assists his entire creative process in a symbiotic way. The open source template of the streets serves as a constant reminder to him of the democratic yet organic nature of art. Though influenced by classical philosophy, literature and art, Zio constantly reminds himself of the paradigm shift towards the digital age. To be aware of this ephemeral state of painting assists the visceral encouragement of instinct in the studio. And so, with the balance of both studio and street, instinct and patience, comes Zio’s paintings.

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Fun Friday 08.03.12

August 3, 2012 , , ,

Yo what’s up Neeeewwwww Yawwwwk! You mean aside from brand new work on the streets this week in NYC from Faith 47, DAL, ROA, and JR? Oh, nothing really, just a normal boring summer. Street fairs, skateboarding, popsicles, public drunkeness, and I think the Olympics are still running but apparently only Michael Phelps is in them this year according to the TV. Also, something about VISA I think. Anyway, here are some fun activities for your weekend!

1. OS Gemeos Solo at ICA Boston
2. Fairey / Hecox / Houser at Black Book (Denver, CO)
3. “Public Works” at LALA Gallery (LA)
4. Faring Purth at Anno Domini (San Jose, CA)
5. Brett Amory and Adam Caldwell “Dirty Laundry” at ThinkSpace (LA)
6. “Cause and Effect” Group Show (BK)
7. “Eye in the Sky” Group Show @ Stolen Space (London)
8. Summer Exhibition at Joshua Liner Gallery (Manhattan)
9. Snyder’s ART HUNT in Carlsbad, CA
10. “Dead Meat” Conor Harrington By The Baron (VIDEO)
11. Does Anyone Care About the Olympics (VIDEO)

OS Gemeos Solo at ICA Boston

The first USA solo exhibition of Os Gemeos enjoys it’s first opening weekend at ICA Boston and you can see the first piece before you even enter the museum because they have just completed a large outdoor piece on a ventilation building over the Big Dig. The Brazilian Twins began their artistic career since 1987 doing graffiti and and have been painting all manner of imaginative pieces and murals non-stop on the streets of the world ever since. Along the way they have garnered the respect of their peers and thousands of art fans across all continents.

Os Gemeos mural in progress in the Green Way in Boston (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

For further information regarding this exhibition click here.

Fairey / Hecox / Houser at Black Book (Denver, CO)

The Black Book Gallery in Denver, Colorado new Group Show includes Shepard Fairey, Even Hecox and Jim Houser and it opens today. The gallery is also organizing mural installations at the Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Shepard Fairey in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Public Works” at LALA Gallery (LA)

“Public Works” is the title of the second show that is opening today at the still smelling-like-new LALA Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Contributing artists include How & Nosm, Insa, Push, Revok, Risk, Ron English, Seen, Shepard Fairey, Trustocorp, WCA Crew, Uglar, and Zes.

How & Nosm in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Faring Purth at Anno Domini (San Jose, CA)

Portraitist Faring Purth spent a year or so traveling from city to city last year finding abandoned places to mount giant faces, full of character. “I will be sharing a body of work I’ve been preparing since my return from that insane journey last year and I will be taking over their entire space with pieces scaling from 10′ x 12′ to 3 “x 5”.

“This Snow Rising” opens at the Anno Domini Gallery San Jose today.

Faring Purth in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Brett Amory and Adam Caldwell “Dirty Laundry” at ThinkSpace (LA)

“Amory and Caldwell each mobilize their unique representational strategies to invoke the modern day disconnect between time and space, self and other, and present and past,” which is exactly what I was gonna say.

“Dirty Laundry” features very cool work by Artists Brett Amory and Adam Caldwell’s opening Saturday at the ThinkSpace Gallery in Culver City, CA. Feel free to show up and air some of your own.

Brett Amory at the Studio (Photo courtesy of ThinkSpace © Shaun Roberts)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

“Cause and Effect”, a group show curated by URNew York and Tone MST at a Greenpoint Pop Up in Brooklyn is now open to the general public. Click here for more details on this show.

In London at the Stolen Space Gallery the ATG Collective project “Eye in the Sky” is now open to the general public. Click here for more details on this show.

In Manhattan the Summer Exhibition at the Joshua Liner Gallery is now open to the general public. Click here for more details on this show.

Snyder has a solo show and a fun ART HUNT in Carlsbad, CA opening on Saturday. This event is all day or until supplies last. Click here for more details on this event.

“Dead Meat” Conor Harrington By The Baron (VIDEO)

 Does Anyone Care About the Olympics? (VIDEO)

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ThinkSpace Gallery Presents: Brett Amory & Adam Caldwell “Dirty Laundry” (Culver City, CA)

July 25, 2012 , , , , ,

Thinkspace Gallery

Brett Amory in the Studio (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

Thinkspace is pleased to present Dirty Laundry, an exhibition of new work by painters Brett Amory and Adam Caldwell. Amory and Caldwell each mobilize their unique representational strategies to invoke the modern day disconnect between time and space, self and other, and present and past. Amory’s atmospheric preoccupation with memory, the moment, and nostalgia, is dynamically in contrast to Caldwell’s abrupt composites and recombinations of imagery, from sources spanning mass media to antiquity. Both artists approach their medium as a means of problematizing temporal identity, and the social experience, by exposing the nitty gritty polarities and paradigm shifts of an increasingly fractured reality of the self.

Reception with the artists:

Sat., August 4th 5-9PM

Thinkspace

6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232

T: 310.558.3375

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Anno Domini Gallery Presents: Faring Purth “This Snow Rising” (San Jose, CA)

July 25, 2012 , , , , ,

Faring Purth

Faring Purth in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This Snow Rising”
opens on August 3rd, at Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, CA. I feel so
fortunate to be working with these incredible people. They are
rarities to say the least and a perfect match for the starry eyes &
working hands you’ve continued to support. I will be sharing a body of
work I’ve been preparing since my return from that insane journey last
year & will be taking over their entire space with pieces scaling from
10x12ft to 3x5in. As many of you know, I have plans to hit the road
again shortly after & it will most likely be some time before I find
my wandering feet in a gallery setting again. I would so love to see
as many of your beautiful faces as I possibly can! Please come …
Give me a hug, share adventure stories, & see the work your inspiring
lives have helped create. All my love.

This Snow Rising
Opens August 3rd, 7-11pm.
Anno Domini Gallery
366 S 1st Street
San Jose, California 95113

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