Raju

Meet the hackers who founded Anonymous

2011-03-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

The website 4chan used to be little more than a digital hangout where teens could share rude pictures and inside jokes, but it evolved into the launchpad for Anonymous, a hacking collective that achieved notoriety for crashing MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal's websites in retaliation for the companies' refusal to provide financial services to Wikileaks. The group's ringleaders style themselves as digital freedom-fighters, and insist that law enforcement officials will never be able to catch them or end their guerrilla activism.

More here

50 Things You Didn’t Know About Jackson Pollock

2011-02-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

1. When the German-born American painter Hans Hofmann invited Pollock to study with him and work more from nature, Pollock replied: “I am nature.”

2. For a time, Pollock sprayed paint onto the canvas through a syringe.

3. In the summer of 1938, Pollock had a nervous breakdown, which left him in a psychiatric care unit for a few months.

4. While living in Los Angeles, Pollock’s eldest brother, Charles, kept the rest of the family informed with what was happening in the art world by regularly sending home issues of The Dial and American Mercury.

5. Some people would buy Pollock drinks at the bar just to see what kind of bizarre antics he would get up to when drunk.

6. In January 1951, Art News published a list of the best exhibitions of 1950. The top three shows belonged to Pollock.

7. After Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, moved into their Long Island home, Pollock spent the entire winter fixing up the house without painting a single thing.

8. While still a young man, Pollock once traveled by freight train around Oklahoma and northern Texas, where he met vagrants, prostitutes, and did a few short stints in jail.

9. Pollock once had a job cleaning statues for the Emergency Relief Bureau. He also briefly worked as a janitor with his brother, Sanford, at a children’s school where their eldest brother, Charles, taught.

10. When a teenager, Pollock once wrote, “People have always frightened and bored me consequently I have been within my own shell.”

11. Before becoming a painter, Pollock was primarily interested in sculpture.

12. Betty Parsons, a former dealer of Pollock’s, said Pollock was born with “too big an engine inside.”

13. Through a friend, Pollock was introduced to the spiritual beliefs of the Theosophical Society and the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Pollock attended several camp meetings in Ojai, California.

14. For a time, Pollock underwent psychiatric treatment for his alcoholism, including sessions with Jungian psychoanalysts Joseph L. Henderson and later Dr. Violet Staub de Laszlo. Both used Pollock’s drawings as a therapeutic device.

15. One of Pollock’s favorite authors was Herman Melville. Pollock named his dog “Captain Ahab,” after one of Melville’s most famous characters.

16. Pollock once wrote in a letter to his father, “I’ll never be satisfied until I’m able to mould a mountain of stone with the aid of a jack hammer to fit my will.”

17. According to his wife, Lee Krasner, Pollock began titling his later works with numbers because “numbers are neutral. They force people to look at the picture for what it is — pure painting.”

18. In 1930, Pollock decided to drop his birth name, “Paul.”

19. During the summer of 1950, photographer Hans Namuth took hundreds of pictures and shot some film footage of Pollock at work. After the session, Pollock had his first drink in two years, and began drinking heavily again until his death.

20. In 1941, Pollock was declared unfit for military service.

21. In the late 1930s, Pollock filled several notebooks with sketches of Picasso’s Guernica.

22. In 1936, Pollock met his future wife, Lee Krasner, at a party. The two didn’t meet again until 1941.

23. In his Los Angeles high school, Pollock was considered a troublemaker. He wore long hair, unconventional clothing, and was expelled several times for clashing with authorities. In a letter to his older brother, Charles, Pollock wrote, “this so called happy part of one’s life youth to me is a bit of damnable hell.”

24. Pollock once said, “There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was.”

25. For a time, Pollock took on the pseudonym, “Hugo.”

26. When Pollock’s father, LeRoy, died on March 6, 1933, Pollock did not have enough money to return home for the funeral.

27. While living on Long Island, Pollock converted his barn into a studio. Since the barn had no electric lights, Pollock worked strictly by sunlight.

28. Although Pollock’s parents were both Presbyterians, Pollock and his four older brothers received no religious education as children.

29. During the 1930s, Pollock occasionally stole food and gasoline because of his dire financial situation.

30. When Pollock was a boy, he enjoyed exploring old Native American sites around his home near Phoenix.

31. In high school, Pollock shared studio space with some of his friends in a chicken coop, which was decorated with postcards of classical art.

32. Pollock habitually worked late and slept through the morning.

33. In a letter to his father, Pollock once wrote, “A good seventy years more and I think I’ll make a good artist —being an artist is life itself — living it I mean.”

34. The first of Pollock’s paintings to be acquired by a museum was The She-Wolf, bought by MoMA for $650 on May 2, 1944. Pollock said of the painting: “She-Wolf came into existence because I had to paint it. Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation on the inexplicable, could only destroy it.”

35. In 1955, Pollock obtained a passport that he never ended up using.

36. Pollock’s problems with alcohol began one summer when he was conducting topographic surveys of the Grand Canyon. He was 15 years old.

37. For one summer, Pollock worked as a lumberjack in Big Pines, California.

38. Near the end of his life, Pollock told Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard, his homeopathic physician, that he wasn’t painting anymore because he wasn’t sure he had anything to say.

39. Pollock once said that the only American painter who interested him was Albert Pinkham Ryder.

40. Friends and family described the young Pollock as childish, troubled, insecure, restive, and driven.

41. On July 21, 1937, Pollock was arrested for drunkenness and breach of the peace.

42. Pollock would often wander around New York City at night. He marveled at the contrast between the dark shadows and the skyscraper’s bright lights.

43. One of Pollock’s most influential teachers, Thomas Hart Benton, believed the most important lesson a burgeoning artist could learn from the Old Masters is the process of how they painted.

44. In 1947, Pollock applied for a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, but was rejected.

45. In 1919, when Pollock was 7, his family bought a hotel in Janesville, California.

46. Pollock never graduated from high school.

47. Lee Krasner, Pollock’s future wife, first heard of Pollock when she was invited to participate in a group exhibition that included his work, called French and American Painting.

48. Pollock enjoyed telling spooky stories about the West involving wild stallions, white wolves, lost gold mines, and mysterious unattended campfires.

49. Pollock’s father, Le Roy McCoy, acquired the surname “Pollock” when his neighbors, the Pollocks, adopted him after his own parents had passed away within a year of each other.

50. When Pollock used to drink at New York City’s Cedar Tavern, young artists would frequently try to touch him for good luck.

Sharpening Using the High pass Filter

2010-07-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is a really quick and easy way to sharpen an image. Take an image and open it in Photoshop. Hit command +J (control+J on PC) to duplicate the layer. Then, change this layer’s blend mode to overlay in the layers panel.

Then go to Filter>Other>High Pass and a dialog box will come up. This is a simple interface with only one slider and a box where you can dial in an exact amount. For a smaller image, a lower number, such as 2 or 3 should be used. For a high res image, you can dial in a higher number to taste.

You have to be careful not to oversharpen your image. Setting the value too high will make it look choppy, but you can lessen the effect slightly by lowering the opacity of the duplicated layer. The lower the opacity, the less sharpening that you will see. This is quick and easy, and it is an effect that you can easy control with the opacity slider.

A new theory on Van Gogh's Ear

2010-01-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

The mystery behind the most famous mutilation in art history may finally have been solved.

A scholar has found evidence that a distraught Vincent van Gogh slashed his ear after learning that his brother, Theo, on whom he depended financially and emotionally, was about to get married.

Martin Bailey, who has written a book on van Gogh and curated two exhibitions of his work, devised his theory after meticulous detective work on a letter in a painting that the artist completed soon after he injured himself.

Bailey concludes that this letter was written by Theo from Paris in December 1888 and contained news of his engagement. This, he believes, tipped Vincent, who was already psychologically disturbed, into self-harm.

“Vincent was fearful that he might lose his brother’s emotional and financial support,” writes Bailey in the January edition of The Art Newspaper.

For years disputes have raged over what really happened to van Gogh’s ear just before Christmas 1888. Some have blamed his mental illness, others have said he was driven mad by lead in his paints. The breakdown of his friendship with Paul Gauguin, his fellow artist, has also been cited, although it is claimed that Gauguin made up this story himself.

Academics at Hamburg University argued recently that Gauguin, with whom van Gogh shared a house at Arles in the south of France, cut the ear in a quarrel over a prostitute called Rachel.

This theory was dismissed by the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and by Bailey.

Van Gogh gave ample evidence of his mental instability when, 19 months after the ear was cut, he shot himself in the chest and died from his wounds two days later.

Bailey assembled his evidence partly from close study of van Gogh’s Still Life: Drawing Board with Onions. The work was completed at the beginning of 1889, just a month after his injury. It will be the star painting at a new exhibition opening in January at the Royal Academy around the theme of van Gogh and his letters.

It includes an envelope on a table. Bailey examined it microscopically and found the number 67 inside a circle. This was the official mark of a post office in Place des Abbesses, close to the apartment in Montmartre occupied by Theo, an art dealer who regularly provided money for Vincent.

The envelope has a special frank mark that says “New Year’s Day”. The Paris postal museum confirmed that in the second half of the 19th century such a mark was put on envelopes from mid-December onwards.

Bailey believes van Gogh deliberately put the envelope in the painting because of its deep significance.

Vincent usually received his allowance from Theo on or about the 23rd of each month, although sometimes he received two a month. It is known from a letter he wrote to Theo at the end of January 1889 that he had received what he called “the much-needed money” on December 23.

Bailey argues that the letter in the painting contained the news from Theo that he had proposed to his girlfriend, Johanna Bonger. The letter, dated December 21, is from Theo to his mother seeking permission to marry. “Vincent would surely have been next to be told,” said Bailey.

Another letter, from Theo to his fiancée, mentions his brief visit to Vincent on Christmas Day after he had taken the train from Paris on hearing of the mutilation.

Theo wrote: “When I mentioned you to him he evidently knew who and what I meant and, when I asked whether he approved of our plans, he said marriage ought not to be regarded as the main object in life.”

How to bring your Banksy home

2009-02-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

Cultural acclaim, residents' anger

2009-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Street artist Frank Shepard Fairey and his attorney, Jeffrey P. Wiesner of Boston, discussed his arrest on graffiti-related charges.

Kaws documentary on CBS

2009-02-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

Few moments in KAWS‘ multifaceted and unpredictable career have been as surreal as this segment on him that aired this weekend on CBS, most notable of which is the old dude introducing the clip alongside a 4ft Companion.

CSF 3 Trailer

2009-02-01T13:41:00.001-08:00

CSF3 "24 Hours" Trailer

Augustine Kofie: New Zine: A Collection Of PORTRAITS. January/February 2009

2009-01-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

Compiled portraits of friends, loved ones, musicians, teachers, leaders, and forward thinkers.

Technical details: 16 Pages - Short Edition of 35 - Cut & Paste/ Collage style set up (Limited Photoshop) - Stamped & Numbered - Found mint green paper for front & rear cover - Also includes 1 K Sticker - Shipped in 6 x 9 in. found manilla envelopes with chipboard for security.

$15 Domestic & International via USPS. Free Shipping within 2 days of payment.

Persue & Rime in China

2009-01-10T16:43:00.001-08:00

André

2009-01-06T19:34:00.002-08:00

Kaws - First Bus Stops NYC - 1997

2009-01-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Logan Hicks Interview

2008-12-30T13:28:00.000-08:00

David Choe's New Print...

2008-12-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Ewok 5MH / Tribute

2008-11-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

ahhhh, good ol' George...

2008-11-26T09:48:00.001-08:00

KR / SEXY STYLE & DESIGN

2008-11-23T11:56:00.000-08:00

Urban Painting Show

2008-11-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

Urban Painting, an large group exhibition at Atrion in Carugate, Italy.

Some of the telented artists include Conor Harrington, Ethos, C215, Will Barras, TV Boy, BSAS Stencil, Pure Evil, Jef Aerosol and many more.

Curated by Luigi Mauri and Tatiana Belluzzo.

Urban Painting
November 22 - 23
Atrion - Centro Socio Cultarale
via S. Francesco, 2
Carugate (MI), Italy

Opening reception Saturday, November 22, 6 pm

SouthCentral: Part 4 (The Final Chapter)

2008-11-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

SouthCentral: Part 4 (The Final Chapter!) from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Herbert Baglione - "The Run Up"

2008-11-20T21:33:00.001-08:00

Kofie'One: November08 Zine Advertisement

2008-11-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

ABCNT

2008-10-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

Does she know where U.S. is on the map?

2008-10-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

132 Crew Video

2008-10-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

A new video of the 132 crew painting at the De Wand graffiti jam in Brussels:

132 vs Bruxelles

Okaaaay S@$#%#%!!!!!....

2008-10-05T11:43:00.001-07:00

Van Arno x BOXeight

2008-09-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

Van Arno is Los Angeles' quintessential post-classicist illustrator; tonight, he shares his best tricks in a Blue Rooster Art Supplies-sponsored workshop class. Hosted at fashion/art space BOXeight, the seven-hour crash course includes a live professional model, one-on-one instruction from Arno, and a catered lunch. Even if you're no Picasso (yet), Arno's promiscuous love of art-historical styles (from Caravaggio to Crumb), abidingly perverse sense of humor, and taste for political satire always make for an entertaining, enlightening experience.

when: Sunday, Oct. 5, 9am–4pm
where: BOXeight 1446 E Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
price: $150 / $100 advance

This should be good....

2008-09-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Click on the image to upsize:

Augustine Kofie's new Zine

2008-09-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

Compiled from a recent Summer trip to Kobe & Kyoto Japan, Shaseichou is a collection of field sketches, letter ways/ character studies, illustrations as well as collage. Shaseichou is ‘Notebook’ roughly translated in Japanese.

Technical details: - 14 pages - Edition of 50 - Cut & Paste/ Collage style set up (no photoshop) - All large fonts are Prestype 2 Rub On Letters: Bauhaus Demi Font - Signed & numbered - Found Hammermill Sentry security paper for front & rear cover -

Also includes a healthy bundle of new Baseball Card size screen printed Keep Drafting Stickers

$15 Domestic & International. Includes free shipping. Click on Kofie's link under Artists on the right and click on the "Store" on his website to order.

Two Sides to Every Boxcar: An Exhibition and Discussion with buZ blurr at Babylon Falling

2008-09-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

When: Saturday, September 20 2008, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Where: Babylon Falling
San Francisco, CA
(415) 345-1017

What/Why:
Babylon Falling presents 'Two Sides to Every Boxcar' -An exhibition and discussion with buZ blurr. buZ is driving up from his outpost in Arkansas (Surrealville, Principality of buZ) and heading to San Francisco for an exhibition of his artwork as well as an informal discussion here at Babylon Falling. The exhibition will be comprised of a selection of photographs, cut stencils, collage work, and buZ's famous artistamp portraits. buZ will lead a talk and Q&A about his introduction to and experiences with freight train boxcar art, the development of his style, his contribution to the Mail Art movement, the place of both boxcar art and Mail Art in the larger culture and what he's up to nowadays. In addition to very small runs of homemade books we will also be selling a very limited (edition of 24) t-shirt designed by buZ blurr exclusively for Babylon Falling. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 20th 2008 from 6-9pm. There will be drinks and music as always. The event is wheelchair accessible. The exhibition will run through October 19th.

About Russell Butler aka Colossus of Roads aka buZ blurr

Recognized by Swindle magazine as a cultural Icon in 2006 and enjoying status as a cult figure among contemporary freight train graffiti artists, Russell Butler aka Colossus of Roads aka buZ blurr considers himself, "a Life/Artist, documenting a non-art life with various media, primarily photography." Working as a brakeman for the railroad, for thirty years buZ obsessively dispatched his distinctive moniker on the freight trains passing through the yards, quickly becoming one of the most prolific, and well respected boxcar artists of all time.

Since discovering the Mail Art network in 1972 buZ has been a regular, active participant and has become famous for his meticulous artistamp portraits which document the various personalities he has encountered over the years at Mail Art conventions, hobo gatherings, and at his home in Gurdon Arkansas, where the most diligent of fans make the pilgrimage to pay their respects. Though retired from the railroad buZ told Logan Hicks in 2004 that he is, "Still doing the boxcar icon dispatch, as well as spraying through stencils, and even gluing big collage composites onto the railcars; plus doing more correspondence and mail art, since I have retired. Currently enjoying embellishing large ink-jet phantasy collages with watercolours, paintstiks, charcoal, and crayolas."

Takashi Murakami Offset Lithograph Prints!!!

2008-09-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

Edition 300, handsigned and numbered in the bottom corner. Takashi Murakami is one of the founding members of the Superflat movement whose pop art work has been exhibited around the world. His Kaikai Kiki workshop has spawned many younger talented artists including Aya Takano and Chiho Aoshima.

This item is currently in stock at Gian Robot. For pricing info and general inquires please contact webstore@giantrobot.com

Jeff Soto's new book...

2008-09-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

Jeff Soto's, second installment, "Storm Clouds," features paintings that evolve beyond the robotic characters featured in the sold out, "Potato Stamp Dreams." "Storm Clouds" captures new painted territory that record Jeff's concerns for the well being of his family, the fragile condition of politics, the changing forces of nature and moments for personal exploration and experimentation.

This hard cover volume features 154 pages, specialty printing techniques and over 264 high-quality, full color images. Featured commentary provided by David Choe, Peter Frank (Senior Curator of Riverside Art Museum), Jeff Soto and Mark Murphy. The Riverside Art Museum and the James Irvine Foundation provided initial support, as they will be featuring Jeff in his first museum show in December of 2008.

Jeff Soto "Storm Clouds"
8" x 10" : Hard Cover : 154 Pages :
ISBN 0-9771430-8-2

And I thought I was only Juju...

2008-09-13T12:32:00.001-07:00

Living Legends x The Fillmore

2008-09-12T23:29:00.000-07:00

West Coast indie-hoppers Living Legends are a lot of things: educational (Grouch), introspective (Scarub), and a little crazy (Murs). When they get together, the Cali boys are like your merciless older brother and his cutup friends: as entertaining as they are abrasive. Fresh off their latest effort, The Gathering, the eight-MC Legends gather tonight for a lyrically brolic throwdown. But if you think that your backpack and beanie spell immunity, you might be rudely awakened when Murs drops disses such as this nugget from "After Hours": "to all the hipsters, that shirt cost $60 and you just spilled catsup on it / Doesn't that suck?"

EVENT DETAILS:

Price: $25
When: Monday Sep 15 (8pm)
Where: The Fillmore (1805 Geary Blvd), 415.346.6000

Loving six years...

2008-09-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

Last week on September 7th, Mona, Asha & I celebrated our 6th year anniversary. Time flies when you're having fun. We drove down to Temecula to have a brunch at the South Coast Winery. Not quite like Napa but still worth the drive. Here's some photos from that day...

Barry McGee x Lydia Fong x Ratio 3

2008-09-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

A Moment for Reflection: new work by Lydia Fong
September 5 - October 18, 2008
Ratio 3, 1447 Stevenson Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Opening reception: September 5, 2008, 6-8pm

GALLERY HOURS: WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY 11AM-6PM AND BY APPOINTMENT.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/IMAGES CONTACT:
MICHAEL GUIDETTI @ 415.821.3371

Shepard Fairey x Digital Gravel

2008-09-07T01:20:00.000-07:00

How dope is Mike Davis...

2008-09-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Brand new zine from Mike Davis - "Some Other Things," 26 pages of black-and-white illustrations, logos, and other designs you might not have ever seen before. Each booklet is covered front and back with a slice of an authentic Burlesque test print, printed once more with the book title image. No two are alike!

Features lots of great design work for Rhymesayers, Spankrock, Melting Pot Music, Complex Magazine, Lyrics Born, and many others.

Al. vs. Slim Shady

2008-08-31T00:44:00.001-07:00

Diet @ Stussy SF‏

2008-08-29T20:15:00.001-07:00

The artist DIET will be bringing some of his colorful works, some of which include nostalgic childhood cartoon characters along with a wall installation to Stussy SF in a show with opening reception Friday August 29, 2008 from 8pm to 11pm at 1409 Haight Street in San Francisco.

This show is curated by White Walls Gallery and sponsored by Montana Spray Paint.

For more information contact Stussy at 415.701.7474 or White Walls at 415.931.1500

Shepard Fairey x White Walls Gallery

2008-08-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

DUALITY OF HUMANITY
New Works by Shepard Fairey

Over 100 pieces will go on display at White Walls in a timely new show called “Duality in Humanity.” The show marks a bit of a departure for the artist, whose unique form of reverse propaganda emerged from the spirit of the punk movement. With this show, Shepard takes a step back from the ‘calls to action’ against mindless consumerism and war evidenced in previous shows like 1984ia, E Pluribus Venom and Imperfect Union. “The difference between this show and the previous ones is that now Obama is in the mix,” Shepard said. His recent work reflects his own personal shift towards a new optimism, a direct result of his involvement with, and inspiration by, the powerful political ideals of Barack Obama.

The title of the show, “Duality of Humanity,” is inspired by the peace-sign wearing US soldier in Vietnam, ‘Joker,’ in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. A central piece is a child with a gun in his hand and a flower in his hat. That theme of soldiers and weapons bearing peace signs, or peace signs comprised of military effects, runs through many pieces in the show. Environmental themes also appear in some pieces, illustrating the tenuous balance between our dangerously uncontrolled consumption of non-renewable resources, and our well-intentioned eco-concerns. Suffering and hope are seamlessly merged in a visual mash-up that defies expectations and easy answers.

“Duality of Humanity” includes larger mixed media pieces on paper that has been covered with carefully collaged Ephemera, self-printed patterns and found clippings from printed media. The backgrounds provide a seductive painterly texture and visual subtext, often allowing apropos words and images to bleed through the iconic images printed over them. The multiple layers create a sense of depth, but also bring in temporal elements through preserved newsclippings, historic images and vintage printing effects. It is the images in the foreground, however, that give the work its power. They are crisp and provocative, communicating in a way that is direct and clear.

Opening Reception - September 13th, 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates - September 13th - October 4th

White Walls Gallery
835 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 9410
415.931.1500

Buff Monster: The Sweetest Thing

2008-08-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

After moving from Hawaii to LA, Buff Monster spent his days earning degrees in fine art and business administration at the University of Southern California while covering the streets with hand-screened posters by night. He has since worked on projects with Nike, Vans, Hurley, Vivid, and Hustler and recently completed an installation at Hollywood's Standard Hotel. Buff Monster's work has been featured in publications such as Juxtapoz, Artweek, and the New York Times, and he has exhibited in numerous galleries worldwide — including Gallery 1988, 181 Martel, New Image Art, OX-OP, and Andenken Gallery. This summer, he launched a signature line of toys at Comic-Con in San Diego.

The above piece is currently displayed as part of Corey Helford Gallery's The Sweetest Thing. This aptly titled exhibition submerges viewers in a candy-coated, anime-inspired world. His riffs on the "Superflat" style feature kaiju-esque characters and their geometric environments rendered in a limited palette of pink, black, and silver. The Sweetest Thing features works of various sizes on custom birch panels that refine street art's raw aesthetic into complex compositions that draw equally on graphic design and art-historical conventions. Buff Monster creates a world in which East meets West, external meets internal, and smarts meet the pleasure centers of your brain.

When:
Opens Saturday Aug 23 (7–10pm)
Aug 23 – Sep 2
Tuesdays–Saturdays (noon–6pm)

Where:
Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles
310.287.2340

WHO KILLED BARACK OBAMA?

2008-08-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

As we know from the recent controversy over the New Yorker cover satirizing stereotypes about Barack Obama, nothing can get you in trouble faster than cutting-edge comedy aimed at the Democratic presidential contender. In the U.S., that is. Over in Wrocław, a city of about 690,000 people in the southeast of Poland, things are a bit different. There, artist Peter Fuss has unleashed a giant-sized vinyl street mural, stretched across the side of a building, proclaiming "Who Killed Barack Obama?" In stark black and white, the enormous work features the image of Obama thrown on his back, apparently felled by an assassin’s bullet, with a drop of blood issuing from the corner of his mouth.

Playing on the oft-expressed fears that Obama might be assassinated like Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, Who Killed Barack Obama? is part of a show organized by curator Joanna Stembalska and street artist Sławek ZBK Czajkowski at the Galeria Awangarda and other venues throughout Wrocław, July 18-Aug. 17, 2008. The show features Fuss and 19 other street artists, and is subsidized by Poland’s ministry of culture and national heritage.

The $50 Million Record Collection....

2008-08-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Oro Universal x Space Gallery

2008-08-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

A night celebrating elements of change, transformation, transcendence, planetary drifts, cultural richness, past, present and the essence of time and space.

The show will feature collections from Los Angeles and Bay Area based photographers, graffiti, mixed media and graphic artists.

Accompanied by night of World, Afro-Latin, Soul, Funk, and Reggae music provided by DJs tRUERadio Damon Bell, Shawndub, and Shred One.

Mission Statement:
- To raise awareness and promote unification within various artist communities.
- To emphasize importance of community activism through art, music and cultural celebration.
- To diversify and create unity through universal freedom of expression.
- Promote consciousness on preserving cultural traditions and customs.
- To perpetuate continual environmental consciousness, and the importance of safeguarding our land and its natural resources.
- To stimulate the search of individual roots and ancestry through the arts.

Artist lineup:
Augustine Kofie
Siloette
Eric Coleman
Mitsy Avila Ovalles
JAO
Puede One
Allysun Marie Dutra
Riostoro
theHumanzee
Isla Prieto
Shane Sakanoi
Tyer
Dom
Kalflife
WyldeFlower
Neto
Ixchel Lara
Mister G
Alfonso Salcido III
Krystal Ying
Jon Loomis
Thu Ha Tran
Lucille Javier
Alex Rando
G-Know
Damon Bell
Christina M. Felice
Cesar Pardo

**A Benefit for the Tribal Council of All Nations to Save the Oakes Grove in Berkeley, CA

Curated by:
Christina "Chinita" Yu

Espo Thrill Ride

2008-08-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Waterboard Thrill Ride by Espo at Coney Island.

Mike Maxwell x The Shooting Gallery

2008-08-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

The Shooting Gallery Presents:
"Human's Nature" by Mike Maxwell

opening reception Thursday - August 21, 2008
7pm - 10pm at Gallery Three
66 Sixth St.
SF CA 94103
415-626-6216

Dr. Poon Ji-Sum: Huh?

2008-08-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

Mike Giant x White Walls Gallery

2008-08-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

With Mike Giant back from his world travels, the famed Bay Area artist prepares to showcase his only solo show for 2008. Taking place at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco from October 11th until November 1st, it will surely make for an awesome three weeks. The much anticipated exhibition will be the only opportunity to purchase original illustrations for this year, so if your in town make sure to check it out.

Ian Johnson -- Other Rooms/Other Songs

2008-08-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Opening Reception - Saturday August, 16th, 7pm - 10pm
August 16th - September 15th

Park Life is pleased to announce the opening of Ian Johnson's newest body of work titlied, Other Rooms/Other Songs. Jazz greats are again the focus of Johnson's sensitively rendered, subtly nuanced figure drawings set against his distinctive backdrops of vibrant, graphically abstract color arrangements. Jazz calls for the mathematical precision of experienced musicians, combined with the boldness of freeform improvisation. Johnson parellels this structure in his work, perfectly complimenting his chosen subject matter. A site specific video installation will accompany the works on paper and panel.

Park Life Store
220 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: 415.386.7275

Beautiful Losers film trailer

2008-08-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural movements of a generation. In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the "establishment" art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture. Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories...speaking to themes of what happens when the outside becomes "in" as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today's youth.

Mishka - Office & Store tour - Brooklyn, June 2008

2008-08-03T11:31:00.001-07:00

Real talk from graphic designer Aaron Draplin

2008-08-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

I wish I was back in Oakland for this....

2008-08-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, August 2, Mark Tribe presents Port Huron Project 5: The Liberation of Our People, a live reenactment of a speech given by Angela Davis in 1969. The Port Huron Project is a series of reenactments of protest speeches from the New Left movements of the Vietnam era. Each event takes place at the site of the original speech, and is delivered by an actor or performance artist to an audience of invited guests and passers-by.

Port Huron Projects 1 and 2 were presented in the form of video documentation at Southern Exposure as part of Move! Activate! Remember! (May 2007) and Hopeless and Otherwise (May-July 2008) and we continue to support Tribe in his efforts to bring a dialog around these historical speeches. Click on the image for more details.

Scream x Raju x New Zealand

2008-07-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

Most of you who read Suitable 4 Framin' may remember my man, Mr. Scream from New Zealand. He was kind enough to throw down a indepth interview for one of the issues. Recently, he used one of my old sketches to do sweet silver and black piece. Judge for yourself. Here's the original sketch and the finished piece.

Picasso's Guernica in 3D‏

2008-07-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

Artist Lena Gieseke has re-created Picasso’s 1937 landmark painting Guernica as a 3D movie using Maya, Shake and Photoshop. Guernica was Picasso’s response to the Nazi bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Lena was inspired by jigsaw puzzles of famous paintings, which force you to explore artwork examining details your eye might not have caught otherwise.

Click on the link below to watch the movie:

Guernica

Banksy's Identity Revealed

2008-07-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Graf prankster Banksy has recently been outed as "former public schoolboy" Robin Gunningham. The identity of the 34-year-old incognito artist was uncovered by the UK's Mail on Sunday, which spoke with Banksy/Gunningham's old classmates. While some believe the artist's middle-class origins will grate on fans who adore his anti-establishment stance, others have asked, "Who cares?" — while still others have chosen to make light of the whole semi-scandal.

The man in this photograph, taken in Jamaica four years ago, is believed to be Banksy

Click below for the complete article:

Banksy uncovered: The nice middle-class boy who 'became the graffiti guerrilla'

Sea No Evil Art Benefit

2008-07-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago on Saturday, 12th July, marked the Sea No Evil Art Benefit, an art show dedicated to supporting the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Having gotten many members of its ANP to donate art for the benefit, the show raised over $50,000 - all of which will go to saving the beautiful creatures of the ocean.

Here's some photos from the show:

Casey Holland, CR Stecyk and Joe Dugan. I was trying to decide wheather or not bid on CR Stecyk's "Satan Rides Alone" print ...while Joe Dugan outbid me on a photograph by Deanna Templeton.

I was able to outbid couple of collector's for this Andre Pommier pencil drawing.

Matt Costa = Rockstar

Matt Costa with PM Tenore and his daughter. PM Tenore is the elusive visionary behind the Orange County-based clothing brand RVCA and its sister ANP (Artist Network Program).

For further information and your chance to place a bid on remaining art for sale and / or to purchase the official show T-Shirt go to www.seashepherdartshow.com

A masterpiece, honestly.

2008-07-24T20:10:00.001-07:00

Haze x MOCA China

2008-07-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong's first and only museum devoted exclusively to contemporary art is about to open it's doors. Located on the 2nd floor of DNM in the famed Causeway Bay area you can find a good 7,500 square feet of space dedicated to both international and regional contemporary art exhibitions, educational programs and arts inspired social events.

Among one of the first artists to exhibit art at MOCA China is legendary graffiti artist Eric Haze, who will be bringing his Full Circle show to the MOCA from July 24th til August 8th. Opening reception is July 23rd. Full Circle has been a year in the making and features 15 drawings in mostly charcoal and pastels, 15 large-scale hand painted acrylic canvases, 10 archival silkscreen prints and several standalone one-off pieces. Support!

MOCA
2/F, Unit 205, 68 Yee Wo Street
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Jeff Soto's “Beast Within” giclee

2008-07-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

Full color image on archival acid free paper. This is a signed and numbered edition of 50 prints and 4 artists' proofs. Paper size of each print is 17'' x 17''. The image area is 14'' x 14''. Ships flat.

$200 + shipping

Available now on:

http://www.potatostamp.com/

Stolen Art: Barry McGee & Clare Rojas

2008-07-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

The above two pieces of art were stolen from the ‘Pressure‘ exhibit at the SF RVCA store three days ago (not during the opening). They are from permanent/private collections and have a great deal of sentimental value to the artists.

This isn’t the first time pieces by Barry have been thieved. Very lame.

Click here for more details about the theft and how you can help.:

Stolen artwork: Barry McGee & Clare Rojas

Ted Pushinsky x Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter

2008-07-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Black and White Photographs Taken While Traveling Outside the United States By Ted Pushinsky.

Ted Pushinsky has been wandering the streets and documenting the lives of fellow San Franciscans for what he says are “too many years.” His images have the ability to transplant you into the precise moment that the shot was taken with his honest and raw point-and-shoot approach. The Low Road is a collection of rarely exhibited photographs taken far from the streets of San Francisco. Included are images from Mexico, Italy, India, France, Vietnam, Holland, Spain, China, Malaysia, Mauritius, Japan, Germany and Denmark.

Ted Pushinsky invokes questions referring to the timeless quality of raw moments that he has captured in his black and white photography. Unforgettable encounters and moments of timeless theatricality on the streets of America and abroad. The raw expressions and candid shots Pushinsky is able to capture make you feel as if you’re right there in the shot with him.
Japan Times

I was lucky enough to buy this photograph directly from Ted:

Opening Reception
July 10, 2008
Thurs 5-9pm

PHOTO EPICENTER
26 Lilac St.
SF CA 94110
Mon-Sat 10am-10pm
415 550-0701

Erik Otto x The Shooting Gallery

2008-07-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Shooting Gallery Presents:

"The Sea of Change" by Erik Otto
opening reception Saturday - July 19th
from 7pm - 11pm
showing through August 9th, 2008

The Shooting Gallery
839 Larkin St
SF CA 94109
www.shootinggallerysf.com
415-931-8035

Erite & Revolt x Crewest

2008-07-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

Click on the flyer for printable version:

Scion Presents: 2008 Vice Photo Show‏

2008-07-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Click on the image for a printable version:

Brazilian Dreams of Os Gemeos

2008-07-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

Video interview with the famous twins from Brazil at their latest artshow at the Deitch Project.

Caught in Australia

2008-07-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Urban advertising announcing new anti-graffiti law in Australia.

Found on CCTV.

Joseph Kyselak - the father of Graffiti

2008-07-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

Old school graffiti may be a little bit older than you think: Joseph Kyselak (1795-1831).

Click for the complete article:

Joseph Kyselak

7-Eleven Celebrates Turning 81 with Free Slurpees

2008-07-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

Participating 7-Eleven stores will give away free Slurpees in special cups on July 11 to celebrate the company's 81st birthday.

Steve Powers a.k.a. ESPO rocks Dublin, Ireland

2008-07-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

Steve Powers just returned from a six month Fulbright scholarship in Dublin, Ireland
working with at-risk teenagers on public art projects. Congratulations Steve --- 2008Fulbright Scholar!

Here's some pics from his trip:

Click for more in the New York Times article:

Still Painting Messages on Buildings, but No Longer a Vandal

Asha and Esha's first trip to Disneyland

2008-07-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

This is historical, folks. Here's some pics from our June 29th trip to Disneyland...

Flying high with Dumbo, Asha's favorite ride.

Esha and Sandeep.

She can hardly wait to drive.

Not bad shot from a camera phone.

She's no joke in the Autopialand.

Mr. Brainwash x CBS studios

2008-07-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

Excuse the bad quality of pics. All these were taken with my camera phone.

Stand in line for two hours to get in.

Even the local rapper, Ghetto Vader, was there.

One of the installations at the enterance.

His signature canvases. He still owes me a signed print.

Outro with Mr. Brainwash.

HEROES & VILLAINS x The Shooting Gallery x White Walls Gallery

2008-07-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

HEROES & VILLAINS
New Works by Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho

The Shooting Gallery and White Walls Gallery are excited to bring an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles photographers Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho to San Francisco. The show is entitled “Heroes & Villains” and is curated by Richard Scarry, director of the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. This collection is the culmination of a three-year long project featuring intimate portraits of some of the most established and notable emerging figures in the Pop Surrealist, Graffiti, and Alt-Comic Book worlds. This impressive list of artists includes Shepard Fairey, Gary Baseman, Shawn Barber, Friends With You, Chris Anthony, Bigfoot, Saelee Oh, Mel Kadel, Herbert Baglione, Audrey Kawasaki, and Jaime Hernandez whose portraits are featured in the project, along with many others. This nine-day show opens on Tuesday July 8th and runs through Thursday the 17th. Reception is on Saturday July 12th from 7pm to 11pm.
The collaboration between photographers Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho which began in 2005 has gained high recognition and been featured in editorials for Time and Juxtapoz magazines, as well as on numerous websites. Tatiana Wills is a self-taught photographer who assembled her skill form working in motion pictures, television, Seinger Advertising, and various entertainment agencies.

Roman Cho attended CalArts in Valencia, California with a degree in music but has seized his personal love for photography. Focusing on portraiture of active figures outside the spotlight of society, his impressive list of clients includes Universal Studios, New Line Cinema, and Los Angeles Magazine.

“Heroes & Villains” is an unmasking of artists who have otherwise remained faceless behind their art. The motive is to bring attention to the anonymous characters that shape the media, urban art, and visual culture of today. The 68 portraits range from larger dramatic pieces stretching to 8 feet across, to smaller, more intimate representations of an artist’s individual style. “Heroes & Villains” is a unique work of personality, action, beauty, and humor that shows the world the perpetrators of this ever-growing yet underground art culture.

Free of charge and open to the public, we hope you will appreciate and enjoy this special event that has come to San Francisco from the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles and will go on to travel other cities around the nation. Come celebrate the San Francisco opening of the “Heroes and Villains” exhibition of new works by Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho at The Shooting Gallery and White Walls Gallery on Saturday July 12th, 2008 from 7pm-11pm.

Location: The Shooting Gallery & White Walls Gallery
839 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

For any questions contact either The Shooting Gallery at www.shootingallerysf.com T: (415) 931-8035
OR contact White Walls Gallery at www.whitewallssf.com T: (415) 931-1500

Alëxone - Assez d'essais

2008-06-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

Short video filmed at the latest exhibition of the french graffiti/street-art artist AlexOne.

NEA Surveys Professional Artists

2008-06-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

The National Endowment for the Arts has compiled the first national profile of professional artists. Among the eye-opening results drawn from the 2005 census is the fact that more Americans ticked off "artist" as their primary occupation than "lawyer," "doctor," "police officer," or "farm worker" — that's two million Americans in all, with a combined income of roughly $70 billion, or a median of $34,800 each. More men than women identify themselves as artists, with women outpacing men only among dancers, writers, and designers.

New York State has the most artists per capita, with California boasting the most actors and Nevada the most dancers and entertainers.

Click on the graphs for printable image.

Raju x JPG magazine

2008-06-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

I have a little gallery with some of my photos on JPG magazine's website. Click on the link below to get there:

Raju

OS GEMEOS x DEITCH PROJECTS

2008-06-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

OS GEMEOS
TOO FAR TOO CLOSE

JUNE 28 - AUGUST 9, 2008
OPENING SATURDAY 28, 6 - 9 PM

DEITCH PROJECTS
18 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 343-7300

Os Gemeos (pronounced "ose zhe'-mee-ose.") are two artists from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo were born in 1974, identical twin brothers whose pseudonym, Os Gemeos, translates to "the twins" in Portuguese. In addition to their incredible works created on the streets of Sao Paulo, the twins have in recent years exhibited their art in museums all over the world. Mona and I met the brothers in 1999 at the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco.

In Too Far Too Close, Os Gemeos will be transforming the gallery into a fantastical cityscape with houses, doors, and passageways, all brought to life with their signature style of imagery. Building upon a group of artworks created for the Museum Het Domein in the Netherlands, this show features new paintings, sculpture, and installation bringing all the magical moments of their work together in one tightly knit dream world of an exhibition.

Chapmans Hippify Hitler

2008-06-24T07:44:00.001-07:00

Jake and Dinos Chapman have never shied away from controversy, but their new work may raise the shock-art bar. The brothers bought 13 watercolors by Adolf Hitler, on which they have painted rainbows, stars, and hearts. The originals were purchased for more than $226,000 and are now priced as one piece — If Hitler Had Been a Hippy How Happy Would We Be — at approximately $1,349,000. In a typically Chapman-esque statement, Jake said: "The idea of redeeming Hitler is bad; the idea of redeeming his work is a staggering work of genius." One commentator called the work "puerile," though such criticism is unlikely to deter the brothers from their other ongoing projects, including a proposed film. In a related story, an Albert Speer-designed Berlin bunker has become a private museum for contemporary art.

For complete story, click on the link below:

The art of Adolf Hitler (with a little help from the Chapman brothers)

Mass Appeal Magazine x Burlesque Of North America

2008-06-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Stop by your local magazine dealer for the brand new issue of Mass Appeal magazine! It's on newsstands right now! Yes! Not only did our boys from Burlesque Of North America design the cover, but there is a TEN-PAGE feature on Burlesque!

Asha's "new" room

2008-06-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

IKEA just rules! I've been trying to figure out what to do with Asha's room after her crib got converted to a toddler daybed.

We call it her "princess bed" with a new duvet and pillow (she's hasn't slept with a pillow until now) and the netting.

Barry McGee on Current TV

2008-06-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Check out this short Current TV interview with Barry that was filmed at the Riverside Art Museum on the occasion of his show with Clare Rojas entitled the The Big Sad. Footage includes interviews with Barry McGee, footage of Clare Rojas, interviews with Ed Templeton, Dan Nguyen, Jon Roach, Director Daniel Foster, and Adult Ed Curator Lee Tusman.

T-World Issue #4 Release Party x New York

2008-06-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

Click on the flyer for a printable version.

Mr. Brainwash: Life Is Beautiful

2008-06-20T11:22:00.001-07:00

Mr. Brainwash, or MBW, is a documentary filmmaker turned street artist who fell in with the renowned circle of renegade activists, filmmakers, and artists helmed by LA's Shepard Fairey. After having met the mysterious Banksy through Fairey, MBW swapped his camera for paintbrushes and wheatpaste. Life Is Beautiful is his first exhibition and stands as a glorious entrance into Fairey's corner of the art world. Mr. Brainwash's art "happening" brings together more than 100 stencils, oil paintings, and photographs, in addition to a life-size recreation of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, an eight-foot-tall spray can and a 12-foot-tall paper bag. A bar, a live jazz band, and Fairey himself on the decks round out the night's festivities at the 15,000-square-foot former CBS studios.

When
Wednesday June 18 (7–11pm)
Thursday June 19 (1–9pm)
Friday June 20 (1–9pm)
Saturday June 21 (1–9pm)
Sunday June 22 (1–5pm)

Price
FREE

Where
CBS News Studios
6121 West Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, California
323.460.3000

Sylvia Ji x Shooting Gallery x White Walls

2008-06-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

The Shooting Gallery/ White Walls Presents:

New Works by Sylvia Ji

Sylvia Ji is a native of San Francisco currently residing in Southern California, her artwork encapsulates an alluring beauty that is both cutting edge and a nod to time-honored technique. Hauntingly beautiful images brimming with sexual provocation mix with a sense of consternation, hinting that all is not as well as it may initially appear.

opening reception Saturday - June 14, 2008, 7pm - 11pm
showing through July 5th

White Walls
835 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-931-1500

Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe

2008-06-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Underground artist David Choe's rise to fame and bizarre adventures are chronicled by his lifelong friend Harry Kim, the only one brave enough to follow him from the mean streets of L.A. to the heart of the Congo.

Saturday, June 21, 9:45 p.m.,
Majestic Crest Theatre
Sunday, June 22, 4:00 p.m.,
Mann Festival Theatre
Thursday, June 26, 4:30 p.m.,
Mann Festival Theatre

Call for entries‏

2008-06-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

Roger Ray, Owner/Chief Curator, from Limbo Fine Art in San Diego was selected to curate the artwork that will appear on a new series of wines.

The wines are going to be marketed under the labels, Dada Wines and Graffiti Wines.
Roger is currently looking for artists who are interested in putting forth a proposal for the Graffiti Wines label.

You must be a bona fide graffiti artist to apply. So, if you are not a graffiti artist, please pass this along to someone you know who might fit the bill.

Here is the deal:

Roger will need digital samples of the artist’s portfolio sent via email. He will choose 10 artists to participate in the final round of selection. These finalists will be required to create a 1’ x 1’ sketch of proposed work for actual label.

The winner of will receive the following:
$500. (Wine maker will retain the original art and rights to reproduction.)
Two cases of wine labeled with their artwork. ($500 value)
The artwork will be used to create a 20 unit limited edition giclee.
Artist will receive 50% of the proceeds from the sale of the edition. Sale price is to be determined (We estimate a sale price between $300 and $500 per unit).

This is a great opportunity to get national recognition of your artwork to a very different audience.

Deadline: ASAP

They will be moving forward with labeling toward end of Summer/beginning of Fall.

Contact:

Roger Ray
Owner/Chief Curator

Limbo Fine Art
1432 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103
619.316.2239

Photographer: LeRoy Grannis

2008-06-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

LeRoy Grannis is a California-based photographer famous for capturing Southern California's surf culture. During the '60s, Grannis' work was frequently published in Surfer, Reef, and Surfing Illustrated, and he is regarded as one of the sport's foremost documentarians.

In 1998, Grannis' work was the subject of Photo: Grannis, the first installment in The Surfer's Journal's monograph series dedicated to master surf photographers. In 2002, he was awarded SIMA's Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his surf photography.

Grannis' work is currently on display at the Huntington Library in This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in LA Photographs.

When
June 14 – Sep 15
Mondays (10:30am–4:30pm)
Wednesdays–Sundays (10:30am–4:30pm)

Price $15 - 20

Where
Huntington Library
Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California

Greg Gossel x The Shooting Gallery

2008-06-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Shooting Gallery Presents:

"Make Believe" by Greg Gossel
opening reception Saturday - June 14th, 2008
from 7pm - 11pm
showing through July 5th, 2008

The Shooting Gallery
839 Larkin St
SF CA 94109

The Art & Crimes of David Choe

2008-06-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the preview of Harry Kim’s highly anticipated documentary on street art’s favorite badass, David Choe.

ANDREW SCHOULTZ 5 SIGNED COMPLETE BOARD SERIES

2008-06-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Andrew Schoultz's sold out board series from Western Edition. All the boards are signed by Andrew and for only $400 (starting bid) you get this amazing series. There aren't any more complete sets available anywhere, so this is your shot to get this amazing set! Start your bidding now here at EBay:

EBay

Film: Documentary: BOMB IT

2008-06-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

A modern-day incarnation of 1983's groundbreaking Style Wars, graffiti documentary Bomb It moves past the boroughs of New York to survey the global community of spray-paint artists. Twenty-five years later, the questions remain the same: art or eyesore, vandalism or political voice? Although this film doesn't settle any of these issues, it does provide a tantalizing look at graffiti's history, from late-'60s pioneers Cornbread and Taki 183 to contemporary artist Blek le Rat. The most entertaining aspect of the film is the juxtaposition between scorning Graffiti Blaster-types and the bombers who consider their work an art form.

Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World' : Paintings

2008-06-12T15:38:00.001-07:00

Scion presented the fourth installment of the Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World'. Launched in 2003, Scion Installation is a revolutionary art tour featuring work from an unprecedented collective of contemporary artists. For 4 years the tour has evolved, and each year the medium with which the artists showcase their work evolves. For Installation 4, the theme "It's a Beautiful World" was interpreted by each artist in one of four mediums; painting, photography, sculpture, and collage. Scion Installation 4 visited 9 cities around the country with a final stop in Los Angeles where all of the artwork was auctioned off to the public.

James Jean was born in Taiwan in 1979, raised in New Jersey, and educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Upon graduating in 2001, he quickly became an acclaimed cover artist for DC Comics, garnering three consecutive Eisner awards, two Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY. He has also contributed to many national and international publications. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, Knopf, among others. A book of his work entitled Process Recess was published in 2005, and a second book of his art entitled PR2: Portfolio will be released in the fall of 2007.

Through striking visual imagery, Jeff Soto communicates profound visions and fears, nostalgia of his youth, and themes of love, lust, and hope. Soto's distinct color palette, subject matter, technique and bold themes resonate with a growing audience. Inspired by childhood toys, the colorful lifestyle of skateboarding and graffiti, hip-hop and popular culture, Soto's representational work is simultaneously accessible and stimulating.

Environmental issues also take precedent for Soto, who is concerned with conflict of humans trying to harness, or take advantage of nature. His paintings exude this tension, as robotic creatures duel, organic tentacles and flower bouquets thrive, and black smog looms amidst floating, ominous skulls.

In 2002, Soto graduated with Distinction from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He currently lives in Southern California, with his wife Jennifer and daughter Shannon.

London Police. Complete bio to come.

Fueled by nostalgia, Michael Sieben's work deals primarily with a loss of innocence. Combining the aesthetic languages of skateboard graphic design and children's book illustrations, Sieben works in a style he refers to as "soft-core gore." Monsters tread a fine line between sweet and grotesque and serve as a friendly reminder that everybody has problems, but that's no reason not to smile.

Michael Sieben lives and works in Austin, Texas with his wife Allison and their two cats Nathan and Josie. He spends his days designing skateboards for Bueno (The Good Company), writing and illustrating articles for Thrasher Magazine (The Bible), collaborating on projects with the Volcom Art Loft, operating Okay Mountain Gallery with his fellow mountaineers, and riding his skateboard on his backyard ramp.

Ron English, a New York-based painter, billboard liberator, and toy designer has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide for over twenty years his unique sensibility, in which the familiar is reflected through funhouse mirrors into something startlingly new. Recently his commentary and art were featured in the hit movie "Supersize Me," widening his audience beyond the boundaries of intrepid art seekers, and he has appeared on television in the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan. He is also the subject of an award-winning documentary, "POPaganda, the Art and Crimes of Ron English."

In addition to painting, Ron English is widely considered to be one of the seminal figures in the culture jamming movement, in which artists and activists subvert existing advertisements to encourage free thought. He has pirated more than a thousand billboards over the last twenty years, replacing existing advertisements with his own "subvertisements," ranging from his "Cancer Kids" campaign featuring preadolescent camels hawking cigarettes to children, to Apple computer's "Think Different" campaign, where Ron added such 20th Century luminaries as Charles Manson to Apple's roster of spokesmen. Most recently Ron staged an elaborate "tribute" to Ronald McDonald in San Francisco, in collaboration with the Billboard Liberation Front, featuring animatronic sculpture, billboard art and the spontaneous performance of fifty-odd Ronalds, Hamburglars, and assorted clowns.

In July of 2006, Ron premiered his 12 x 27-foot interpretation of "Guernica" at the Station Museum in Houston. Ron's painting, Grade School Guernica, is one foot longer and one foot taller than Picasso's original, featuring a psychodrama acted out by his children, and viewed from the point of view of the bomber airplane. In 2007 the artist celebrates the 70th anniversary of Guernica with a series of billboard installations in Spain depicting modern variations of Picasso's classic painting.

Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World' : Paintings

2008-06-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Xavier Prou aka Blek Le Rat
Born on the 15th November 1951. Paris France.
Live and work in Paris, France.

1971-1976 Studied Etching, Lithography and Painting at the "Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-arts de Paris".

1976-1982 Studied Architecture at "United pedagogiqued'architecture No6" Paris, France.

From 1981 to 2005 his work has focused on urban art in different cities of the world. He is the pioneer of stencil graffiti art, introducing the technique into graffiti in Paris in 1081 and now followed by many artists across the world. He introduced to the urban art landscape the concept of creating life size figures of people.

Caia Koopman was born in 1968 and raised in Livermore, California, just outside San Francisco. She majored in fine art and earned a B.A. at UCSC in Santa Cruz, California. While in Santa Cruz she was seduced by the local skateboarding scene and rounded out her formal education by skating ramps, street, pools and Derby Park. She instinctively started creating skateboard graphics and soon became equally entranced with snowboarding. Her interest in board-sports and the art the flourishes in and around these scenes inspired her to strive for a career creating snowboard graphics. She has become not only a successful commercial artist but also a fine artist. Caia explains her addiction to art, "I've always been an artist-as a kid I would draw to escape, to travel, to explore...and I still do"

Her artwork has been featured in numerous national and international print media including Surfing Girl, Mademoiselle, Details, Girls' Life, Snowboarder Magazine, Teen, Teen Style, Teen people, J-14, Fine and others. Caia has also been featured on MTV, "mtv sports" as an athlete/artist for her snowboarding and painting. She has shown her paintings in a number of galleries around the world and most recently at La Luz de Jesus in L.A. She is currently working as a freelance illustrator and painter in Oceanside, California. There's a political and environmental undercurrent in much of her work, she is an environmentalist at heart so she often paints an interaction between humans, flora and fauna. Caia is inspired by color, dreams, politics, and life.

David Ellis. "I am an artist from a family of musicians. My uncle plays and restores pianos and my brother travels the world playing tenor saxophone. As a kid I had no patience with piano lessons and learning to read music but absorbed everything I heard on the "Super Mix", a Saturday night radio program that was broadcast from the Fort Bragg military base near where I grew up. It was just far enough away that reception required one hand on the pause button and the other on an elaborate assembly of coat hangers, duct tape and tin foil jammed into the hole that was once an antenna on my boom box. I recorded the show every week with the volume low so not to disturb my mother’s ultra sonic night hearing which would result in radio confiscation. Each week a new style of early New York hip hop found its way into the mind of a 12 year old boy living in the attic of a log cabin in rural North Carolina. By the time Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 dropped "The Message," I was writing my own rhymes and banging out beats on the desks at school. Those beats have been in the back of my mind all my life."

David Ellis lives and works in Brooklyn; where his "motion paintings" travel through time like music, where beats are orchestrated and performed on "drum paintings" stretched and tuned to bass, snare, etc. and played via analog drum machines propelled by air, where player pianos meet SP1200s meet improvisational wild style sign painting.

For the last ten years, Francesco LoCastro has been South Florida's thoroughfare to the national Lowbrow art scene, as both a respected artist and as the curator of intrepid art exhibitions. LoCastro was born in Catania, Italy in 1976, raised in Germany, and transplanted to sunny-yet-strange Ft. Lauderdale during high school. His collegiate employment at a commercial art studio opened his mind to art as a life-long career, as well as being the place of introduction to fellow artists and Europeans, Colin and Sas Christian.

As a painter, LoCastro's works are bound together by a hallucinatory surreality, and along the way have featured appearances by pop culture icons such as Tom Waits, controversial figures like Charlton Heston, and a motley assortment of unearthly creatures affected by intensely earthly afflictions and dispositions. His stylistic influences are widely varied - from Sebastian Krueger's exaggerated pop portraiture, Alfonse Mucha's ornate art nouveau illustrations, Chuck Jones to Chuck Close, and beyond. LoCastro's current series of portraits depict a more human identity, but his scintillating touch of the surreal remains. He has shown in numerous galleries all over America, including Copro Nason Gallery in Culver City, Lineage Gallery in Philadelphia, Perihelion Arts in Phoenix, The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, L'Art Noir Gallery in New Orleans, Fuse Gallery in New York City and Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles.

As a curator, Francesco LoCastro's electrifying shows in Miami's Design District and Wynwood Arts District have ushered in a caliber of Lowbrow art previously unseen in South Florida. "Parallel Universe", "Culture Shock" and "Monsters of Lowbrow" delighted local and national audiences with their vibrant colors, hand-painted and silk-screened mural backdrops, and eye-catching works by many of the biggest luminaries of the movement. LoCastro's curatorial series culminated with "We'll Make a Lover of You" during Art Basel Miami Beach 2006.

LoCastro is featured as one of the distinguished artists who have forged the New Miami Art Movement in the upcoming book "Miami Contemporary Artists" to be released in Spring of 2007 by Schiffer Publishing.

Cody Hudson, who works under the name Struggle Inc., is a Chicago based commercial artist and painter. He is known for work that has a bold, organic and modern feel to it. He has worked on everything from skateboard graphics to national billboard campaigns to mixtape covers. His paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe & Japan. He enjoys ice fishing, sleeping, reading and things made of wood.

Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World' : Collages

2008-06-12T07:39:00.001-07:00

Tim McCormick. Born in 1969, Los Angeles, California. lives and works in San Diego.

Tim McCormick brings to his work a unique perspective on issues of fame, pop culture, and self. Perceptions of suburban banality set against the surreal backdrop of Hollywood as well as the influence of San Diego's early surf and skateboard subculture. With a self-taught methodology McCormick currently exhibits in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and throughout the greater U.S.

"My life is an experiment, and my paintings a journal of my daily life. In Spirit my work is a combination of surrealism and figurative expressionism, through those core principles, honest introspection, and an improvisational working process, I paint the images that tug at my subconscious, Each finished painting adds a small part to the whole, and slowly I attempt make sense of the world to myself. Through endless painting, I let these bits and pieces of myself grind and churn against each other, swaying in and out off focus until the message becomes visible. I then can step back and observe myself and those moments of my internal life. This simple reason is why I started painting and will continue to paint for the rest of my life".

Mel Kadel is an artist from the Pennsylvania suburbs, living in Los Angeles for the last 8 years. Mel creates loosely narrative ink drawings using found paper, tiny pens, q-tips and glue. Her drawings have been exhibited widely across the U.S. and abroad. Mel has also been involved in commercial projects for Volcom, Foundation Skateboards, and various bands including Silversun Pickups "Pikul" album. She is represented by the Richard Heller Gallery.

R. Grimes was born in 1974 in Columbia, South Carolina. He spent his childhood in the Florida Keys. During his teen years, Grimes got into skateboarding. Through the skateboard culture R. Grimes was introduced to new art and music. During that time he was influenced by the strong visual language of the skateboard and punk rock community. These influences are apparent in his work today. Later, R. Grimes taught himself how to silk screen. In his late teens early twenties Grimes was simply producing punk rock patches and t-shirts for his friends and their bands. During this time R. Grimes developed a strong Do-It Yourself ethic. R. Grimes is a self taught artist whose methods of producing work would seem archaic to most people. He avoids the use of presses and other machines to produce his art and various projects. By minimizing the use of machinery Grimes preserves the human element in the art of creating. He also believes the more expensive it becomes to produce a piece of work the less personal it becomes. To this day, he uses the same method to produce his silk screens though other expedient and technologically advanced methods are available. The imagery R. Grimes produces in his work are strong, unapologetic and are aimed to speak to our time. His work speaks to a wide audience of various socioeconomic and demographic back grounds.

R. Grimes was late to begin showing his work in galleries. In 2002 he got his start in Objex Art Space once located in Miami, Fl. Since then Grimes has shown work abroad and across the country including, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Miami), Scion Space, Think Space, The Autopsy (Melbourne, Australia). His work has also been shown by some of the most respected curators including Roger Gastman and Francesco LoCastro. Recently, Grimes worked next to LoCastro during art Basel in Miami Beach to transform the South Florida Art Center into one of the most talked about art exhibits of the world’s biggest art fair. Furthermore, work by R. Grimes has been published in prominent publications such as Swindle magazine and Juxtapoz magazine.

Grimes is also known for his live performance where he brings his screen printing before an audience in an interactive environment. He started printing live in Miami, Fl in small clubs and various local events. Recently he has taken his version of live screen printing beyond the boundaries of his hometown. He has printed live at events including some for Swindle Magazine, Museum of Contemporary Art (Miami), and Juxtapoz Magazine. His performance has been seen in many cities, including, New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami.

Besides being involved in showing his art in galleries and printing live, R. Grimes operates a project he calls Faction. With Faction, Grimes defies the standards that have been set forth by the paradigm of mass production. All items produced under Faction are hand printed without the use of presses or machines. Most recently his project has been available in Urban Outfitters thus, making his work available to thousands of people.

Currently, R. Grimes resides in southern Florida with his wife and three year old son.

Retna from Southern California. Detailed bio to come.

Chris Yormick lives and works in New York City. Growing up, he bounced around coasts and settled his teen years outside of Washington D.C. In the nations capitol is where he cut his teeth on an unhealthy diet of skateboarding, graffiti, and harDCore music. A self taught artist and designer, he was also the art director for Skateboarder Magazine, éS skateboard footwear and worked for such clients as Def Jam and Comme De Garcons. The past four years Chris has weaned away from design and concentrated his time purely on art away from the computer. Chris has shown his work across the globe and is constantly working in ways to expand his vision and voice in the art world.

Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World' : Photography

2008-06-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Andy Mueller was raised in the midwest on a healthy diet of BMX, skateboarding, music and magazines. At an early age, Andy became addicted to the art of image making and photo taking. In 1993, Mueller founded OhioGirl, a small design/photo/film studio. After relocating to Chicago in 1994, OhioGirl's client list grew to include companies like Burton Snowboards, RCA Records, Capitol Records, Jade Tree and Thrill Jockey Records. In 1999, Andy relocated again, this time to California to become art director for Girl Skateboard's new shoe company, Lakai Limited Footwear.

Andy continues to work full time for Girl Skateboards/Lakai Limited Footwear and is a member of the infamous Art Dump. In his free time he continues to do freelance projects under the name OhioGirl, runs a t-shirt line called The Quiet Life, and is spending more and more time on his personal photography and art work. Much of Mueller’s work has appeared in graphic design annuals and design books, as well as aired on MTV, and published in numerous magazines; he has also shown his artwork in the U.S., Europe, U.S.Japan, Australia, and Canada.

Andy Mueller currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son, two cats, a bird and a ping pong habit.

Angela Boatwright. Hailing from Columbus, Ohio where she attended the same high school as Patrick O'Dell, Angela moved to New York City in June of 1993 to follow her dreams to become a photographer. Fast-forward thirteen years and Angela is now blissfully devoid of free time and has shot for almost every reputable magazine in the rack, from "Nylon" to "Vibe" to "Guitar World" to "W." She then took a turn as a photo editor herself at "Mass Appeal."

Not content with just one full-time job, she kept moonlighting, getting a multi-page feature in "Arktip" and shooting an ad campaign for the Truth anti-tobacco campaign that allowed her to work with several of her favorite graffiti artists like Espo and Dave Kinsey. She then went from being the photo editor at "Mass Appeal" to their Special Projects Editor, which means that she contributes story ideas, finds writers, pitches stories, and has input in every aspect of the magazine short of the paper it's printed on.

While she's been involved with "Mass Appeal" for an impressive 9 years altogether, she continues to freelance commercially. She's also shown her work all over the globe, from Texas to Tokyo. "Sorcerers," a collection of metal-related photos, debuted in L.A. in March of 2006, and was featured in the magazine "Dazed and Confused." Part of that show continued on to Max Fish in June, and was shown alongside photos from fellow esteemed NYC photographer Patrick O'Dell. The whole collection then crossed the ocean in August for a show at the 96 Gillespie Gallery in London.

To fill the odd moments between working for clients, Angela created her own company to work for; Killer of Giants which allows her to showcase her work with “Mass Appeal” as well as art shows she curates and produces as well as other projects that she creative directs.

Dalek. For many artists, inspiration comes from experiences they had when they were young children. For DALEK, these experiences were nothing short of traumatic. "When I was in second grade, these workers were building a deck on the back of our house. There were lots of wooden stakes being used as markers with very sharp points. I saw the workers throwing lots of wood out of the back of their truck. Being a kid, I tried to imitate them. But I was a dumb kid and I threw one of the wooden stakes straight up in the air. It came down and planted its self right in my skull. It did a good job of sitting in there for a few seconds. It bled a lot and was a very messy scene. My mom was pretty stressed."

This painful experience could have something to do with the amount of decapitations and puncture wounds often present in DALEK's Space Monkey pieces. These creatures have become a calling card for the artist, and continue to evolve in scope. "The Space Monkeys are human representations for me. They are self-portraits in a lot of ways, and also portraits of humanity. They are floating in nothingness. I didn't want it to be a cartoon strip, like a Space Monkey in a house, then a Space Monkey in a car, so I avoided all of that. I didn't want to develop scenery like a house and trees. Once you put Space Monkeys in that kind of context it looses any kind of fine art quality to me."

Somewhere between head injuries and Space Monkeys, DALEK found time to become a respected graffiti artist and work extensively in the skateboard industry. As for his future with the Space Monkeys, nothing is certain. "That's kind of the beauty of it. I don't have a clue. They always transform rapidly from me drawing the same thing repeatedly. They switch up in undetermined ways. Where it goes depends on a lot of things, but as long as people are interested in seeing them I'll be able to pursue them, grow them out and work with them. Obviously, I would love to be 90 years old and cranking out some form of the Space Monkeys.

David Choe is one of the most diverse and prolific artists working today. He is one of the youngest artists to ever have solo show at the MOCA. He has had his art shown on every surface from canvases to human bodies to third world ,war torn walls, it can be found in every facet of society, from fancy galleries, museums, t-shirts, shoes, movies, billboards, cars, murals, buildings, from New York City to the Congo, Africa to everywhere in between.

David has spoken and lectured at Princeton, DUKE, Dartmouth and other art colleges, he works in every medium, and can paint anything and everything as well as on anything and everything. He has designed and created fine art, murals, movie sets, movie posters, album covers, shoes, t-shirts, toys, calendars, commercials, cars, magazines, books, illustrations for porn and children’s story books, comics, animation, curated art shows, art directed books and magazines. As well as self-publishing all his own books which have all won numerous awards and are sold out.

He has traveled, train hopped and hitchhiked all over the world many times over spreading his art. He’s been homeless, he still sells art out of his parents garage and his beat up mini van.

And our boy from San Fran, Mike Giant.

Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World' : Sculptures

2008-06-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Andrew Pommier's work is a mixture of the cute and the "it's funny because it is sad." It's work that speaks about the outsider: a lone figure that has chosen to remove himself from the day-to-day, by outwardly displaying his inner thoughts of detachment and singularity. People that spend their days in costumes that once made sense in their lives, as if mascots for disbanded sports teams, now refusing to return the outfits and no longer sure how to live without them.

Pommier uses very graphic inspired techniques. Bold lines, which are informed by a youth spent watching cartoons and reading comic books. Pommier mines the world of his youth much like the Japanese artists Yoshimoto Nara and Aya Takano but he also finds inspiration in classic works such as Manet's "The Fifer" and his Beggar-Philosopher series.

Most of his creative output begins within the pages of a sketchbook. In the past few years he has started to introduce more drawing elements into both his watercolors and also in his larger paintings. The pencil line within the completed pieces translates an energy and an honesty of construction. The viewer can see the process involved in getting to a completed painting and this is laid bare in his recent work.

Pommier has crissed crossed from commercial work for such companies as Virgin Mobile and Toy Machine Skateboards to the gallery world were he has shown in far afield places such as Australia and Germany to much closer locations such as Toronto and Denver as well as LA and New York.

For almost three years Andrew Pommier has found himself living and working on the west coast of Canada. He moved to the west coast for no other reason that he needed a change of scenery after living in Toronto his home after graduating in 1996 from the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Blaine Fontana. Born in Seattle, WA and raised on Bainbridge Is. (a small and private artistic community west of Seattle), Blaine began his interest in art at a young age. Always encouraged to use his imagination, he continued to study and practice the arts whenever available. During his teens he commuted to two High Schools in order to study graphic design, photography, sculpture and life drawing. After graduating in 1994, he pursued his education of life in the streets of Seattle and Portland as a Writer (Graffiti Artist).

After about 4 years of being in and out of towns and community colleges, Blaine and his younger brother decided to put their talents in the professional arena. Both choose to attend Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Four years later Blaine left with a BFA in Communication Art/Design at the top of his class with the "Best in Show" award that is presented upon Graduation in 2002. During School he worked as an Art Director at a cutting edge design firm (Abound LLC.) and also as an Art Director at a Fashion/Lifestyle Magazine (Metro.Pop). Recently Blaine had worked as an Art Director at a young men's apparel company (Drifter), but in January of 2003 he decided to leave the 9-5 world and be self-employed as a fine artist and designer. Since then he hasn't looked back. Blaine has been doing paintings, licensing, graphics and shows for Lineage Gallery, Limited Addiction Gallery, Scribble Theory, Upper Playground, Don O'Melveny Gallery, Pr1mary Space, The Lab 101, Distinction Gallery, Keep A Breast, Pacific Sunwear, Ocean Pacific, Sessions, SCION Installation Art Tour, KID ROBOT, NIKE, Ubiquity Recordings, LRG, Volcom, Metro.Pop, Liquid Force, FLIP, FELT racing & Morey Boards. He keeps busy with commissioned paintings and is represented in numerous galleries across the United States.

Currently Blaine relocated back to Bainbridge Island, WA USA after living in Long Beach, CA for 10 years with his creative partner and girlfriend Eugenie Jolivett, a photographer and designer along with his dogs "Zeus" & "Athena" as a full time fine artist and designer. He shows frequently all across America and keeps busy with commissioned paintings, and high profile company licensing of his artwork and design.

J. Shea. Born and raised in Boston ,Ma.... J.Shea was influenced at an early age by the art of the catholic church..........classic sci-fi film........the pride of the Boston Celtics....and the music and posters of punk rock..........

while attending art school.....Shea created hand bills and posters for rock shows in Boston.........later.....after relocating to the westcoast to design sneakers......Shea began creating color posters for shows up and down the California coast........

it was around this time that Shea began exhibiting his personal art in many forms......
painting....sculpure......assemblege.....and collage....while building a career as
a sneaker designer.....a poster artist.....a puppet fabricator......an illustrator.....
and a muralist..........

Shea works in narritve/surreal themes......in all media.....all by hand...the work is more a folk art meets decrative art style then a traditional art style....his work is exhibited all over the country........and he currently works out of his studio in downtown Los Angeles.........

Sage Vaughn. Born 1976 an hour and a quarter after the bicentennial in Jacksonville Oregon. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Yoskay Yamamoto. Born and raised in Toba, Japan, Yoskay Yamamoto moved to the United States at the age of 15. A self-trained illustrator, Yamamoto’s artistic tastes expanded as he fell in love with the urban culture of the West coast. Yamamoto discovered a way to fuse the two different cultural backgrounds together into his work. Yamamoto nostalgically blends pop iconic characters from his new Western home with traditional and mythical Japanese elements, balancing his Asian heritage with urban pop art. He has sold out his work recently at shows in San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles.

Scion Installation Art Tour: 'It's A Beautiful World'

2008-06-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

I was able to score some really nice pieces on the final day at the auction. Most galleries take 40 to 50% from the final sale price but this is the only gallery that give 100% of the proceeds to the artist or toward art related charities.

Everything is still in bubble wrap but here's what I won:

Kofie'One is a self taught freelance Illustrator, Painter & Mix-Media artisan born & raised in the City of Angles. After being lured into the colorful & clandestine world of West LA Graffiti Art in his teens, Kof has maintained a steady, progressive fixture & a respected contributer to the Historic LA Movement. In the late 90's his work began to focus on exaggerating elements of his developing letter-forms & structures, quickly locking down his own architect like demeanor in his line works. These days Kof can be found at his East Los Angeles studio producing assemblage works, watercolors, mural installations & still finds time to manage his own personal clothing collection 'Draftsmen'. Distributed domestically & overseas since 2001, they incorporate his unique hand assembled cut & paste designs & a non-trend riding asthetic.

Recent clients Include Juxtapoz, Stussy, A+D Museum-LA, Parco-JP, Tronic Studios-NY, Frank 151 & Endeavor Snowboards.

Travis Millard is responsible for the Fudge Factory Comics operation headquartered in Los Angeles. The former weight-lifting prodigy found refuge in drawing after splitting his neck in a nasty competitive flexing accident as a child. Since then, his work has been exhibited in the US and internationally, and has been published in numerous books and magazines. Recent books by Travis Millard include the collaborative with Michael Sieben, "Hitten' Switches"; and the recent "Hey Fudge", a 240 page solo release with Narrow Books. His drawings are represented by the Richard Heller Gallery.

Freddi C is originally from London, England but has made Los Angeles her home for the past seven years. Before moving to L.A., she lived in NYC for eight years, where she worked as an art director for a textile design company. It was in New York that she also started painting. After exhibiting in NYC, she took a break from painting completely and moved to Los Angeles. In August 1999 she started painting a series of paintings entitled ‘Flyer Miles’. Following the success of this series, she has been working full-time as an artist, graphic designer and curator - founding ‘STREETWISE’. In 2003 she opened her own gallery in Los Angeles - The Lab 101 Gallery.

And this great photograph by Mike Giant, taken in El Salvador. Birth. Upstate New York. Drawing. New Mexico. BMX bikes. Heavy Metal. Skateboarding. Punk rock. Hip-hop. Thailand. College. Dishwasher. Raves. Lorelei. First tattoo. San Francisco. Dharma. Think Skateboards. Angi. London. Adult bookstore. Computer animation. Tattooing. New York City. Newskool. Skullz Press. Everlasting. Track bikes. Brooke and Leia. Tokyo. Tattoo 13. Plum Village. Albuquerque. Stay Gold. Rebel8. Manifestations. Penny farthings. Ordination. Megan. 35. Right here. Right now.

...can't wait for the next year's auction.

KAWS 4FT COMPANION (Grey Version)

2008-06-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

On June 6th, Kaws released his 4FT COMPANION (Grey Version). Because it was only available on his website, the product was sold out within hours. Limited to 2000 pieces with a price tag of $3000. This time, he was nice enough to offer it U.S. buyers only.

Guerrilla Marketing

2008-06-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

The goals of guerrilla marketing are relatively simple: use unconventional tactics to advertise on a small budget.

Read the history of guerrilla marketing on:

Weburbanist

Afrika Bambaataa-Planet Rock Kraftwerk Original Video

2008-06-07T06:38:00.000-07:00