Here's a little taste of work by the artists of the world famous The Skull and Sword tattoo shop who open their show at San Francisco's FFDG on Friday, May 17th (7-10pm).

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Skull & Sword
Grime, Henry Lewis, Yutaro, and Lango
Opening Friday, May 17th (7-10pm)
@FFDG, 2277 Mission St @19th

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Following his solo exhibition "The Collected" at Gallery Wendi Norris, painter Amir H. Fallah is in the throes of developing more new works for upcoming international exhibits. We spent some time in his studio in Highland Park, Los Angeles recently, discussing his process and inspiration.

Amir H. Fallah admits that he's in the studio seven days a week, which is part of the reason he's chosen to build his studio into his home in Los Angeles. Fallah is an incredibly prolific visual artist showing nationally and internationally, and is also the founder and owner of Beautiful Decay, juggling both with incredible dexterity. On the tail end of his very successful and highly reviewed solo exhibition "The Collected" at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco, immediately followed by the opening of "Desaturated Rainbow," a group exhibition he co-curated which opened in NYC at Field Projects, Fallah is back to work without missing a beat. I visited him at his studio on a beautiful sunny day recently to get a behind the scenes view of his process and inspiration.

Fallah is currently working on a number of pieces for a group exhibition at The Third Line in Dubai and several works on paper for another group exhibit in Rotterdam. The exhibition in Dubai is called Arrangement, and he is developing painted and collaged works on paper-mounted-canvas for it that deconstruct and reconfigure flower arrangement. Fallah found himself making these pieces after creating a painting he titled "The Ultimate Mom Painting" in 2009.

He says, "my mom called me up one day and said, 'Can't you just paint me something pretty? Like some flowers or a pond?' She wanted mom art... I made the 7'x5' painting as a joke and halfway through the painting I realized I liked it."

Seeing his work during its developing stages, the dance between abstraction and realism and the spatial tension that Fallah is playing with become clearer. Balancing references to abstract painting, Persian Miniature paintings, Dutch and Flemish still life and graphic design, the works are multidimensional and increasingly textural the closer one looks. --continuing reading

We were first introduced to the photography of Spanish born NYC based Bubi Canal when he emailed us his great video Trust in Me a couple years ago. His solo show Special Moment recently ran at NYC's Munch Gallery in February, and he recently released his newest video Chrystelle below.

Internet zone found at: www.bubicanal.com

Although I missed the opening of Northern-California photographer Michael Garlington's newest show, Constructed Realities, I was fortunate enough to see the work still up during the Metaphysical fundraiser a couple weeks back at 111 Minna. Metaphysical fundraiser, an auction to benefit Wayne Ernzer.

The ghoulish photographs in their heavy, hand-made frames are reminiscent of photos from the old west, and the glass crucifixes, complete with fetuses and guns, emphasize the accumulated time within the works themselves. Whether you're looking at the frames, the photos, or both, this show deserves a visit, and a walk through the golden archway Garlington constructed around the front door.

Work by Northern-California photographer Michael Garlington

Work by Alex Kopps as part of the Metaphysical fundraiser.

Work for the Metaphysical fundraiser which went down at 111 Minna a couple weeks back.

View all the photos

Fecal Face contributor Rachel Ralph (rachel(at)fecalface.com) has been profiling this Oakland based painter as he travels about Japan. In this segment, we feature some photos as he prepared for this show and residency at Spes-LaB in Tokyo which opened last weekend. Arnold will be featured in SFMoMA's Minna Street windows on June 8th.

Last Saturday, here in SF's Mission district, Guerrero Gallery opened two new shows with Philly based Alex Lukas and SF based Richard Colman respectively. Colman's work occupied the project space while Lukas' work and foliage was presented in the main space. Worth getting to if you haven't already.

Richard Colman

Alex Lukas

Alex Lukas

Alex Lukas

Just got back to SF after a little trip south to Sayulita, Mexico. After 10 years without a vacation, me and the Mrs. headed south for some mental time off sitting in the sun, swimming and enjoying the watery Mexican beer. Here are some photos as we get back into the swing of things again.

Huge Clare Rojas in the international terminal at SFO.

Highly recommend spending a little more for your own private pool.

San Francisco based Tristan Arcelona emailed over this ode to a SF classic. Whether male or female you gotta give respect to the first (and as of 2009 only) successfully unionized sex business in the U.S. We haven't been in years but do remember the place smelling like a healthy mixture of semen and cleaning supplies.

I like the comment left on their Yelp page by Samu S., "If you ever wanted to masturbate nonchalantly while talking to nude strange women this is the spot."

I'm originally from nicaragua. I grew up and operated in San Jose, CA. Last August I moved up 2 sf to study photography and film at SFAI. One day it'll all make sense (2008-2012) - expired color film - thespacetraveler.com

Henrik Haven keeps us up to date on the art happenings from his native Copenhagen and sent us a three part series on some of his city's street art and graffiti. This part 3 concludes (for now) his city wide graffiti tour - Part 1 - Part 2.

San Francisco based Tyler Bewley emailed over these wonderful drawings for us to share. Really wonderful work.

Going through an email folder and forgot to post photos from Evan Nesbit's show at Ever Gold here in San Francisco.

Ever Gold's Greg Ito wearing one of Evan Nesbit's Space Blankets.