Last Chance Studio member and art buddy from Perth, Australia Sean Morris recently emailed me some of his photos and a link to a really awesome national art tour they took. They traveled around and launched 3 art exhibitions in 14 days. Check out the photo diary below.
Last Chance Studio is an art gang from Perth, Australia, the most isolated capital city in the world. It’s the sort of town where you kinda have to make cool shit happen for yourself, ’cause it’s probably not gonna come to you. That’s pretty much why Last Chance exists. The east coast hubs of Sydney and Melbourne might traditionally be home to the nation’s most prolific artists, but out west in sleepy Perth this band of brothers have been kicking it pretty hard for about 18 months now. Established by Daek William and Kid Zoom, Last Chance began as an independant studio in a decaying main street shopfront – next to a skydiving business and a gun store – and has grown into a pretty solid collective, made up of about ten mid-20s dudes who share an general interest in painting rad stuff. -Michael Hsiung
A couple of weeks ago Last Chance Studio went on a national art tour. We drank too much beer, almost missed a couple of flights, met some rad people, and launched 3 separate art exhibitions in 14 days. Following the first show in our home town, Perth photo lord Elliot Strang got on an eastbound plane with us and shot a hell of a lot of photos. Here are a few of them.
Seattle based Robert Hardgrave'sRapture Suit made of leftovers from failed paintings- on display with new paintings in December at David B. Smith in Denver. Like the new works. ~check the video
The Independent will be showing Thursday's game (FREE) which could be a good spot to view it with several hundred other San Franciscans. We're going to try the water for Thursday's game if it doesn't rain out. So look for us in the cove... Where you plan on watching the games?
Teenagers in Love is a California casual clothing company. Our intentions are to keep the world bright, unique, and freshly dressed. Pulling much aesthetic inspiration from vintage surf, skate, & bmx culture as well as vintage motorcycles and graphic design, we strive to bring back styles that the present industry seems to have forgotten.
Before Damon Soule's solo show Tessellating Pigments opened Oct 14th at Jushua Liner in NYC, Manuel ran into him in Brooklyn and stopped by his studio... Soule's show runs through Nov 6th and looks amazing.
On a calm day in New York City, hundreds of pigeons can be seen flying together over the rooftops of certain neighborhoods - a tornado of birds. For many who participate in the sport it is a salvation from daily life and the distractions of the streets. To me it is a remnant of a city’s past and a culturally dynamic sport. Some of the things my photos focus on are the relationship between these men and their animals, the aesthetic of the birds and the coops, and the act of flying the birds.
Many Thanks to Black, Papo, Soto, Junior, Vinnie, Pedro, Gill, Chase, JC, luis and Sugar
“One morning I woke up and found my favorite pigeon, Julius, had died. I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honor him. I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher. I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand and he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard.” -Mike Tyson
San Francisco artist Brian Barneclo has been working on creating the largest mural here in SF at 7th and Townsend streets "Systems Mural Project" . He's been in the fundraising part of the project for over a year now as he trys to raise the money for the permits, paint, equipment, etc. It's a grassroots campaign, and with the help from businesses and organizations such as the Intersection for the Arts, it's looking like it will be come a reality. Brian has rasied over $30,000 to date but needs a total of $70,000 to begin work. He's created this KickStarter page where you can dontate... and remember that IT'S TAX DUCTABLE since it's being fiscally sponsored by the Intersection for the Arts. Get in there and drop a $20 on a great project. ~on Facebook
Brian Barneclo's work is now on display @The W Hotel through December... Also, a funny thing about the mural is that Brian has the green light to begin today, Otc 18th, but they need $8,000 for insurance. Donate and help make it happen, captain.
Some mural facts: * This will be the largest mural in San Francisco at 600 feet long and 40 feet tall
* SF Mayor Gavin Newsom has given the project a Proclamation declaring September 16th Systems Mural Day in SF
* The "canvas" for the huge painting greets Caltrains passengers as the enter and exit The City near 7th and Townsend
* There is a 30' mini version of the design on display at a new gallery in the Metreon called Brief Space on display through December
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The STROKE.ARTFAIR is the worlds first artfair dedicated to the artistic developments of many diverse subcultural influences throughout the last 30 years, such as Streetart, Graffiti, Low-Brow, Illustration, Skateboard Art and many more - subsumed under the term of Urban Art.
Our 10 year anniversary show has just ended, and we have a few works still available like this patchwork painting by Jim Houser below featuring four 3 dimensional overlays. *click image for larger view
-- Jim Houser, In Decline, acrylic on wood panel, 24“x24”
Got this email from Paris based street artist LUDO.
-- Just wanted to share some pics of a little series I'm doing right now. Basically it's called "co-branding" and it's about invading bus shelters spaces with my stuff and brand them to fit in the commercial world. It started with a DelMonte custom can and still going on...
LUDO, thanks for emailing. We like... Is that birth control in the Chanel piece?
MOMO @Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design
366 South First Street San Jose, CA
Exhibition Dates: October 1 - November 20, 2010
MOMO is known for thoughtful post- graffiti: tagging his name the width of Manhattan, creating over-sized collage, a fake New Yorker magazine cover, tide powered sculpture, a computer script which makes his art for him, and prints, paintings, and videos that rely on chance for fun and substance... His show in San Jose runs through Nov 20th at Anno Domini. Great work, and have you seen his tagging of Manhatten which is the largest to date- over 8 miles. NYTimes article. ~Show details
This may be one of our favorite items we've posted in some time. Just love it. Enjoy.
About "Lagoi & Lace"
Ralph Lagoi and Kate Lace are the artist duo behind "Lagoi & Lace". While studying art and photography at the Academy of media Arts in Cologne where they graduated with honors in summer 2010, they soon decided to combine their various strengths (photography, design, art direction and styling) to cherish and celebrate the power of beauty and fashion.
About the "Love Land Invaders"
Japan's stunningly decorated love hotel rooms are the impact zone of the "Love Land Invaders". They conquer these quirky and marvelous rooms with their playful visual lust. They strike iconic poses and seem to own a vast collection of unique fashion objects. It appears as if you're observing some intimate moments of energetic superheroes...
In order to find the perfect locations to unleash such concentrated passion we headed out for the most extraordinary love hotel rooms we could find in Osaka and the Kansai area.
The "Love Land Invaders" collection, which we designed and constructed beforehand, consists of masks, glasses, shields, armory, jewelry, customized clothes and ribbons, which are reaching out like demanding tentacles. After putting on these pieces we transformed into "Miss Takehito Quadruple", "Mister Hyde Dobuita Speerträger", "Mr. Seiuchi Sivuch", "Shika Shika Chan" and "Miss Ayanami Oenshi". Each of these characters represents a certain aspect of beauty (the beauty of dark elegance, the beauty of a gentleman, the beauty of play, the beauty of wilderness, the beauty of pink). The "Love Land Invaders" express an idea we call luxurious pop. In this project luxury can be found in the aesthetic quality of the design, for example by using glossy materials, sculptural shapes and vibrant colors. Luxury can also mean giving oneself the freedom to explore your desires and fantasies and creating fitting worlds. For us pop describes the idea of bringing diverse inspirational sources into a fresh mix to create emotionally and visually strong images. The idea of luxurious pop was our guiding light while creating the "Love Land Invaders".
Muralist, RIPO emailed over a couple newer mural works. Love his lettering and these pieces.
Your Name Super Size - Near Basel, Switzerland
Madrid, Spain - An old tobacco factory in Madrid seemed like the perfect place to paint a tribute to the classic Optimo Cigars sign that I grew up seeing all over NYC. And even for those people who won't know the context it's at least an Optimistic word. - RIPO
We wrap up short interviews with artists participating in the show with the mega talented Oliver Vernon who now lives in Northern California.
What were you up to in the year 2000?
My dj friends and I had just built and opened Halcyon in Brooklyn, a dj-lounge/cafe/gallery/mod furnishings shop. I was djing around New York and painting murals in clubs, bars and restaurants. I started doing live paintings at Giant Step parties, which were paid gigs (unheard-of at the time.) Through Halcyon I met a dealer who put me in my first New York group show at the gallery in the Gershwin Hotel as well as the Armory Show.
How has your work changed in the last 10 years?
Painting is a reflection of life, an expression of any given moment in time, it is autobiographical. As times pass and change, so do i and so does the painting. In certain ways I look at what i'm doing now and think that it's basically the same as I was doing 15 years ago, only seasoned and textured with the accumulated experiences of life. The basic principles have remained in tact through the years, but I have pushed evolution in the way I approach and handle the materials, and how the different painting ideas are engaging the surface and each other. I am now much more sensitive to nuance and subtlety, and have a greater consideration for how the different layers are interacting.
Downtown Manhattan at dawn on a Sunday is a very peculiar place. Then a group of artists performing a piece called "Bodies in Urban Spaces" by choreographer Willi Dorner made it that much stranger. Yet delightful. -Bryan Derballa
This day may have been inevitable, but now it's finally here. In its attempt to take over the world - or at least everything that can be bought and sold in the world, Amazon is launching an art gallery.
This summer Amazon is planning to launch a Fine Art Gallery where customers will be able to purchase original artwork offered by a select group of invited galleries via Amazon.com. ~continue reading
A new HBO documentary looks at the work of street artist JR, whose giant portraits force people in troubled areas to confront the humanity that's all around them... On the day JR found out he'd won the $100,000 TED Prize, the French pasteup artist found himself in China being questioned by police for doing his thing on the streets of Shanghai. ~continue reading
Street artist JR HBO documentary premiered yesterday, May 20th
Art lovers, collectors and gallerists will gather on Thursday for Hong Kong's inaugural edition of Art Basel, sealing the city's status as an international art hub and Asia's leading art destination... Hong Kong has surged to third place in the global art auction market behind New York and London and Western galleries are falling over each other to open franchises in the former British colony. ~continue reading
Our buddy Ferris Plock opens a small show of drawings at Benny Gold on 3169 16th St this Friday, May 24th (7-10pm) featuring 31 drawings priced at 75-140 bucks.
Ferris also released the video Fingered! he produced with animator Jim Dirschberger. View it
Wowzas, there's a lot of art happenings this weekend, and while you're making the rounds, be sure to stop at SFAI's MFA show Currency opening Friday, May 17th at the beautiful old SF Mint Building (88 5th Street).
SFAI's 2013 MFA graduates—working in painting, photography, printmaking, film, sculpture, installation, digital media, performance, and across media—will present work that embraces the Institute's signature spirit of experimentation and conceptual risk-taking.
Opening reception: Friday, May 17, 7–9 pm & running through Sunday 11-6pm daily. -- complete details
London based Pedro Matos opens the solo show Building Castles Made of Sand this Friday in Los Angeles at the Martha Otero Gallery featuring a new series of oil paintings on canvas and azulejo panels - a traditional Portuguese medium of hand-painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tile work.
San Francisco -- CCA opens their 2013 MFA Thesis Exhibition this Thursday, May 16th at their SF campus. Every year another graduating class produces steller work. One of the best SF art events worth getting to, but be sure to get there early as there's always a long line. ~details
Ryan De La Hoz' show in the Upper Haight at RVCA runs through this Saturday... And the next time you're in the Mission, be sure to swing through his new shop on 14th St, Cool Try... We need to get over there soon and do a little photo feature for ya.
The Book and Job Gallery (San Francisco) really stepped it up with the opening of Daniel Chen's loveBlast on May 4th. Complete with a doorman, piano player, old fashioneds, and some really nice paintings, I could hardly believe I was at the Book and Job. The paintings varied in size, and the show was balanced nicely between them, the spray-can work on the walls, and the smaller drawings displayed throughout. The kind notes Chen wrote on the walls are certain to brighten your day, and the rest of the work is definitely worth a look. It was a very classy evening and I hope they continue to intersperse shows like these into their schedule in the future
FFDG opened up the group show featuring original works by the artists of the world famous Skull & Sword tattoo last Friday here in San Francisco. Thanks to the huge crowd who turned out to support these four incredibly talented artists. Here is a taste of the show, and be sure to swing in to view in person. The show runs through June 8th.
Gary Baseman's retrospective "The Door is Always Open" at the Skirball in LA opened recently to massive crowds in a huge celebratory opening party. The exhibition is so complex and personal, delving into Baseman's background, family history, and all the layers of prolific work that he has done over the years. After the opening festivities winded down, I caught up with Baseman for an interview. We discussed the underlying meaning to some of the components of the show and how it felt for him, coming from such an honest personal perspective in putting this massive show together.
Fertile Menace, a new show of Mark Mulroney's (NY) work opened at Ever Gold on May 4th and it's not one to be missed. It is intelligently hilarious, with jokes riffing off sex, Foucault, and the body, and while it makes you laugh it's also going to make you think.
Our buddies Jay Howell, Andreas Trolf, and Jim Dirschberger are hyped as their show, which they've been working on for like 2 years, premieres on Nickelodeon Saturday. From the trailers we've seen so far and from what Jay has told us about, the show is going to be pretty epic. Congrats to those radical fellas.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Athens, Greece based designer, architect and artist Dimitris Polychroniadis emailed over more of his work which consists of mixed media, pop-humorous diorama sculptures that make a comment on the harsh realities my country and much of the world is facing at the moment.
FFDG will open a group show with the artists from the famed Skull & Sword Tattoo on Friday, May 17th (6-9pm). Artists: Grime, Henry Lewis, Yutaro, and Lango. Below are a series of videos on Grime for Vice's Tattoo Age produced in 2011. Fascinating look at one of the greatest tattoo artists alive today.
ARYZ (Spain) opened his newest gallery show at Fifty24SF last Friday and, if you live in the Bay Area, you need to go. This dude can obviously paint, and he doesn't need an entire building to show his impecable skill. The show has lots of small works on paper which contrast his highly-defined line work to his hard-edged painted objects. The contrast between the hard and soft was the most striking thing to me about his work, since I had never seen it in person before, and the washes blend with the thick paint seamlessly. The show also contains a larger work on canvas, a huge head suspended in the back of the room, and a big wood sculpture of a wolf figure. This diversity in such a small space was impressive, and those of us that went to the opening even got to meet the man in person. If you didn't make it out this weekend, check it out before May 31st when it closes and these works will be off to some very happy new homes.
Water McBeer is please to announce its latest exhibition "Precious" a solo exhibition by David Bayus (April 6 - May 4, 2013) -- David Bayus born 1982 holds his BFA from the Savannah College of Art and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. David lives and works in San Francisco and is a founding member of the basement collective. This will be his first exhibition with the world renown Water McBeer Gallery highlighting his most recent achievements with paint and digital media. David Bayus will be exhibiting 5 relatively large-scale mixed media works along with a collaborative object featuring Hungarian sculptor H.R KOONS.
The Shooting Gallery handed over the reins to the Red Truck Gallery (a New Orleans based gallery) which curated their new show, Hard Time Mini Mall and opened the it on Saturday night. This is my favorite show (so far) in the Shooting Gallery's new space and was packed full of art, a mini bar, and cowhide rugs. The Red Truck Gallery chose works with clear craftsmanship and it was easy to see in Ian Berry's denim assemblages and Chris Roberts-Antieau's awesome quilts. The space was completely packed, making it hard to see each piece individually, but this show deserves a second trip anyway. I look forward to spending more time with the chandeliers, automatons, and paintings before the show comes down on May 4th.
Toronto based photographer Nathan Cyprys emailed to let us know about his newest series "Neighbour State", and we were about to post it when we spotted this series on his site entitled "Ayre (of Distances)" and had to post this one instead. After you view this one, view "Neighbour State" on his site. Both are visually enjoyable.
Working from found photographs, Lyle's paintings are created through a reductive painting process where each piece is rendered using only black paint and turpentine. Lyle begins this process by priming a panel with white gesso. He then paints a thin, rich, oily black veneer over the primed panel, slowly and systematically developing his images by removing some of the black paint with a cloth. In doing so, Lyle renders layer upon layer of various values of black paint resulting in his signature-style of luminescent works.
London based David Shillinglaw who's blogged it up for Fecal Face in the past recently completed this mural in London as he prepares for his solo show at Stolen Space opening on April 26th.
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This day may have been inevitable, but now it's finally here. In its attempt to take over the world - or at least everything that can be bought and sold in the world, Amazon is launching an art gallery.
