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Home Opening Photos  David Chung & Ben Kehoe @WWA
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Written by Michael C. Hsiung
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Friday, 28 October 2011, 9:34am
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The old battle axe and I headed out to Culver City to check out WWA gallery's latest two-person show featuring David Chung’s Smells Better Than it Tastesand Ben Kehoe’s The Endless Frontier which opened Saturday, October 14th. Los Angeles based artist, David Chung's works ranged from ink brush moleskin works to colorfully cute and humorous paintings, all of which worked well along side Pittsburgh-based painter, Ben Kehoe's subtly absurd and darkly humored paintings, filled with texture and color washes, focused on pioneers and frontiersmen of the new world and old west that the wonders and terrors they faced.
David Chung, affectionately known as The Chung, lives in Los Angeles yet works out of some dark, strange corner of the human imagination that the rest of us generally knows to stay away from. His artwork, filled with humor and awkwardness, is a sort of catharsis for the moments of humiliation which inevitably stain all of our lives. Working as both an illustrator and a fine artist, Chung has shown in galleries all over Los Angeles and has had works featured at Miami’s Art Basel. As an illustrator he has worked for clients such as Nickelodeon, Disney, NPR, Nesquik, Kellogg’s, Six Flags, Mattel, Kraft, Metro Times and G4TV.


The Virgin Shrympee Ramen Noodle Soup by David Chung.

Work by Ben Kehoe
Ben Kehoe lives in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Temple University in 2001. He is primarily influenced by nature, pattern-based medieval artwork, comical violence and uncomfortable situations.
Kehoe is a member of “Unicorn Mountain,” a collective of artists that publish independent comics, art, music, and literature.
ALL WORKS AVAILABLE HERE
David Chung | Smells Better than it Tastes
Ben Kehoe | The Endless Frontier
October 14th - November 12th
WWA Gallery
9517 Culver Blvd.
Culver City CA 90232
http://www.wwagallery.com

While I've been to Culver City a few times for art shows, I've never been to the WWA gallery on Culver Blvd. Oh yeah, they got a parking lot over there that is free for the first 2 hours and then $1 after. Not too shabby.

Rachel and I rolled to up to congratulate and greet our buddy, Ben and his lady Rachel!! We last got to visit them in Pittsburgh during my trip to Philadelphia.

Ben's works adorned the walkway up to the main gallery space as well as an area on the back wall. Here's a set of 4 oval paintings.

Close up photographs of the pieces courtesy of the artist. I like the see-through eye patch.

Really like the color int he sky on this piece.

Ghosts from the west.

Artists Ben Kehoe and David Chung

Works by David Chung aka THE CHUNG!!!


The Stink Elk by David Chung. Bet that one reeks. That penguin just got crop dusted on.

Ben chatting with some folks.

More of Ben's works.


Head in the Trees by Ben Kehoe.


Overwhelming First Supernatural Encounter by Ben Kehoe


Some ink on moleskin and pencil sketches by David Chung.





Friends do live out in Culver shitty, I mean Culver City. My apologies. Erik poses by some works by Ben.

Little tables with candies and snacks were a good way to keep folks in the gallery and led to lots of sugar highs and crashes.



Ran into our buddy Mike Fischer, another Culver City resident.

Mike, incidentally, was standing in front of some awesome works by artists Jon MacNair. You gotta check his stuff out. Rad stuff.

We crept into another back room that was filled with works from past shows.

This totally would go perfect in my black light Pink Floyd postered velvet cushion room. Guy smoking a roach with a roach.

More works by Jon Macnair. SICK!


I like these two pieces (sorry didn't get the artist's name) but they were hung low to the ground.

I spy a Ken Garduno piece.

One more from David Chung that was hiding in my camera.


Things are going downhill from here.

Rachel and Ben are ready for some drinks, and for their stay at Hotel Hsiung. We got a tool shed out back with some granite pillows and burlap blankets.

Actually at our buddy Mike's birthday! Beer cam cheers with Eric, Ben, and Bobbert.

Robert loves photos.

Late night catch up at the apartment. Congrats on the show David and Ben.
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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
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| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
 |

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| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
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| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
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| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
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| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
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| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
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| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
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| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
 |

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| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
 |

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| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
 |

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| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
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| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
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| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
 |

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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
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| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
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| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
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| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
 |

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| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
 |

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| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
 |

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| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
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Call for Artists: Port Pier 92 Public Art Project
Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 10:24am
Wanna do a commissioned mural/ multi-media project/ public artwork on a massive silo here in San Francisco? Live in the Western United States? The commission pays $190,000, and the mural will be up for 5 years. Awesome opportunity and if you think you have the right stuff, READ THE DETAILS AND APPLY.
 $190,000 to put your art on this massive silo in San Francisco.
Artwork opportunities may include a mural or kinetic artwork on the exterior wall of the northern grain silo or a lighting or multi-media project that illuminates or projects on the cranes or silos in the day or at night. Pier 92 is located at the entrance to the Bayview community and the artwork should make a strong visual statement in keeping with the gateway experience and industrial setting. ~read on

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Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 11:56am

New Fish Print
Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 10:12am
Our buddy Jeremy Fish has a brand new print The Golden Hills out through Upper Playground. The print is made in an edition of 100, signed and numbered by the artist, and printed at the fantastic Bloom Press in Oakland, California. 18" x 24" $100
This drawing was inspired by that looming feeling that San Francisco is an isolated island from the rest of the country. As SF becomes more and more expensive, and the lower income creative folks that make this city pulse get squeezed off the island, "the city that knows how" will slowly transform into a sterile west coast Manhattan full of tech chads and internet gurus. —Jeremy Fish

To All The Graduates
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 11:23am
Congrats to some of our friends who've just graduated from SFAI this past weekend. Henry Gunderson (below), Alex Ziv, Quinn Arneson and our intern Alex Uhrich among many more not only at SFAI but those at CCA and other schools across the country. May you all work hard and prosper in your future arting endeavors.
 Henry Gunderson all grown up, college graduated and bow-tied.

Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 1:40pm
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist, Round 2: When Jacobs Turns Vandalized Store Into $680 Shirt <-- Earlier this week, on the night of the Met Ball, the Marc Jacobs boutique in SoHo was hit by French graffiti artist Kidult, who has famously vandalized Supreme, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton, among others. The hit? Kidult took a fire extinguisher filled with pink paint, and sprayed the word ART over the front of the store (seen below). ~continue reading

Dave Kinsey @FFDG 5/18
Wednesday, 09 May 2012, 1:00pm
Thanks to Arrested Motion who posted some info on Dave Kinsey's solo show Lost For Words which opens at FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm). This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years. RSVP.
Founder of BLK/MRKT w/ Shepard Fairey in '97 (becoming sole owner in '03), lengedary street artist with his Unlearn campaign, and highly accomplished painter, it's with great honor that we welcome him back to San Francisco. New paintings, mixed media and installation, it should be one of our best shows to date and a lot of fun. -Complete Show Details
 Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words at FFDG on Fri, May 18th.

Asian Art Museum Tonight, Thurs
Thursday, 17 May 2012, 10:51am
The Asian Art Museum opens their grand first contemporary show PHANTOMS OF ASIA with a massive preview party this evening with DJs, food, and other goodies 7:30pm - midnight ~details
We went to the press preview yesterday and should have some photos to share, but time constraints due to preparations for our show w/ Dave Kinsey opening Friday and the lack of a mayor Ed Lee which all were waiting for... Well, we had to bail before they let us preview the show... What we've seen online looks great and tonight should be a blast. See you there.
 Some of the artists participating in PHANTOMS OF ASIA under Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa's 24-foot-tall "Breathing Flower" in the Civic Center.

Phantoms of Asia Opening Thurs, 17th
Friday, 11 May 2012, 1:29pm
The Asian Art Museum here in San Francisco opens its first large-scale contemporary art exhibition Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past with a big old preview party on Thursday, May 17th complete w/ DJs VIN SOL and KING MOST. ~details
Curated by Mami Kataoka, chief curator of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, in collaboration with Allison Harding, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Asian Art Museum, Phantoms of Asia features artworks by contemporary artists hailing from Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Tibet, and the U.S. Going to be a great show.
 Installation by Choi Jeong Hwa
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+SF
| :: Love Lunatic: Or, How to Be Loved When .. - Thu | | :: "So you think you can Paint?" - Thu | | :: RAW SF: The Blend with B.LEWIS, THE SPI.. - Thu | | :: Nothing Is Ever Finished @Eli Ridgway G.. - Thu | | :: 'Yi, dos, drei, four' @Fouladi Projects - Fri | | :: SFFS Presents: 'Once Upon a Time in Ana.. - Fri | | :: Friday Nights at SF Decorator Showcase .. - Fri | | :: "Graphical Inspirations" Art Opening - Fri | | :: Opening Reception for 'Yi, dos, drei, f.. - Fri | | :: Between the Lines a solo exhibition b.. - Fri | | :: YI, DOS, DREI, FOUR @Fouladi Projects - Fri | | :: 5 3 5 Progression: Brad Bernhardt, Mati.. - Fri | | :: Moe Thomas at B.G.O. - Fri | | :: 5 3 5 Progression: Brad Bernhardt, Mati.. - Sat | | :: Francesca Pastine - Unsolicited - Sat | | :: Stand Your Ground... The sun is Rising - Sat | | :: Strange Sinema 52 - Sat | | :: Intermittant Motion - Sat | | :: San Francisco Carnaval 2012 - Sat | +NYC
+LA
FULL CALENDARS: BAY AREA | NYC | LA
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Dave Kinsey at FFDG through June 16th. -as of 1pm

| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
 |

 |
| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
 |

 |
| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
 |

 |
| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
 |

 |
| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
 |

 |
| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
 |

 |
| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
 |

 |
| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
 |

 |
| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
 |

 |
| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
 |

 |
| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
 |

 |
| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
 |

 |
| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
 |

 |
| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
 |

 |
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
 |

 |
| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
 |

 |
| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
 |

 |
| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
 |

 |
| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
 |

 |
| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
 |

 |
| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
 |

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