Philadelphia, PA. 22. BFA from Tyler School of Art. www.kylekogut.com

My work mainly consists of mixed media drawings and paintings of nonsensical figures/environments. A lot of it is about mankind's relationship to Nature, in both physical and metaphysical realms. Recently I've also been making animations and sculptures that deal with similar narratives.

My biggest inspiration is the natural world; what separates man from animal, and how have we evolved to conceptualize and comprehend our own existence as independent entities from the world around us. Mythology, philosophy, religious iconography, and cultural practices all play a part in the narrative of my work. Visual influnences include the Northern Renaissance period, Greek and Roman antiquity, fauvism, Christopher Davison, Picasso, Allison Shulnik, Jan Švankmajer, Dasha Shiskin, Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and countless others. Influences really come from everything.

Cheese please.

North Wales.

I basically lock myself in my studio and pretty much just do whatever I want, no rules. I make myself be stay productive and use my work as exploration of new ideas. I'm always looking for that next image or theme to expand on or experiment with. In the studio I listen to everything from the Black Angels to Panda Bear to Om. I make work around my job schedule, so it all kind of depends.

I run my own screen printing company and fill in some hours at a library, which also serves as an endless resource of history and imagery. I also have some potential teaching opportunities in the near future.

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Photo: Connor Novotny

//////////////////~ submit your photos to: potd(at)fecalface.com ~ make sure they're at least 700 pixels in width.

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Thanks to everyone who came out to last Friday's opening of Enthusiastic Person @FFDG here in San Francisco. Such a fun evening to celebrate Jay Howell's newest works and sculptures.

Photography by Shaun Roberts

Jay Howell and Tommy Guerrero

Kelly Tunstall, Jay Howell, and Ferris Plock

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LA based Jay Howell opened his current solo show in San Francisco's Mission district at FFDG last Friday to a huge crowd (pics later today) featuring over 40 new works including, for the first time, one of a kind sculptural works.

The show Enthusiastic Person runs through March 2nd and can be viewed in person Wed thru Sat (1-6pm). Works can purchased online: ffdg.net

FFDG is pleased to present Los Angeles based artist Jay Howell in his third highly anticipated solo show with the gallery entitled “Enthusiastic Person” featuring over 25 new mixed media cartoon-styled works on paper. Currently in production on the first season of the animated children’s show “Sanjay and Craig”, which Howell is Executive Producer, Co-Creator and Art Director, Howell will exhibit recent colorfully bright and whimsical drawings featuring the cast of characters, patterns and geometric shapes so recognizable as Jay Howell works. The 2013 Noise Pop music festival will feature Jay Howell's artwork on all their promotional materials.

Jay Howell is an all around kind dude that lives in Los Angeles with photographer girlfriend Ruth Swanson and a dog named Street Dog. When he's not illustrating for Vans or drawing skateboards he can be seen on the streets fuckin' around and sayin' classic shit. Jay designed the main characters for Fox's hit show, "Bob's Burgers". He is currently working as an Executive Producer, Co-Creator and Art Director on "Sanjay and Craig" an animated children's show for Nickelodeon.

View complete show: www.ffdg.net

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FIRE SHELTER:01 is a personal project located at Sydhavnstippen in Copenhagen. The starting point for the design emerged from a fascination of the place. It´s a temporary project and a design experiment that wish to celebrate the place. The project has public access, and it establishes experiences of spatial and social character. In the creation of it nobody has been asked of advice, neither has it been possible for anyone to tell his or her opinion. It is simply thought of as a gift. More on this later.

You can reach the place at Sydhavnstippen after a 20 minutes bike ride from central Copenhagen. Sydhavnstippen was landfilled with building materials between 1945 and 1973. Before that it was a seabed. Since the landfill plants, bushes and trees have taken over the area, and today it´s a habitat for a variety of animals. Walking around in the area is just amazing. The “wild” appearance of the nature on top of the building materials, which are visible some places, makes you think of a “post-apocalyptic” nature. The often deserted area amplifies this.

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While We Were Away at 941 Geary is a great show. That's almost enough to say, other than the fact that you should go see it. Curated by gallery director Tova Lobatz, the show features artists from the US and Europe (except for Chanoir who is from Columbia) whom Lobatz encountered in her travels. Along with their works, most of the artists included a suitcase with all the necessary items for their creative process. Whereas How & Nosm obviously carry stencils, Poesia carries a camera and paint-stained T-shirt. Eachartist's label was also in the form of a passport page, giving both biographical information and a quotefrom them. This personal insight, literally seeing into the internal objects of their reality as artists, givesthe show an intimate relationship between curator and artist, and therefore artist and viewer. Now, that is enough to say. Just go see the show before it closes March 2nd.

Miss Van, Sol y Luna, Acrylic on canvas, 28.5”x36”

Hebru Brantley, My Secrets Keep Secrets, Mixed media on canvas, 56”x56”

Jaybo Monk, I Lay Deaf to Death, Spray paint, acrylic and charcoal, 59”x1.5”x59”

Sten Lex, Untitled 3, Acrylic and stencil poster on wood, 28”x40”

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One of the wonderful things about running this site... So many talented artists email their fantastic works of art. Thanks and congrats, Carl Burton. Great short film.

Main animation site: shelteranimation.com/
Inspiration Tumblr: carlburton.tumblr.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/carlburton

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When's the last time you walked into a prominent contemporary art gallery and found yourself simultaneously surrounded by soaring neon-pigmented abstract paintings, the faint sound of The Cure and the scent of Nag Champa incense? Probably never.

The current exhibition "Points of Entry," a solo exhibition by LA artist MartinDurazo at Luis de Jesus in Culver City, Los Angeles, stimulates the senses ina high-art-meets-hessian-smoke-den vein that demonstrates where the artist iscoming from and how far he can take it.

The aptly titled exhibition "Points of Entry" includes a series of several large-scale (ranging from 9 ft x 6 ft. to 9 ft x 12 ft.) acrylic paintings and a black boxconstructed installation room where viewers can literally find a point of entry intothe world of the paintings and get immersed in their pigment and energy.

This constructed black light filled installation, of which the show is titled after, spills its incense smoke and fringe classic playlist out into the white cube of thegallery. Once inside, viewers find themselves in a pulsing, smoke filled, neoncolored cave fully festooned with black lights, LED lighting effects and garage-party paraphernalia including bean bag chairs, lava lamps, fetish gear, waterbongs and a smaller version of one of Durazo's paintings found on the whitewalls of the gallery.

After emerging from this installation, which feels a bit like falling down the best possible dreamscape rabbit hole, the two-dimensional works in this exhibitiontake on a different life. With titles ranging from "Slayer" to "Post Punk" theabstract pieces come alive with Richter-esque sweeping neon, metallic andblack swaths of color, reminiscent of rock concert posters. Technically takingnods from the continuum of modern abstract painting, Durazo takes these works further, infusing them with his fringe-culture influence, and a neon grittiness that feels fully LA.

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San Francisco-based artist Michelle Blade made one painting every single day of 2012. She titled the daily project '366 Days of The Apocalypse' in reference to the Mayan calendar which prophesied the world's end in 2012. Subsequently, the world didn't end so on January 18, 2013 all 366 paintings were put on display for Blade's solo show Making Light Of It: 366 Days of the Apocalypse at The Center For Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

(All 366 paintings can be viewed in detail on Blade's tumblr page.

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Some wall action by Italian artist Crin who's been based out of Berlin since '09.

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Here's my complete photo coverage of HuskMitNavn, (RememberMyName) Danish artist, b. 1975, lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark, "One Of These Days", which opened on the 18th at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. -Henrik Haven

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Some recent paintings by Portland based Adam Friedman whose show Space and Time, and Other Mysterious Aggregations opened last Friday at San Francisco's Eleanor Harwood Gallery. Our 2010 mini interview.

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