New Shooting Gallery & White Walls

For this show, White Walls opened with the grizzly paintings of Chad Hasegawa. I've been a fan of this local artist since I saw his bear in Clarion alley, and he used this opportunity to bring his bears to the space of fine art, titling them appropriately for the role. Several paintings are titled with the names of modernist masters and their styles are replicated in the bears themselves. While Motherwell has thick, black brushstrokes, Rothko has a washed background and a fluid texture.

Moving further back brought visitors into Charmaine Olivia's Muses. This girl can paint with incredible detail and the works are undeniably beautiful, but this display was repetitive, they all kind of look the same. Her Muses are girly and pretty, which was seen in the audience attending, but they don't leave much room for anything but sexual femininity. But, that's ok. Sold individually, I can see any one of these works hanging in a girl's apartment anywhere in the city and it was great to see so much space devoted to a local artist.

Moving further back brought visitors into two project galleries, one by Sickboy and one by Word to Mother. Sickboy's installation, complete with a working coffin toy train, was my personal favorite of the night. The paintings are colorful and detailed, and I only wish that I would have been able to see them better. Moving around the train, it was really difficult to get to the paintings themselves, and I kind of wish they would have switched his gallery with Word to Mother, because that one is a little bigger. Word to Mother opened Fuck You Pay Me, a Giants-themed installation complete with baseball bats, foam fingers, and astro turf. Since there was only one painting, I popped in and out, but managed to score some cracker jacks and bazooka bubble gum before I left.

Saturday night really was more of an event than an exhibition, this is a new upscale version of the galleries, and I should but an emphasis on the plural, this place just keeps going and going. It was a suit and dress kind of night, fancy for any Tenderloin event, but frankly, the space is fancy and deserves if not your Sunday best, then at least Thursday's finest. These galleries have really transformed themselves in this move and I cannot wait to see what they do next.

Some installation photos of Guerrero Gallery's current two solo shows featuring graffiti writers REMIO and Tim Diet.

Vancouver based REMIO started VTS crew (Vandal Team Supreme, Vandal Travel System, Vandalize Till Sunrise, Very Top Secret) in 2002 and is a current member of two other legendary collectives, Twists’ DFW/THR and Os Gemeos’ VLOK.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tim Diet began painting in the 80s, sneaking out of his parents’ house at night to “tag” alongside his older brother. The graffiti lifestyle immediately drew him in and influenced not only his craft, but his persona and idea factory as well. Diet has traveled across the US, Europe and Japan, just to paint. His recognizable work can be found on streets across the globe, in numerous books & publications, and now in galleries as his unique style continues to develop. This is Me will be the first exhibition of Tim Diet’s full body of work.

The shows run through Feb 25, 2013.

Photo: Jeremiah McNair

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Robert Bowen's work never fails to disappoint, but it was Lisa Alonzo and Lee Harvey Roswell who stood out in this selection. Alonzo's paintings have so much texture it's almost unbelievable. It looks as though she sculpts paint and molding paste into hundreds of roses maybe in the same way bakers decorate their cakes. Paired with the stippled colors forming her figures' faces, these woks have a confectionary quality that makes you drool. But Roswell, man that guy can paint. I stood in front of Hhh for at least 15 minutes looking at the detail, and the more I looked, the more I found. The picture below does not do it justice and a trip in person is necessary.

On display through March 23rd, this show is definitely worth a visit. Every single piece of work is high quality with a lighthearted sensibility. We also made a trip to the SoMa Streat Food Park, and it's a great route for an afternoon stroll.

Renee Castro, This is not a Native American, Acrylic paint and ink on wood panel, 25”x31”

Robert Bowen, The Guardian, Acrylic on panel, 24”x48”

Albert Reyes, Give Collection, Ink on book covers

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

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

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”

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.

Michelle Blade in front of her work.

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

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