Seren

Seren, inspired at the opening reception of from the depths, drew a portrait and gave it to Rich Mooi (my best guess is she was inspired by Tiffany Bozic's battle of the deep)

grounded?

(i learn only to be contented, 2007, 24x36" digital print, edition of 5)

this year's annual juried show at southern exposure & intersection for the arts.

opening: fri nov. 9, 7-9pm
@intersection for the arts: 446 valencia st (btwn 15th & 16th)
&southern exposure: 417 14th (@valencia)
show runs: november 9 - december 15, 2007
(galleries open wed-sat 12-6; tues by appointment)
admission: free

"nearly 550 submission...63 artists were selected for the gallery exhibition."

brendan monroe: insides

@ richard heller gallery
2525 michigan ave, b-5a, santa monica, ca 90404
october, 13 2007 - november, 11 2007

set/slideshow

last chance: don't try this at home

@ intersection for the arts
446 Valencia Street (btwn 15th and 16th), san francisco, ca
September 17 - October 13, 2007
featuring Lauren Davies, Tamara Albaitis, Krishna Khalsa, Stephani Martinez & Zachary Royer Scholz

tip: this show is closing soon. check it out if you can.


Lauren Davies' sculptures are meticulous ("anatomically correct scaled versions of West Highland White Terriers"), down to the hair, which was shed by their real life counterparts, her dogs.



she also has sculpted lintballs with lint collected from "family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances." nice reuse.

the show is subtitled "A Group Exhibition Obsessively Reshaping The Ordinary"


Tamara Albaitis produced a series of sound sculptures, including a laughing trash can


and a group of coughing speaker balls


Krishna Khalsa created biomorphic wood sculptures


doily cakes (plaster & doilies) by Stephani Martinez

i have a few more photos in my set/slideshow

Usugrow at 5024

@ 5024sf
august 2 - 31, 2007



see more in my set/slideshow

n8 van dyke

@ 5024sf
august 2 - 31, 2007

set/slideshow

tree show iii

@ giant robot sf
featuring: apak!, melinda beck, robert bellm, bigfoot, kelie bowman, calef brown, aaron brown, catia chen, richard colman, matthew feyld, matt furie, fawn gehweiler, susie ghahremani, mollie goldstrom, andrew degraff, katherine guillen, ethan hayes-chute, jordan isip, rich jacobs, kelly lynn jones, kaori kasai, misaki kawai, kefe (kelly tunstall + ferris plock), joe keinberger, james kirkpatrick (thesis), diana kwok, matt leines, kathleen lolley, maxwell loren holyoke-hirsch, matt moroz, eric nakamura, ogi, pcp, luke ramsey, albert reyes, nathalie roland, brian rush, jeana sohn, daria tessler, elisabeth timpone, aiyana udesen, marci washington, andrew jeffrey wright
july 14 - august 8, 2007

the show features portraits of trees (by apak!, and others)


body parts hanging from trees (by matt furie, and others)


and a bunch more work (tree-related, and not).

check out my blog on fecal face, or my set/slideshow

sky (2000-2003)

documenting, over the course of four years, the destruction of Rigo23’s sky mural. during that time, it felt like the sky was disappearing. there was a construction boom, of very tall buildings, in san francisco's soma district. still is. one very tall building obscured the sky. another decapitated the mural, and then swallowed it (and sky's sibling, ground). rest in peace.

view my 10 photo set/slideshow

streets of san francisco

i was walking from friday night at the de young to clement street for dinner when i came across the above vehicle. i recognized ricardo richey's characteristic form.


the margaret kilgallen sticker on the front. rigo23 showcards on the dashboard. a pine cone. i figured it out before i saw the confirming license plate. i'd found the luggage store's vantruck.


varuck? trucan? sirron norris, whose first name mirrors his last, added two bears. i love the piece he painted with andrew schoultz at the valencia gate to clarion alley. his mural on balmy alley. and this varuc.

paris mural

brendan monroe, koralie, supakitch, and wayne horse have a collaborative mural at carhartt in paris. we checked it out when we were there in april (in addition to perv-paris and the palais de tokyo show).

they did a good job creating a single piece incorporating their different characters and styles. the end result is somewhat like a coat of arms or family crest.

i was particularly psyched to see brendan's characters rendered on a larger scale

and to see the work of the other artists, who are new to me, in person.

this mural was part of a larger european tour, which brendan blogged for fecal face. i have a few more detail shots in my photo set.

palais de tokyo (april 2007)

we saw michel blazy's solo show at the palais de tokyo, a contemporary art museum in paris, in april.

he sculpts with food. the above piece, a bear rug, is composed of cotton and chocolate cream. the show also included a skelton made of dog biscuits and hot glue.


a piece composed of orange peels, which were decaying and covered with insects



a bird had found its way into the museum and onto the cat biscuit and glue sculpture.


the work and show was fascinating in person.

(soya noodles, and food dye)

the museum also had a number of photos by bernadette genee and alain le borgne of the inside of military caps showing the variety of things the soldiers keep hidden, and dear.




a third exhibit included a "prehistoric" camper van carved out of granite pieces by daniel dewar and gregory gicquel.


these shows closed. all of the artists were new to me and the work was refreshing. in part, i think, it cleansed the visual palette which, in paris, is otherwise oversaturated with classical work.

check out my set or slideshow for a few more from the above exhibit.

barry mcgee in japan

fecal face posted my art blog on barry mcgee
@ watari-um, tokyo, japan
june 2 to sept. 30, 2007

check out the blog or my slideshow

rigo23

rigo23 has a new show at the luggage store.

each of the 8 large works on canvas relates to a historical event in local alternative activism.


rigo23 created zines ($3) for each piece.

the zines include a lot of source material and serve as well-documented alternative press primers on these selected events from the bay area's recent history. i found myself wanting them to also include a photocopy representation of the graphic work - maybe on the zine cover - but that is me.

rigo23's graphic style here is somewhat comic-newspaper.


he does a good job of rendering the characters so that they feel alive. the pencil work on canvas gives it a nice, personal, homemade feel.

lots of mustaches.

the work looks like it is based, in part, on photographs. i like the parts where he chose not to fill in all of the details.


the show is worth checking out in person. it runs through june 23 (i think).
i have more photos of the work in my slideshow.

fan fan

i got evah fan's 3d bermuda pantaloon zine in the mail today.


costs $5 on her site and boy is it cool. first, i like the photocopy zine concept. (a) they are relatively cheap and easy to make, meaning more artists can publish their work without significant expense. (b) they are an inexpensive way for fan fans to take home art. second, i like this particular zine because it pushes the medium into sculpture. somewhat reminescent of the folded paper fortune game, you find evah's illustrations in the different tents. fun fun.


also, Evah's show performance art opens this weekend (may 19) at sixspace in los angeles.


evah's work, like that of a lot of her peers, is influenced by comic book illustrations and cartoon narratives. but evah's work stands out from the rest of the pack for a number of reasons. one is that evah's work is funny in both ways (haha and strange). this thread runs through her titles and choice of subject matter. another is that evah's work is recognizable: with tight illustrations, repeat characters, a limited color palatte, and consistent use of compositional elements like negative space. and, while i see a lot of artists crowding around a small number of visual styles and subjects, it looks like evah is currently free of copycats.

evah's show runs May 19 - June 16, 2007 at sixspace in culver city. check it out. and the zine. look at more of evah's work here

Jacob Magraw

is now represented by Richard Heller Gallery. been expecting that an "la-art in ny" fair gallery would pick him up sometime soon. Jacob's website identifies a show at the gallery scheduled for october 2007.

and, "fight club" author chuck palahniuk's new book rant: the oral history of buster casey features one of jacob's works on the cover.

Jacob showed this painting in his motel show last year.

perv (paris)

we recently visited the louvre


and the rodin sculpture garden


i did some sketchbook work on my perv project.

peep the slideshow.
(recommended speed: fast)

nyt sunday magazine

brendan monroe did the cover for the nyt sunday magazine today (3.11.7). checkit here. and, there are two more pieces in the article featured on the cover, which you can see here.