KSPACE.TV » Art

Steve Seeley: Works of Ambiguous Memery

andrew flanagan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:44:27 +0000

Steve Seeley is biographically somewhat of a mystery, flitting around the Midwest throughout his painting career, Ohio here, Illinois, Wisconsin, and concentrically further out as the eyeballed took ganders. The affect he achieves is something you can directly attribute to being 31 in the age of memes and cultural bleed from every angle, where availability is the rule and comprehension is the challenge. Without the absurdity that the internet has plopped (like a turd) into everyone’s life these paintings wouldn’t be nearly as poignant, if that’s even a concept anymore. Taking wallpapers, thrift store landscapes and photographs and filling them with bears and deer and superheroes in Silver Age stark. It hits you somewhere between the footpad and a mouth filled with crunchy baseball card gum. Lovely.

The website of Steve Seeley

LA Marathon: Limited-edition Studio Number One 25th Anniversary Poster

tcroberts — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:57:27 +0000

Shepard Fairey, although born of eastern blood, has become somewhat synonymous with the LA urban art scene. So it was fitting that when the new owners of the LA Marathon were looking for someone to design the 25th anniversary commemorative poster, they turned to his Studio Number One. Cleon Peterson designed the commemorative poster, which not only includes three L.A.- area icons, but also the start of one of the largest marathons in the world and 2009 women’s champion Tatiana Petrova of Russia. The poster is composed of high-contrast images brightly colored in blue, red and black on a white background and is signed by the artist. Its a numbered edition of 1,050, priced at a reasonable $45, part of which will be donated to the Students Run LA program which helps to train at-risk youth to reach higher goals in life through the discipline of training for the race. While they last, posters will be available for purchase at the K-Swiss Concept Store at 2427 Main Street in Santa Monica, at the Studio Number One booth at the free-admission LA Marathon Expo to be held this Friday and Saturday at Dodger Stadium and here via Subliminal Projects. Don’t sleep.

David Maisel: Heady Beauty

andrew flanagan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:00:31 +0000

David Maisel takes beautiful photographs, and this is something wholly unremarkable. He stands apart and above by way of razor-sharp subjects and heady concepts: documenting “rusted-out urns of metal patients” all blooming with color and vitalic ooze, his inverse black and white aerials of “wide, wide Los Angeles”, x-ray-as-wraith reshoots…the work is arresting and provoking, you swoon and rescind, they tug and you run.

Maisel recently made available a video slideshow, with minimal music by Bjork collaborator Howie B, of his flyovers of Salt Lake; the effect is very near to finding what you want to see in the clouds. You can view the slideshow here.

Those in the San Francisco area can see Maisel’s work on display at SF Camerawork, where he is in Part II of the gallery’s 35th Anniversary show, “An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area: The Future Lasts Forever.” Maisel is featured alongside some of our photography favorites: Todd Hido, Robert Mapplethorpe, and many more.

Calligraffiti: A Life of Fence-Sitting with Niels ‘Shoe’ Muelman

andrew flanagan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:18 +0000

Born in Amsterdam in 1967, Niels Muelman became ‘Shoe’ at the age of 12, tagging through teenage nights while the form was barely out of its diapers. Six years later he was infamous, co-founding the still-esteemd Crime Time Kings crew and transitioning to commercial lettering work.

The genre of ‘calligraffiti’ owes its genesis to Meulman’s mentor Anthon Beeke, a self-taught design dust-kicker best known for his “Naked Ladies Alphabet”, who saw in Shoe a shared lean to rile and ruffle feather. With Beeke’s signposts Muelman came to fuse The Sharpie with classic typography, seeing in the Bauhaus-murdered art of calligraphy a discursive space of high-to-low, which wholly informs Calligraffiti.

” For the record, calligrafitti belongs to the same family as ‘street art,’ or unsanctioned art, e.g., not government sponsored. And calligrafitti is ‘post’-graffiti — not ‘territorial’ graffiti, which is more like dogs peeing to create boundaries.” – Shoe

Also, Common Ground Gallery is no bunch of slouches: “The gallery is situated in the Hip Hop Stützpunkt in Berlin, which is also the base of the publisher. The Common Ground Gallery works closely with artists and activists involved in expressions of Urban Art. Relationships with many of the artists have evolved during a course of more than 25 years of experience and participation in the Global Style Writing Movement and numerous cultural projects, exhibitions and publications in various fields of urban culture.”

Shoe prepping the space for his 2007 show in Amsterdam:

For our KSpace people in Berlin, two events with Shoe happening this week:

Special Event: Calligraffiti, lecture by Niels Meulman and Adam Eeuwens
March 11th @ 8 pm
Basement Bar
Linienstrasse 154 A
10115 Berlin

Opening & Book release party with Niels Meulman and Adam Eeuwens
March 12th @ 7 pm
Special Guests: Die Schallplattenpolizei/Amsterdam + DJs Cat 22 (CTK) & Adrenalin
Common Ground Gallery
Mo-Sa, 2-7pm
Marienburger Str. 16 A
10405 Berlin

The Story of Last Year, As Told Through a Parrot’s Lens

tcroberts — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:31:41 +0000

A ton of random stuff happened in the last year, from deaths of superstars and some pretty close friends. We got a new president, and a bunch more reality TV which started to mirror the scandalous lives of sports figures. 2009 may have been the most historical year for changes in many ages, but there’s still really not much else to say about these dramatic shifts — other than LET’S PARTY!

I think no one but Arab can look back on the year in quite the way he did. At least in pictures it seemed like a pretty good year for the Parrot. Let’s hope next year is even better.

Cheers! to 2010 and beyond… Happy New Year!

Flashbeak: The Arab Parrot

Collectors Item: Massive Attack – Splitting The Atom EP

Matt Diehl — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:40:43 +0000

So far, everything new we’ve heard/seen from Massive Attack, the Led Zeppelin of dark downtempo grooves, has been brilliant – from the amazing “Pray For Rain” featuring TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe to the waaaaaay NSFW video for the song “Paradise Circus”, which also has a great vocal from Mazzy Star chanteuse Hope Sandoval. So it’s no surprise that the limited vinyl edition of Massive Attack’s “Splitting The Atom” e.p. – its only physical would be so artistic and collectable.

Limited to 1,000 copies, individually numbered, and pressed on 180 gram vinyl (the highest possible quality for a record), this edition of “Splitting The Atom” is a class package worth whatever it will garner on eBay, certainly… What it makes the whole thing transcendent, however, is the cover art print from a painting by Massive Attack member Robert Del Naja, aka “3D.” Del Naja’s visual work resembles Francis Bacon remixed by Banksy (this is meant as a compliment), so it’s no wonder he’s been making waves on the gallery scene as well. Taken together, it just makes us long for the 2010 release of Massive Attack’s next, much-anticipated full-length album. We’ll be sure to pick that up on vinyl, too…

Damien Hirst for Supreme Skateboards: Revisits ‘Best Spot’ Paintings

tcroberts — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:28:41 +0000

Damien Hirst and Supreme have a long-standing relationship, and the wild-child artist has taken an opportunity to work with them again via a series of skate decks. While the design is clean, striking and modern, it is a previous Hirst work that’s also being revisited. The multicolored dots on white are a rehash of Hirst 2000 “best spot” paintings where he created patterns representing well-known psychotropics including opium, valium and LSD. Part of the intrinsic appeal must be that Hirst famously confessed after the series was released that he only painted 5 of them personally, which is how they were named. “The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel [one of his assistants],” was his response to what makes the art valuable. Of course, this is before he sold a diamond-encrusted skull for $100 million to himself (sorta).

Say what you will about his career works, this Supreme collab is definitely destined to pique the interest of middle-road collectors (like me) looking to nab anything Hirst might have breathed upon. Certainly almost as prime as a limited edition pair of kicks by Fujiwara. The collection releases in-store in the US on November 19th and online on November 23rd. Japan will see a release on November 21st.

via Hypebeast

KTV: Ryan McGinness “The Run Up”

tcroberts — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:42:16 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ryan McGinness is creating language with his art. Using symbols, iconography and corporate logos, he brings new context through repetition and juxtaposition, his pieces construct “worlds within worlds,” according to him. McGinness is one of the few artists today that blurs the lines between design and pop culture, sometimes taking the route of performance art. He grew up on surf and skate culture, and is obviously informed heavily by Warhol. Regardless of his medium, he manages to make provocative statements with each piece, and his prowess is large all throughout the US and Europe. Here he’s interviewed on “The Run Up” which is the SF crew Upper Playground’s series on artist innovators.

See: ‘The SITE of Now’ opens Oct 3 in Culver City

Jonathan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:56:10 +0000

The extra cool part of relocating to a new (yet familiar) city is you get to rekonnect with the original and true school crews from back in the day ! You also get to see what the new school and international dons have to offer and that my friends we hope to see this Saturday Oct 3 at the opening of ‘The SITE of Now’ show curated by Tyler Gibney of HVW8 at Royal/T in Culver City LA.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Back in time clip: Brnstrmers vs HVW8 w/music by Rich Medina Montreal 2001)

The original crews in this case are of course the mighty HVW8 (Tyler Gibney, Gene Pendon, Dan Buller) and Brnstrmers (Rostarr, David Ellis, Mike Ming, Jose ‘Ease’ Parla) + our invited homeboy from the canals, PARRA (rightfully blowin’ up right now !), + Kevin Lyons in from Philly, Brent Rollins and Winston Tseng in from NY, Ralf Adelberg in from Vancouver and then some. Select works will also be shown from noteworthy street scene-sters Blek le Rat, Nick Walker, eelus, Charles Lutz est zut alors a limited edition Basquiat print.

Music performances by Coultrain, DJ Thee Mike B + a HVW8 pop up shop and it don’t stop !

LA area massive, make your way to this one – The SITE is indeed NOW !

The SITE of Now – a “Best of” collection from the past two years of artists from the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery, runs from Oct 3rd until Oct 15th at:
@ ROYAL/T – 8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 / T 310 559 6300

Barry McGee Helps Celebrate Pasadena Armory’s 20th Anniversary

Jonathan — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:50:19 +0000

San Francisco’s Barry McGee a/k/a Twist is one of the ambassadors from the grafitti to gallery art scene. His murals have made their way from bus stops to CD packages over the years. Now he is coming to Southern California for the celebration of Pasadena’s Armory Center for the Arts’ 20th Anniversary. His designs will fill the Known Gallery, including his kinetic art and photos of other writers in tribute to Dash Snow (R.I.P. Sace), a fallen friend. McGee is one of several artists the Armory commissioned to make site-specific works and installations both inside and throughout Pasadena.

Known Gallery
2 E. Holly Street, Pasadena
Installation thru December 31, 2009
Space is open to the public Saturdays and Sundays noon – 5 p.m.

The London Police Hit Hollywood with “Brothers in Arms”

tcroberts — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:09:50 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last week we posted a story about the London Police taking on the Dutch authorities who told them to remove a public mural, and we applaud their activism. We’re even more excited about their antics when they come to LA this week for a show called “Brothers in Arms,” a celebration of their ten year anniversary. The title is both a film (see the clip) and the brotherly love between Chaz and Bob, and their decade of adventures. The show’s title reflects present their most focused and exciting body of work yet, featuring canvases, installation, photos and this short film documenting the creative process. Through this body of work they envisage Los Angeles and the classic films they grew up with like “Back to the Future” and “Star Wars”. Iconic imagery is integrated into the London Police world of smiling characters and futuristic cityscapes. Their decade together saw them traveling across Asia, North and South America, and Europe and has led to the humor and insight that their work depicts. Of course, they, like most muralists started in 1998 with a prolifilation of stickers and then moved on to huge murals, usually found around Amsterdam, and most memorably inKreuzberg, Berlin on a six story building. Los Angeles is honored to host the duo. Let’s just hope they leave some public works around, and don’t run into any issues with the LAPD in the process.

Opening: September 10, 2009

Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art
1257 N. La Brea Ave
West Hollywood CA 90038

The London Police Talk Smack

tcroberts — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:36:41 +0000

The London Police are a Dutch artist crew who do some amazing black and white art, art that is simple, sort of pop art mural. They got shot down by the local Amdam city council for painting a dope mural without permission. So I think they are excused for the rant they had in response to the bad decision. Read on:

“How pleasing it was when the seemingly nice bloke who lives at Prinsengracht No.70 allowed TLP to adorn the facade of his building with a choice black and white image of a totempole lad being constructed by a Bob Gibson robot. How displeasing then, when on the fourth day, the Amsterdam Gemeente (city council) officials arrived and politely told us we needed extra permission to paint any building in the city centre. They kindly allowed us to finish the characters but we were not allowed to make a start on any further background etc. The case is currently under review with the city council whether to keep the painting. They must decide whether normal everyday human beings would prefer to see a considered art mural or a banal grey wall which serves as a breeding ground for weak graffiti and posters advertising drug fuelled house music events where DJs spin other peoples shit records.”

The London Police

Bicycle Film Festival LA: Joyride Art Show

tcroberts — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:11:35 +0000

As we’ve followed the Bicycle Film Festival on its trek across North America, here in Los Angeles we’ve been somewhat jealous waiting, just like we’ve been jealous waiting for any comprehensive bike transportation in this city. Still, we’ve managed to hang on to some amazing artists which will be part of the Festival’s scavenger hunt of talent, Joyride LA. The point of the night, August 27th, is to showcase art made or inspired by the bicycle. If you were so inspired, you could travel on bicycle which could make partying more difficult. (I don’t know where I’ll put my white wine while I’m driving.) However, the show itself features some truly dope top-shelf artists like Mike Giant, Maya Hayuk and Kelsey Brookes (pictured), which is reason alone to make it down to their temporary digs in HelMel, LA’s own bicycle hipster hood. There’s even an afterparty for the hardcore two wheel enthusiasts.

Opening reception
6PM – 10PM
BFF Storefront Gallery – 4316 Melrose Ave. near N. Heliotrope

Show Opening: Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) “Glorious Excess (Dies)”

tcroberts — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:43:53 +0000

It’s kind of spirit affirming when you find out an artist that has become fodder for mainstream radio actually has other creative talents. It may not mean that they are good at the “other job” but it does mean they have perspective. Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park’s main production guiding force, is having another gallery show for his series “Glorious Excess” at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Following his highly-successful 2008 show, Glorious Excess (Born), Shinoda returns to the Museum to unveil his latest collection of paintings and digital works. Larger, broader, and more sensational than before, he explores society’s obsession with celebrity culture, consumer addiction, and fascination with excess. Watch for the opening next Saturday. Let’s hope the Linkin Park fans know to appreciate their man.

via Fecal Face

Retna Gives BJ Penn A Fighter’s Mural

tcroberts — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:41:08 +0000

Retna is a highly regarded grafitti artist turned contemporary gallery artist. His tag RETNA was seen throughout the 1990s across urban Los Angeles, though his introduction to LA’s mural culture is where he found his largest impact. His intricate line-work, reminiscent of fellow Angeleno Chaz Boroquez and even NYer Jose Parla, is what sticks out along with his unique ability to blend these lines into abstract and photographic portraiture. He traverses with each painting, the line between grafitti and art. An esteemed gallery artist, he has also taken paintbrush to the gym of mixed martial artist and UFC champion BJ Penn. It’s a sick mural, which evokes his Aztec vibe. Part of it reads:

BEHIND ME STAND A HUNDRED MEN, WARRIORS OF THE AGES, THROUGH OUT THE STAGES OF OUR LIVES, WE HAVE SPARRED AND BRAWLED OUR WAY TO VICTORY, WE STAND AS ONE TIMELESS MOVEMENT, NOW LETS BEGIN THE RITUAL OF OUR FATHERS AND BROS. MANO A MANO.

It’s a good look, strong and tasteful… when you’d normally expect walls full of models in bikinis.

via RVCA Sport Blog

Painter: Jose Parla Heads to Paris

tcroberts — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:34:30 +0000

Jose Parla is the man. He has steathly created hysteria over textural paintscapes on wood and canvas, with a foundation in grafitti but an eye to the future. His work gives a nod to forebearers like Futura and even Rammellzee’s Gothic Futurism, yet Parla has a firm grasp of his own complex layers, mastering a focus on color theory and composition. Like his compatriots the Barnstormers, he continues to tether himself to his experiences tagging in the streets of NYC. If you get to know his work, you will start to see what he calls ‘Contemporary Palimpsets’ — documents of the memories and experiences that underly each work. If you dig through his site, you can see him in action and become entranced in how the layers of these manuscripts come to life. Jose Parla is, and has been, one to watch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Skate: Miles Davis Quintet Decks

tcroberts — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:20:20 +0000

No doubt Miles Davis would have been a skater had he been from this new generation. In fact, it would be easy to compare him to someone like Tommy Guererro or Lupe Fiasco, who have the birth of cool down, as well as skill-sets that mix skate and music. However, I think that either of these two contemporaries would kill to be considered in the same breath as Miles, and fight to get their hands on these decks. Beautifully illustrated by Ian Johnson, these decks aren’t those that are screen-printed en masse, these are true works of art, seemingly hand-painted. Even if they aren’t hanging these on the wall would easily win over doing boardslides down the rail.

via Boing Boing

Skate Pool Art: David Shrigley

tcroberts — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:11:00 +0000

While the untidy drawings and adjoining texts may seem the work of a snotty adolescent, if you haven’t discovered and read Glaswegian artist David Shrigley, you are missing a healthy dose of absurdist, slightly disturbed and dead on cultural commentary seemingly absent in print since Matt Groenig. Shrigley has carved his path through the art community as well as being an author, with his trademark dour wit intact. He has even transcended any sort of marginal status of disgruntled comic artist and animated videos for Blur (below) and Iron and Wine. Most recently, he was commissioned to paint a skateboard park pool a la Hockney. The effect is so cool that it must be reproduced (perhaps here in the US).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: Blur – ‘Good Song’

Click here to view the embedded video.

See more Shrigley animations here.

Love and Guts Art Show

Jonathan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:52:32 +0000

Ed Templeton may not have been the first skater to put his energy into canvas, but he may be one of the best — creating some of his best work while simultaneously winning skate competitions and kudos. The last ten years have seen the door flung wide open, especially as the worlds of cool kids on both sides of art and action sport collide. I’m sure there are collectors that have their eyes on the skate scene, watching for virtuosos who can handle a paintbrush.

Love and Guts was conceived in the shadow of Action Sports Retail tradeshow, as a skater influenced art show. Eventually, the show would come to include 500 skaters and an international tour. Now some of the biggest names in the sport are involved, exhibiting their artwork on tour throughout Australia and now America. Some are legends like Christian Hosoi, Steve Olson and Jay Adams others just prolific like Steve Caballero and Chris Pastras. Ink, paints, photos and mixed mediums — there is little limitation on what might be shown. This year Love and Guts coincides with the X Games in Los Angeles, and the name almost predicts what will manifest.

Saturday, August 1st

Crewest Gallery

110 Winston St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 627-8272 phone

info@crewest.com

WK Interact: ‘Motion Portrait’ at Jonathan Levine

tcroberts — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:30:55 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a rare interview with the French artist, WK Interact, previously known for his downtown NY murals, as well as his Longo-esque black-and-white portraits that blur with action. Upon first encounter his works seem almost socio-political, or at least military in nature, but his new works display a side that perhaps hadn’t considered, the movies. In this case, 12 Angry Men. His recent show is up at the Jonathan Levine gallery now, yet you can tell that this and previous work really has its place out on the city streets. In his discussion, you can hear his enthusiasm for the the chaos… The perpetual motion of his work completely inspired by his past 15 years working/living in New York.

In addition to mixed-media pieces containing found objects and WK’s trademark style of distorted figural imagery, Motion Portrait will also feature a group of large-scale paintings. Expanding upon his signature monochromatic aesthetic, this portrait series—entitled 12 Angry Men (referencing the classic film)—portrays the faces of twelve male subjects painted in black and white acrylic on raw canvas.

Once only prolific in the LES grafitti scene, he has taken his position amongst the contemporary art scene in recent years, which has even come with treats available for those that can’t make the trek to the city. The gallery also has a set of prints for sale from the artist, which is a new medium for WK.

On display through July 25th.

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10011

212-243-3822