chumpchampion

What winning when failing looks like.

Via ZanyPickle.

Tweet This Post 

What? You didn’t know dinosaurs could do ballet? That’s because they couldn’t, instead they chased and ate each other and died a horrible asteroid death. But, if they could…

Via the “MADANDUGLY” Ross Butter.

Tweet This Post 

Giant Robot brings you some talented girl on girl art action as they proudly present Diplopia, a joint art show featuring long time friends Eleanor Davis and Katherine Guillen at GR2 on Sawtelle.

Check previews of Eleanor’s work here and Katherine’s work here.

Tweet This Post 

Attention creative types: the collaborative project Artists Wanted has come up with a self portrait contest for you. Depicting yourself through “Fine Art, Painting, Sculpting, Drawing, Installation, Print Making, Graphic Design, Glass, Book Arts, Performance, Video Art, Street Art/Graffiti, Photography, Tattoo Art” and be judged by an esteemed panel of judges (Steve Buscemi?!) The grand prize winner will receive $7007 or 6 months free living in NYC. Submissions are due by January 14th, 2010.

Read on below or click Dali for more info.

From Artists Wanted:

“You are invited to participate in “The Power of Self” an international competition celebrating the vitality of self portraiture. A panel of judges including actor Steve Buscemi, director Chris Weitz, Guggenheim curator Helen Hsu and Flavorpill founder Sascha Lewis will award one artist a package of incredible prizes including six months of free living at The Edge in New York City or $7007 in cash. The most popular portfolio as voted by the public will also receive $1,000 cash. Your images have power. Now is your moment to reveal them to the world.“

Tweet This Post 

When stop motion and a flip book meet in a dark alley, smoke acid, make bad decisions and then engage in some brutal lovemaking, 9 months later you get VIDEOGIOCO (which, from Italian, appropriately translates to “video game”).

animation and concept by Donato Sansone
sound design by Enrico Ascoli

Thanks to Justin for the late night notice.

VIDEOGIOCO by Donato Sansone from Enrico Ascoli - Sound Design on Vimeo.

Tweet This Post 

Oh how I long to be one of the many thousands of lucky nerds in San Diego for Comic-Con (still can’t believe I’ve never been, I fear my dork credibility may be in jeopardy!) Fortunately there are many a happening around Los Angeles to take your mind off all the geeky goodness we’re missing out on.

• With that being said, allow me to start with a few events at Comic-Con for those who made the trek down the 405 freeway:

Artist signings by Mark Ryden, Joe Ledbetter, James Jean, The Pizz, Scott Musgrove, Ron English, and Travis Louie for Last Gasp Publishing.

James Jean (again), David Choe, and David Horvath for Giant Robot.

And a Tim and Eric sighting at their very own con of the awesome variety, appropriately called Awesome Con!

• Wayne White (one of my favorite typographists) and Exene Cervenka fly their way over to the Western Project Gallery in Culver City with their two person show, We Are Not the Jetset.

• Stick around Culver City for a three person show featuring some Heavy Petting with David Burke, Riddles In the Dark with Mia, and Keep It Down with guest artist Sarah Folkman at the Corey Helford Gallery.

• Don’t leave Culver City just yet cause the Scion Installation Space opens up it’s place for the 2009 Vice Magazine Photography Exhibition featuring Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, Maggie Lee, and former Vice photo editor, Tim Barber.

• Cinespia presents The Muppet Movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, need I say more?

• Recoup on Sunday and take an Urban Hike through Little Tokyo with the Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles.

• Spread your wings and fly to the MOCA’s Pacific Design Center on Melrose for an art talk with Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues whose installation Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio is currently on view and features “over 21 miles of colored strings configured in catenary curves span the gallery space to form a dynamic environment.”

• And finally, end your weekend on a “high” note (yeah, that’s right I said it) with Cheech and Chong’s classic Up in Smoke at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Tweet This Post 

Openings all over Los Angeles, a walking tour that turns into a Big Parade, and a dime bag to take home from New York.

• The Clayton Brothers come home to Santa Monica’s Patrick Painter Gallery with Jumbo Fruit, their latest series featuring their trademark surreal twist this time focussing on the standard issue still-life model of fruit.

• A big two for one opening for Culver City’s LeBasse Projects summer season with Distorted Lens, featuring “Superflat” styled pop artists David Flores and Lisa Alisa.

• Make a move to the group show Momentum, featuring Tiffany Bozic, Chigi (also known as Neri), Ina Kyung Lim, Tessar Lo, Veronique Meignaud, and Brooks Salzwedel at Alhambra’s Nucleus Gallery.

• Giant Robot New York goes tiny for their massive group show Dime Bag 3. Among the over 200 New York painters, illustrators, graphic designers, filmmakers, photographers, and product designers, are Cynthia Connolly, Evah Fan, Maya Hayuk, Rich Jacobs, Andy Kehoe, Matt Leines, Jeff Soto, and Tobin Yelland.

Tweet This Post 

Apparently light paintings aren’t among Pablo Picasso’s 50,000 pieces of known artwork (seriously, he made 50,000 pieces of art! According to Wikipedia it breaks down as so: “1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs”). Add to that total these 14 photos unearthed by LIFE magazine of Picasso doodling with a small flashlight in 1949 when LIFE photographer Gjon Mili paid him a visit in Vallauris, France. Click this link or the pics below to see the entire gallery.

Click this link or the pics above to see the entire gallery.

Tweet This Post 

One of the funnest parts about putting together these weekend event lists is coming up with an appropriate title using the words from said events. As seen above, this weekend’s happenings has churned out the perfect storm of words. From partying with porn stars to making art with nuns, Los Angeles has a lot going for it under our overcast skies, including our beloved Lakers winning it all in Orlando this Sunday!

• Get your porn on all weekend long as Erotica LA 2009 sexys up the LA Convention Center with pornstars galore and the 40,000 estimated attendees who masturbate to them.

• Be both Cute & Dangerous at the group show of the same name at the seven-degrees gallery down in Laguna Beach.

• The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax continues June’s Comedy Death Ray (Upright Citizens Brigade) series with Bob Odenkirk (half of Mr. Show) presenting Albert Brooks’ 1979 directorial debut Real Life.

• The celebration of Sister Corita’s art and inspiring spirit just keeps on going as a modern day happening happens at the Corita Art Center in Hollywood. Complete with silk-screening, banner and flag making, music, food, a procession with pipes, the day’s festivities also include the release of the 2nd edition of Jan Steward’s Learning By Heart. Corita is definitely alive and well.

• Skaters (Tony Alva), artists (Shepard Fairey), and skateboarder artists (Mark Gonzalez) pay tribute to one of Dogtown’s legendary photographers, Wynn Miller, with the group show The Detournements of Wynn Miller at the Exhibit A Gallery on Fairfax.

• Attaboy presents A Touch of Evil with his latest drawings, paintings, sculptures, and Gooberries at the POVevolving Gallery in Chinatown.

• Childlike pop-art illustrations meet vector based computer art when J. Otto Seibold comes to Giant Robot’s GR2 on Sawtelle with his Jottobots.

• And finally, end the weekend laughing with a tribute to unorthodox cult comedian Mitch Hedberg at The Silent Movie Theater as the Cinefamily “commemorates the comic’s legacy with a screening of his TV appearances, live performances, and the pilot to his unreleased MTV reality show, The Mitch Hedberg Project. Also showing is his autobiographical 1999 feature, Los Enchiladas; directed by Hedberg, the film focuses on the humorist’s early days as a Mexican restaurant employee in the suburbs of St. Paul.”

Tweet This Post