chumpchampion

Although it may be cold and damp in LA, this weekend’s openings and events are sure to heat you up physically, mentally, emotionally and hopefully drunkenly.

• Giant Robot’s Biennale 2: 15 Years keeps on rolling with Friday’s intimate artist talk with fabled painter James Jean and GR’s Eric Nakamura (special edition print release too!) followed by Saturday’s (free admission day!) kid friendly art-making workshop with Stella Lai at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.

• Portland based artist Andy Kehoe opens his bigest west coast show to date when he unveils The World Unseen and Those In Between at Silver Lake’s Thinkspace Gallery. Take a sneak peek of the show here.

• The Multi-Plane group show at Culver City’s Corey Helford Gallery marks their biggest group show of the year in a throwback to early animation where “each artist created an original painting using the multi-plane, which was made famous by pioneer animators Ub Iwerks, Max Fleischer, Bill Garrity, and Walt Disney. Consisting of three individual surfaces housed in a custom-made frame, the multi-plane creates depth and a three-dimensional effect through two glass foreground layers and a background wood panel.” Among the incredible lineup of artists are Todd Schorr, Gary Baseman, COOP, Tim Biskup, Sylvia Ji, Ron English, Luke Chueh, Jeff Soto, Carlos Ramos and Sage Vaughn.

• The Hit+Run homeboys celebrate their four year anniversary of silkcreening Southern California with Repeat Offender at the Echoplex in Echo Park. A celebration sure to turn into the weekend’s funnest dance party. “With close to 100,000 one-of-a-kind HIT+RUN shirts printed since the debut in November 2005, show off your favorite H+R shirt and get into the party for FREE. The first 300 guests receive complimentary gift bags with mix cds, stickers courtesy of STICKY RICK, and your choice of a blank t-shirt or poster to customize.” Featuring live screenprinting of 20 exclusive designs from Kofie One, Shark Toof, Kime Buzzelli and Mike C among others as well as music from the Gaslamp Killer and many more of LA’s finest.

• A double dosage of the fine folks of Family on Fairfax as they open the aptly titled Group Show One on Saturday featuring artists Ashley Macomber, Kevin Christy, Nicholas Haggard and Sarah Soquel Morhaim, followed by Sunday’s launch of Dear JD Salinger, I Forgive You Signed, Yoko a limited edition book of new poems by Spencer Moody and Anthony Anzalone and published by Cali’s Teenage Teardrops.

• Sweetness is abundant on Saturday as Susan Cianciolo returns to LA with her latest collection of art and uniquely designed clothing with Mountains and Flowers. Also joining Susan will be the musical stylings of the multi-talented ASKA, all going down at Space 15Twenty in Hollywood.

• ‘Tis the season for Santacon. ‘Nuff said. Click here for Saturday Santacons in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Check here for other worldwide Santacon locations.

• And finally, the fortunate art lovers of New York are treated to a double billing: James Marshall (DALEK) and his high flying space monkeys in his show And There Was War in Heaven; as well as the beautiful wooden women of Audrey Kawasaki in her show Hajimari-A Prelude. Both opening at the city’s Jonathan Levine Gallery.

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Dancing, fighting, opening, auctioning, speaking, signing, arting. Many a great things happening this weekend, but for me and my Friday the 13th birthday weekend, the best present I can receive would be an exciting Manny Pacquiao victory. Hope you have a fun filled Filipino weekend!

• The weekend begins with a Friday the 13th full of Wonder as New York’s DJ Spinna and Bobbito bring their traveling Stevie Wonder tribute to Hollywood with Wonder-Full LA4 at The Vanguard.

• Giant Robot boldly follows Deth P. Sun’s lead as his melancholy cat-like characters come to LA in his new solo show Please Be Brave at GR2 on Sawtelle.

• Juxtapoz celebrates their 15th year of existence by throwing The Big Payback, a group art show and charity auction held in conjunction with Upper Playground and Power House Project of Detroit at the Factory Place Arts Complex in downtown LA. Proceeds from the auction will support the goal of purchasing five homes and employing local Detroit contractors, electricians, plumbers, and carpenters to perform the renovations. See the pieces by some of the urban art world’s best being auctioned off on Juxtapoz.com and bid on them at Charitybuzz.com.

• The main event of the weekend for fight fans and Filipinos everywhere: Manny Pacquiao fights Miguel Cotto for the Welterweight championship and a record setting seventh title. Nike Sportswear graciously hosts the fight at the Montalbán Theater in Hollywood. RSVP required.

• Spend Sunday with Family, the extraordinarily eclectic bookstore on Fairfax that is, as they host a very special speaking and signing engagement with Spike Jonze to celebrate the release of Heads On & We Shoot a “unique collaboration behind Where the Wild Things Are-the combined work of Maurice Sendak, Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers, and all the cast and crew.”

• And finally a weeks worth of free admission to the MOCA and the Geffen Contemporary as they both open their doors to bring their acclaimed collection of postwar art to the community with complimentary admission during the opening week of Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years.

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Wow, quite an overdose of art on both coasts awaits this weekend. Los Angeles and New York have got their hands full with some major (and minor) art openings and events going down featuring amazing things to see, hear, touch, create and even eat.

• The boldly inspirational artwork of pop artist, teacher and nun, Sister Mary Corita goes on display at the Zach Feuer Gallery in New York City. Some of her more prominent pieces from the work she created from 1960-1986 will be given an east coast home to inspire people who have yet to discover her art.

• The children of some of today’s most creative artists have been unleashed to form their own group show consisting of an exhibition of Halloween masks in the appropriately titled Chip Off the Old Block at Synchronicity Space on Melrose. Featuring the offspring of Tim Biskup and Seonna Hong, Cleon Peterson, Megan Whitmarsh, Christian Clayton and more.

• Giant Robot celebrates 15 unbelievable years of self publishing art and culture for the masses with the Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years at the Japanese American National Museum in LA’s Little Tokyo. The fully loaded lineup of some of my favorite artists includes David Choe, Jeff Soto, James Jean, Luke Chueh, PCP, Albert Reyes and Deth P. Sun among the 50+ artist group show. Sure to be a massive opening so arrive early!

Check out curator and Giant Robot publisher Eric Nakamura’s blog to see some of the artists in action installing the show.

• Another highly anticipated anniversary celebration this weekend is the Hello Kitty Three Apples exhibition at the Royal/T Cafe in Culver City. The multi-dimensional day of Sanrio’s iconic Kitty includes a group art show of 80 collaborating artists including Ron English, Frank Kozik, Gary Baseman, Buff Monster, Friends With You, Luke Chueh and Natalia Fabia among others. Also in on all the celebrating are our friends at Flux who have curated the full day of Kitty activities.

• New York artist Marilyn Minter spits out new paintings, photographs, and her film Green Pink Caviar at Regen Projects on Santa Monica.

• A double dose of goodness at New York’s Jonathan Levine Gallery as Jim Houser opens his solo show Make Room For The Emptiness and Gary Baseman curates the group exhibition True Self featuring a who’s who of contemporary artists including the Clayton Brothers, Cleon Peterson, Dalek, James Jean, Korin Faught, Luke Chueh, Mark Ryden, Ron English, Ryan Heshka, Shag, Tim Biskup, Travis Lampe and a whole lot more.

• The awesome folk at Family have conjured up a diverse collection of new video art and animation for the group show Main Street at Hollywood’s Space 15 Twenty. The talented bunch of filmmakers include Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Jacob Ciocci, Miranda July, Peter Sutherland, Lucky Dragons, Paper Rad and more. Check Family’s blog for some fantastic looking film stills. Special shout out to my old editing peeps at Sunset Edit for supporting the show!

• And last, but definitely not least, is the premiere of my old pal Rich Newey’s short crime drama Breathe screening as part of the short film lineup for the Hollywood Film Festival screening at the Arclight. Read more on Rich’s cinematic short as well as his filmmaking process in this exclusive interview.

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Films about an inspirational pop art nun (including ours), a Karaoke dance party, Muppets and more Muppets, and of course art openings highlight this weekends highlights.

• Pocket wallet pioneers Poketo take over Royal/T’s this summer with their storefront pop-up shop. Tonight they transform the joint into a Karaoke Dance Party with our fun Fluxer friends Jonathan and Meg Wells on an esteemed panel of judges.

• The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax has Muppets on the mind once again as they bring back last year’s sold out showings of Jim Henson’s mind-blowing collection of shorts, crazy commercials, and other rarities including the not-be-to-be-missed Oscar winning Time Piece. Bonus: midnight screening of Henson’s feature film The Dark Crystal!

• With the Lotus Festival on hiatus this year the Echo Park Community Fest has come in to save the day, or weekend rather. Fun for all with carnival attractions, International foods, and the music of the lovely LA Ladies Choir with the Chili Pepper’s Flea (responsible for some songs from our Sister Corita film-more on that below)

• Giant Robot offers up prints to take home when the group show of 50 plus artists titled Printed Matter opens at GR2 on Sawtelle Saturday night. Featuring Bigfoot, Buff Monster, La Merde, Saelee Oh, Deth P. Sun, Albert Reyes, Andrew Jeffrey Wright and many more. Preview here.

• Constantly bringing the goods with their carefully curated shows, the Constant Gallery opens Desert Sexy “a survey of artists originating from and inspired by California’s low desert scene. Along with work by Logan/The Date Farmers, Anthony Lepore, and Peter Sutherland, we’ll be having an opening night musical performance by stoner rock progenitors Yawning Man (pre-Kyuss).” Check the preview here.

• Girls go wild as the Honor Fraser Gallery opens Bitch is the New Black, an all women art show featuring “fourteen Los Angeles-based women who are all emerging or established artists from roughly the same generation and are bright lights on the local scene.”

• Another Muppety evet at the Silent Movie Theater Saturday this time screening a matinee of Muppet Music Moments which, as you may have guessed, is a collection of musical performances from The Muppet Show.

• And finally end your weekend inspired as our short film (Become a Microscope: 90 Statements on Sister Corita) about the life and art of Sister Corita Kent will be screening at the Silent Movie Theater Sunday night alongside two other films by Corita’s friends, Mary’s Day (1964) by Baylis Glascock, and Survival With Style (1966) by Cal Bernstein, Alex Singer and Haskell Wexler. Both of these rare films will be screened from their original 16mm prints, and Mary’s Day will feature a live score by special musical guests!

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Jacob Ciocci, founding member of East Coast art collective Paper Rad, heads West and shows his latest art damaged offerings at Family on Fairfax with a bonus musical performance by David Wightman as the Fortress of Amplitude. An audio visual performance sure to leave you saying, “what the f?!” but in a totally good way of course. More from the Family members:

“Jacob Ciocci will present a new 20-minute mix of original videos and animations, and perform ‘I Let My Nightmares Go’ featuring video and dance moves that grapple with mental demons, web 2.0, G.O.D., 21st-century breakdown, real lies and fake truths, cartoon violence, and awareness bracelets.”

A sampling of one of Jacob’s latest, “The Peace Tape”:

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N.A.S.A. music blasts off in Japan, Milk photos in San Diego, 1000 Days in LA, The Red Balloon gets scored live silently, and the cemetery screenings end the weekend on a high note:

• The space and time travelling N.A.S.A. team of Squeak E. Clean (Sam Speigel) and DJ Zegon continue their “Spirit of the Apollo” Tour ‘09 as they take their collaborative antics to Japan for a five show campaign starting tonight in Sendai.

• Old chumpchampion chum and award winning music video director (Gnarls Barkley, U2, Kanye West), Chris Milk opens his first photo show at the W Hotel in San Diego this Saturday. Featured will be the computer enhanced cover photos of Kanye Chris recently shot for Complex magazine.

• Scion Installation L.A. opens the group show featuring eight emerging artists with 1000 Days in celebration of the the upcoming 1000th feature for DailyServing.com.

• The Cinefamily at the (not-so) Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax hosts a screening of the children’s classic The Red Balloon with an accompanying live score by AsDSSka (Aska Matsumiya and David Scott Stone) and Lucky Dragons shown with a bonus live sing-along with the L.A. Ladies’ Choir.

*Bonus bonus: There will also be a record release party and screening of AsDSSka’s music video for “Hold On” directed by Spike Jonze and Crystal Moselle at Family!

• And finally, Cinespia and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery keep the summer outdoorsiness going with screenings of Hitchcock’s thriller To Catch a Thief on Saturday and closing out Sunday on a high note with Linklater’s comedy Dazed and Confused.

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Old friends and good peoples get together tonight at FAMILY bookstore on Fairfax as artist/director/musician/graphic designer/writer Mike Mills and artist/director/musician/curator/publisher Aaron Rose launch Mills’ retrospective book GRAPHICS/FILMS published by Alleged Press. More from the one and only A. Rose:

“Please join us this Thursday at FAMILY (7:30) for an intimate evening with Mike Mills in honor of the release of his new book GRAPHICS/FILMS. A short presentation of retrospective films, videos and graphics will be followed by an informal conversation about his work in all mediums.

Aaron”

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Apologies for the lack of posts this week, but considering my computer has been out sick since December and have been posting wherever I can around LA I think I’ve done a decent job with my streak of daily posts ending this week. So to make up for the lack, here’s a few interesting things to look at around town this fine Friday the 13th weekend:

• Mark McCoy “Hallow” at Hope Galery (March 13th-April 11th, 2009)
  

• “Year of the Ox” group art show at GR2 (March 14th-April 15, 2009)

• Chris Lundy “Notes From the Field” at James Gray Gallery (March 14th-April 12th, 2009)

• Matthew Thurber’s “Ambergris” performance at Family Sunday March 15th

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As part of Cinefamily’s ongoing “Family Sundays” (where LA bookstore Family invites a special guest to curate an evening of entertainment at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax), artist/designer/filmmaker Mike Mills (Thumbsucker, Does Your Soul Have A Cold, music videos for The Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Air, etc.) will be presenting the 1970 film from the Czech New Wave, Lovefilm. Much like Mike’s messages in his own films as well as his fine art, Lovefilm deals with the awkwardness of interpersonal relationships in the guise of romance. Join Mr. Mills this Sunday as he shares his thoughts on this lesser-known masterpiece from 1970.

Lovefilm presented by Mike Mills
Sunday, February 8th @ 8:00pm
Tickets-$12

The Cinefamily @ The Silent Movie Theatre
611 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

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