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Inspired by Marco Brambilla’s video masterpiece Civilization (mentioned last year here and can be seen at the NYC Standard), hip hop’s resident artiste Kanye West decided to commission the genius video artist to power up his latest music video for “Power“. Oh excuse me, my bad, according to Kanye, “It’s not a video…it’s a painting!!!”

“Power” Single available now on iTunes.

Also…watch Brambilla’s process behind the scenes below and read details from the New York Times Vulture blog here.

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Los Angeles’ infamous RETNA will be unveiling his latest incredible installation downtown as Rivera & Rivera hosts their final one-night-only event at their Hope street location before moving to their new digs in the gallery district.

Click here for full details and more.

From Rivera & Rivera:

“For its final exhibition in South Park, RIVERA & RIVERA is excited to present a floor-to-ceiling installation piece by international graffiti artist Marquis Lewis aka RETNA. Fresh off an exhibition at the world’s premier art fair in Basel, Switzerland (covered by the Huffington Post here), RETNA’s installation explores the complex nature of a fluid lexicon derived from hieroglyphs and inspired by street text. Through a spectrum of materials, the text is granted an awe-inspiring dimension.”

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Three generations of art icons from their respective disciplines (or undisciplined as the case may be) join forces like a deformed Voltron as Gary Panter, Bob Zoell and Devin Flynn form ZPFfffft!!! at Scion Installation LA in Culver City.

From Scion:

““ZPFfffft!!!” brings together three generations of artists. Panter explains, “Devin and Bob and myself of are representatives of nearly equidistant generations, and it is interesting to see how artists of successive generations evolve the problems of iteration and mediums and the game of making art, to produce objects that prompt the mind and slow the moment of the encounter.”

The exhibition will include a 23-foot wall covered in Panter’s playful chalk drawings, as well as a series of small and affordable works; two 6-foot-by-12-foot paintings by Zoell; and a number of new works from Flynn, among other surprises.”

BONUS! Devin Flynn’s legendary ode to dudes who like to cut off circulation to their genitals, Lady Pants. You’re welcome.

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The Creators Project is an online network from Vice and Intel dedicated to providing the creative insights of the world’s most creative creators across all forms of media. Initially focusing mostly on musicians such as Diplo, Richie Hawtin, Phoenix, James Lavelle, CSS, Mark Ronson, and our boys N.A.S.A., The Creators Project expand their horizons this summer to include filmmakers, visual artists, and of course live music performances as their highly anticipated event series begins in New York.

Among many talented international creatives, The Creators Project Launch Event NYC features Spike Jonze and special presentations of his robot love story I’m Here, musical performances by Interpol, Mark Ronson, The Rapture, N.A.S.A., and Die Antwoord among others, as well as visual installations from United Visual Artists, Radical Friend, Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and the omnipresent Graffiti Research Lab and many more.

Click here to RSVP for the FREE event (with registration) by tonight at 11:59 eastern standard time!

From the Creators:

“The Creators Project event series—a roving global celebration—launches this summer on June 26, when The Creators rolls into 80,000-square-feet of display and performance space honeycombed throughout the legendary Milk Studios in New York’s Meatpacking District.

The event is going to be a groundbreaking combination of interactive art and installations, panels, workshops, screenings, and live performances. As much as The Creators Project is a digital archive of our digital world, it is also a testament to the enduring appeal of the Real. Many of the artists within the program explore the way that digitally manipulated images, sounds, and motions converge in real time, in real spaces.”

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Hungry for food? How about for art? Or maybe you’re just thirsty for free booze amongst food inspired art? Then look no further than the international group show Palate where the idea of food as both a medium and muse is explored through art and installation at the Scion Space in Culver City.

From Scion:

“If cooking is an art form, then food is the most common medium of artistic expression in the world. Opening May 22, Scion’s Installation L.A. Gallery presents “Palate,” a group exhibition of internationally lauded artists in which food takes its rightful place inside the gallery.

“Palate,” which means the sense of taste, but also references an artist’s palette, will showcase a wide array of food-related art from Martha Rich’s feminine, cake-laden illustrations to Alan Macdonald’s classically rendered paintings of pilgrims that feature the unlikely additions of grocery bags, baked beans and chips. “Palate” will also include James Reynolds’ series of photographs documenting Death Row inmates’ last meal requests, as well as Jeff Vespa’s giant Polaroids of fast food burgers. Scott Hove’s monstrous cake sculptures will be on display, as will Tamara Kostianovsky’s realistic sculptures of slabs of meat, which she makes with articles of clothing. Clare Crespo will crochet a smorgasbord of fun foods, and Jeph Gurecka will build an installation out of bread he bakes himself that explores the idea of food as sustenance.”

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Family, the friendly provider of keenly curated books, zines, contemporary arts and unique hand made items, hosts an opening party for their latest famously elaborate window displays. Created by William Lemon III and titled Parceval, the display’s unveiling will also be accompanied by a live in-store musical performance by Pharaohs.

Also…for a closer look at Family on Fairfax, check out Lance Bangs and VBS.tv’s mini documentary on the unique Los Angeles bookstore below.

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No, not THE Continental with Christopher Walken, the Continental Gallery downtown which is hosting my fellow Academy of Art film alum Matthias Koenigswieser and five of his contemporaries in the group show, Focus Daily. Detailed info on the show here.

From the Continental:

“Focus Daily renders the works of six young contemporary artists – Lukas Gansterer, Matthias Koenigswieser, Ulrich Nausner, Thomas Rhube, Clemens Wolf from Austria and Joseph Kosir from Netherlands - whose prolific and joint collaboration lead to their first collective exhibition in Los Angeles. Diverse media (photography, video, installation and painting) merge to set conceptual images of an exposed contemporaneousness, engaging relations between individual and outer world, investigating and challenging dominant rules and social conventions, exploring new communicative visual imagery.”

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Find some joy roup at Scion’s Installation Space in Culver City as they presents It Was On Earth That I Knew Joy, “a group exhibition curated by Lionel Vivier of Sixpack France that explores the increasingly blurry boundaries between humans and the technology we create”. With original posters, installations and a short film exploring the theme of man vs. machine, the show features the art of Ill-Studio, Cody Hudson, PMKFA, Steven Harrington and many more.

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Birds “playing” guitar is an installation created by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot for The Curve, Barbican, in London. Almost as soothing as entrancing as a squirrel playing the harmonica, almost.

From the Barbican:

“French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways.

For his installation in The Curve, Boursier-Mougenot creates a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.

27 February 2010 - 23 May 2010
The Curve, Barbican, London
http://www.barbican.org.uk/thecurve/blog/index.html”

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The 2nd weekend of the new year brings a plethora of group shows to Los Angeles along with a Hamburger weekender.

• Gallery 1988 on Melrose has been pumping out art shows depicting some of our most recognizable pop culture heroes and villains over the years (I AM 8-BIT, Crazy 4 Cult, Lost, etc.) so it comes as no surprise that our favorite childhood muscle bound bowl-cut hero from Eternia has over 100 artists making pieces of him and his pals for the show Under the Influence: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• You Can Heal Your Life! at the Circus Gallery on Lexington that is at their group show which features the works of Sister Corita among others. Curated by Emma Gray, the “art works in this show seek to address issues of religion, spirituality and self-help through performance, sculpture, painting, video and printmaking.“

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• For animal and art lovers alike, Thinkspace in Silver Lake is putting out A Cry For Help, a group show of over 100 artists with the goal of raising awareness about the plight of animals in our modern world. *20% of all proceeds will be donated to Born Free USA.

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• New Image Art on La Brea is run by some amazing women (Marsea Goldberg, Amber Abramson) so it should come as no surprise that their current group show features some of today’s powerful women photographers with the group show Put Your Finger on the Button. Included in the show are two of my favorite photographers, regardless of sex, the awesome Cheryl Dunn and lovely Deanna Templeton (who you may have both seen in our film Beautiful Losers).

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• Speaking of Deanna Templeton, her husband Ed Templeton will be featured in the show for the Japanese publication Megane Zine at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery off of Melrose. In addition to a limited edition HVW8 x Megane t-shirt designed by Ed for sale, comic zine’s will be given free to the first 20 people on January 9th.

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• And finally wrap up your weekend with family, laughter and Hamburger as the Cinefamily on Fairfax extends their Comedy Death Ray series with Neil Hamburger’s tribute to Frank Sinatra, Jr. I repeat Frank Sinatra, JUNIOR. In honor of Frank Jr.’s birthday, Hamburger has assembled this evening of rare, vintage Frank Jr. TV variety specials and film appearances!

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