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Help save our beautiful sea creatures by viewing the beautiful art of some of the world’s most creative artists at the one night only gala art show Sea No Evil which benefits the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Among the heavy hitters of art whose work will be for sale include Audrey Kawasaki, Camille Rose Garcia, Clayton Brothers, FriendsWithYou, Gary Baseman, Glen E. Friedman, Jeff Soto, Korin Faught, Kozyndan, Maya Hayuk, Retna, Richard Colman, Shepard Fairey, Skullphone and Tim Biskup and many, many others. Also joining in on this special one off event will be the musical stylings of Matt Costa, The Crystal Method and DJ Diabetic (Shepard Fairey) at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium.

Special thanks to the good lookin’ out Kim Huynh at Pitchblend Media!

From the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:

“Sea No Evil, an art show benefit to raise awareness of the oceanic conservation needed through out the world. For the sole benefit of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to continue their aggressive campaigns to end the illegal whaling in Antarctica, the bloody seal hunt in Canada, dolphin slaughter in Japan and illegal shark finning in the Galapagos. What started as a misguided whale watching excursion, has become a powerful vein of support to create change and awareness touching the entire world. By bringing together like minded artists and art enthusiasts, we hope to give each observer the opportunity to be apart of a something bigger then one.

The action of many magnifies the voice of one.

Building upon the success of first two art show which raised over $85,000 combined, this year we have confirmed over 50 artists donating more then 70 pieces of art to be auctioned the night of Saturday, August 29th.”

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Two of my faves join forces in New York as Orange County’s master painter Jeff Soto returns to the venerable Jonathan LeVine Gallery with his robots and creatures who constantly battle beautifully over love and death in tow as he opens his solo show Lifecycle. “In conjunction with this exhibition, the artist will be painting a site-specific public mural in New York City, and releasing a new limited-edition print.”

Also…joining Jeff and Jonathan in the NYC fun is Dave Cooper with his solo show Mangle in the project room.

Read more from Soto here.

From Soto:

“This new body of work feel like a tipping point or breakthrough to me- I’ve been exploring new themes, new techniques, pushing myself out of my comfort zone and possibly breaking the surface into a new direction. I usually don’t feel like this but it’s been a rollercoaster ride, full of discoveries and failures, emotions and hard work. This show has been more personal than those in the past, as I’ve had to dive into the subjects of family and life and death. It has also been extremely rewarding and I’m excited to share them. I’m going to keep painting and exploring this new path but this will be my last solo exhibit for a while. So come by if you can!”

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After touring the world since 2007, Lord Vader has returned! To Los Angeles that is, as the 100 Helmets of The Vader Project go on display for Freeman’s auction preview exhibition in Hollywood. Ever since I dorked out over the elaborately designed helmets by artists such as Tim Biskup, Ron English, Mister Cartoon, Gary Baseman and Frank Kozik among many others at the Star Wars Celebration in LA, I knew the force was strong with this one and can’t wait to witness the power of the Dark Side once again.

From The Vader Project:

“This summer, The Vader Project launches the final chapter of its four-year art odyssey. The iconic collection features 100 Darth Vader Helmets re-imagined by today’s most notable artists. Completing its epic world tour, The Vader Project returns to Los Angeles in June for a special ten-day exhibition in Hollywood as a preview to the upcoming Freeman’s Auction in Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles Preview Exhibition is free to the public with an opening reception on June 11 from 6-10pm. The show will also feature a 200-plus page, full-color, limited edition catalog that is being produced for the auction and is available for pre-order now at www.thevaderproject.com. On June 12, the space will present a catalog signing event with over 20 participating artists in attendance beginning at 2pm on June 12. The Los Angeles Preview Exhibition will be open June 12-20 daily from Noon to 6pm.

For this unique project, each artist customized a 1:1 scale authentic prop replica of the actual Darth Vader helmet featured in the STAR WARS™ films. Notable artists involved with the project include: Shag, Peter Kuper, Jermaine Rogers, Gary Baseman, BXH, Tim Biskup, The Pizz, Dalek, Paul Frank, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Michelle Valigura, Frank Kozik, Plasticgod, Simone Legno - Tokidoki, Bill McMullen, Secret Base, Joe Ledbetter, Alex Pardee, Suckadelic, Cameron Tiede, Mister Cartoon, Marc Ecko, and Amanda Visell.“

Vader by Plasticgod

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Oops, a little late on the closing party BUT the mega successful group show Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years will be up for one last weekend through this Sunday at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Final weekend to view new works by David Choe, James Jean, Jeff Soto and many more.

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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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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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So it seems that the end of Summer not only makes way for Fall, but also the beginning of the art season. If you live in the LA area, love art, like mingling with people who also love art, and enjoy drinking free alcohol while looking at said art then you’re in luck because this weekend is chock full of openings and all those things.

• The British artist collective known simply as The London Police respond to a call at the Carmichael Gallery on La Brea bringing with them Brothers in Arms, an exhibition of all new Hollywood-themed paintings, video and photography.

• Los Angeles photographer extraordinaire Doug Aitken migrates to Regen Projects on Santa Monica with a series of new text-based light boxes along with the west coast debut of the film Migration. *Also, the large-scale cinematic installation will be presented to the public on Santa Monica Boulevard projected onto the courtyard of Regen Projects II; visible only at night from sunset to sunrise. Check out some beautiful production stills from the film here.

• Cartoon master painter Kenny Scharf comes home to the Honor Fraser Gallery on La Cienega with Barberadise, a showcase of new paintings that integrate familiar icons from Scharf’s visual lexicon and implies a utopian world that is at once nostalgically comic and vibrantly cosmic.

• Camille Rose Garcia comes to the Merry Karnowsky Gallery on La Brea and brings with her The Hydra of Babylon, her latest paintings on wood and paper which explore the converging ecological and human catastrophes and the healing power of nature.

• And Then The Wind Changed so says Australian artist Anthony Lister as he brings his solo show to the venerable New Image Art Gallery on Santa Monica.

• Philip Lumbang brings his friendly faced bears and found mediums to a warehouse space in LA and transforms it all into a gallery space as he opens his show, Hug Life. Special musical guests DJ Diabetic (Shepard Fairey) and Intricate Machines will keep the show rocking all night long.

• The super successful Scion Installation 5 Tour comes to a close with Scion Art Tour: Self Portrait at the Scion Space in Culver City. Among the artists whose portraits will be auctioned off for the charity Creative Capitol include Blek Le Rat, David Choe, Ron English, Mark Mothersbaugh, Retna, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Sage Vaughn and many more. Click here to take a look at the art for auction.

• Flock to the Flock Shop in Chinatown as they celebrate their 2 year anniversary with a show of Patrick Hruby’s new serigraph work in CMY Not?

• Cinespia’s second to last screening of the season brings Tim Burton’s 1985 classic comedy Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure to both the dead and undead at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

• And finally for all you music lovers and beat heads out there, spend your Sunday diggin the crates with fellow record collecting connoissieurs at the Beat Swap Meet at the Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown.

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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.

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Group shows, group shows, and more group shows with Sarah Silverman, Z-Trip, Shepard Fairey, Diego Rivera, some graffiti, a dragon, and a Winnebago man mixed in to make your weekend well done.

• East coast meets West coast as artists Sage Vaughn, Dereck Albeck, Hiro Kurata, Mars Mario Martinez (MARS-1), G Bradley Rhodes, Britton Tolliver, and Oliver Vernon join forces for a group show at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica.

• At their not-so-secret Silver Lake comic book shop, The Secret Headquarters presents the Guilty Pleasures of artist Aiyana Udensen. Come for a drink or two and an “an informative slide presentation on rodent care”.

• Get down with superstar DJs and Darwin’s Revolution at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles for the last First Fridays of the season as Z-Trip, The Gaslamp Killer, and The Phatal DJ rock the hallowed halls of history.

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• You don’t have to be quiet as you laugh your ass off at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax as The Cinefamily presents Sarah Silverman presenting Carl Reiner’s 1970 black comedy, Where’s Poppa? as part of June’s Comedy Death Ray (Upright Citizens Brigade) series.

• For those looking to take a weekend trip to Northern California, the Scion art tour makes a move to San Jose with Installation Five: Self Portrait featuring artists Blek le Rat, Jeff Soto, David Choe, Kelsey Brookes, Mark Mothersbaugh, Ron English, Sage Vaughn, and many, many more at the Anno Domini Gallery.

• LA’s downtown Crewest crew presents a group tribute show to the mecca of the LA graffiti scene with The Legendary Belmont Tunnel. Featuring writers Cab, Man One, and the legendary Saber, among others.

• Sometimes there’s nothing funnier than found footage and the Cinefamily has a bunch of it as the Silent Movie Theater presents TV Carnage Night, the equivalent of “a mystical night of channel-flipping, in which every single click of the remote lands you on that bizarre something that stops you in your audiovisual tracks”. Check out a clip here:
TV Carnage Night (feat. One Man Force)
Silent Movie Theater
Saturday June 6, 2009 at 10:45pm 611 N. Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036 Cost: $10

• Giant Robot New York spotlights “indie-comics creators from across the country, ranging from stapled-and-folded stars of DIY to art-gallery superstars” with the group show Panelists V.

• The ever visceral Amanda Visell unleashes her latest vinyl toy, The Dragon Scout, for a release party at Pasadena’s Switcheroo workshop.

• For the Internationally inclined, the irrepressible street art icon Shepard Fairey opens a retrospective of his screenprint work at the Berlin arm of LA’s Merry Karnowski Gallery.

• See the Life-size Murals of Diego Rivera as educator Gregorio Luke leads an innovative multi-media lecture of the Mexican muralist’s life and work with the aid of 20,000 lumens at the Ford Theater. “Murals are projected life size using the most advanced projection technology and gives viewers the sensation of being in front of the original murals”.

• And finally, end your weekend on a f-ing high note with a sneak preview of Winnebago Man, a film in which filmmaker Ben Steinbauer takes on the seemingly impossible task of tracking down Jack Rebney (aka “the angriest RV salesman in the world”) and his hilariously foul-mouthed and ill-tempered outtakes from a Winnebago promo he made in the 80s. Check the original clip here:

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A bit of International flavor as two of my favorite artists open firsts with their respective shows overseas; old school Miami graffiti writer come New York fine artist José Parlá in his first solo show in Hong Kong, and Southern California’s robot vs. nature painter Jeff Soto’s first solo show in London.

• Having hang out with José Parlá (Ease) at last years Art Basel in Miami, I found out why his old buddy and my editing mentor Fernando Villena calls him one of the “nicest guys with good taste you’ll ever meet”. José brings that taste to Hong Kong with his signature graf influenced canvases in Reading through Seeing at the Ooi Botos Gallery. Check a preview of the show here (via Arrested Motion).

Also check out José breaking down his method for Cool Hunting:

• Having seen and appreciated his work since he was grad fresh out of Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, it’s been a pleasure to see Jeff Soto become one of Southern California’s most well known pop artists. Now London gets to see and appreciate his work too with his latest works in The Inland Empire at the StolenSpace Gallery. Check another fine interview and preview of the show here (via Arrested Motion).



The Inland Empire

StolenSpace Gallery
Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL, United Kingdom
+44 (0) 207 247 2684
Show runs from May 14 through June 6, 2009

And here’s a clip of Jeff citing his childhood influences from FIFTY24SF Gallery and Upper Playground’s art doc The Run Up:

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