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Exactly a month ago today THIS, Los Angeles opened the doors to their Highland Park gallery/artist space for their inaugural show These Friends, which featured the work of their amazing artist friends. Tomorrow night they close their doors on These Friends ready to welcome some new ones.

Click here to view and purchase pieces from These Friends.

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Last week (March 3-7) Los Angelenos were treated to Manifest Equality, the massive group art show in support of equal rights awareness. Throughout the week the gallery was open to the public where the works of over 200 artists were on view, Aaron Rose taught a Make Something!! DIY workshop, musical performances by Ben Lee, Seawolf and Modest Mouse and more rocked the opening and closing night parties where stirring speeches were delivered by activists such as Cleve Jones and actors Marissa Tomei and Heather Graham among others.

Click here or on photos to view entire Manifest Equality set on Flickr.

Barry McGee

Robbie Conal

Shepard Fairey

Aaron Rose

Curtis Kulig

Trey Speegle

Jesse Spears in the Make Something!! workshop room

Also…read more on Yosi Sergant’s Manifest Equality brainchild from our Gelatobaby friend Alissa Walker in her article for Fast Company.

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Lovers of art and equal rights have plenty to be excited about this week as the massive art show/equal rights event MANIFESTEQUALITY opens this Wednesday and continues through this weekend in Hollywood (*complete schedule of events listed below). Featuring a lineup of artists and friends who’ve donated their time and creativity to championing equal rights for all including Aaron Rose, Barry McGee, Cali Dewitt, Carlos Ramos, Chris Johanson, Clare Rojas, Friends With You, Gary Baseman, Jesse Spears, Keith Scharwath, Luke Cheuh, Ron English, Sage Vaughn, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Tim Biskup and many, many more.

See full lineup of artists here and check some of their work here on the MANIFESTEQUALITY blog.

Also…a Busy-Being pop up shop with curated artist made goods will be on hand with a porton of the proceeds going to support for the cause.

But first, more from the Manifesters:

“The MANIFESTEQUALITY Gallery, issues an inspiring, visual call-to-action, with hundreds of artists motivating public energy toward true reform on a local, state and national level.

MANIFESTEQUALITY will be open to the public, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 through Sunday, March 7th, 2010 between the hours of 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM with extended hours Friday - Sunday.”

• March 3, Wednesday

10am - 6pm      Gallery Open to the Public
8pm - 1am        Opening Night Party:

Musical Guest:  Uh Huh Her, Fitz & the Tantrums, and more
DJ Sets by: Tim Biskup, Chris Holmes, and Booby Trap

• March 4, Thursday

10am - 6pm       Gallery open to the public

• March 5, Friday

11am - 10pm     Gallery open to the public

• March 6, Saturday

10am - 6pm       Gallery open to the public
11am - 5pm       Make Something School with Aaron Rose
8pm - 1am         Closing Night Party

Musical Guests: Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse, Sam Sparrow,
DJ Sets by: Crystal Method and Kelly Cole

• March 7, Sunday

10am - 5pm       Gallery open to the public

photo by Elisabeth Scooter Fried

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ATTENTION CREATIVE ARTISTIC TYPES: Just one more week left to have your artwork considered to be shown alongside a virtual who’s who of contemporary artists in Los Angeles MANIFESTEQUALITY show in March! Among the many talented and inspired artists joining the cause for equal rights are Aaron Rose, Barry McGee, Cali Dewitt, Carlos Ramos, Chris Johanson, Clare Rojas, Friends With You, Gary Baseman, Jesse Spears, Keith Scharwath, Luke Cheuh, Ron English, Sage Vaughn, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Tim Biskup and many, many more.

See the entire list of artists here and check out some of their work here on the MANIFESTEQUALITY blog.

From the Manifest Equalizers:

“Art plays a pivotal role in creating cultural momentum, and this is your chance to get involved.  The MANIFESTEQUALITY Gallery invites you to join artists from across the nation who are using their voices and talents to amplify and motivate the grass roots movement to fight for full & unrestricted equal rights for all Americans.

Submission is simple and quick. Just click here to submit images of your original artwork. You can submit any kind of visual art: painting, illustration, sculpture, collage— 2D or 3D. MANIFESTEQUALITY will be accepting submissions from Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 through 11:59 a.m. PST on February 19, 2010.

Our amazing panel of JUDGES will select up to thirty works of art from among those submitting to the art contest. FIVE First Prize Winners pieces will be shown along side some of today’s most respected contemporary artists, onsite, at the MANIFESTEQUALITY Gallery in Los Angeles, which will run from Wednesday, March 3rd to Sunday, March 7th, 2010.

TEN Second Prize Winners will be selected by our judges and displayed along with the FIVE First Prize Winners in the MANIFESTEQUALITY Online Gallery.

The MANIFESTEQUALITY Online Contest will center on six themes: EQUALITY, JUSTICE, RESPECT, UNITY, CIVIL RIGHTS, and LOVE. Artworks on any one, or all of these themes, will be considered for inclusion.”

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THIS, “a group of 5 artists pooling their resources under one roof to provide an outlet for themselves and other creative people” is really bringing it as they’ve reached out to their friends for their inaugural show this Friday. From Corey Arnold to Shepard Fairey to Geoff McFetridge to Estevan Oriol to Jesse Spears to Sage Vaughn, the list goes on and on and there’s just waaaaay too many people to list so I’ll let the event flyer speak for itself.

Check out their THIS blog to see what great works to expect.

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A solid first weekend of November with friends in art shows, friends being crafty, and Pac Man going up against Kitty. I got my money on Manny.

• Fifteen years strong, Marsea Goldberg’s venerable New Image Art Gallery keeps banging out the hits with the help of special human being Amber Abramson (who herself is often busy-being) as they present the group show 14 Artists. And these aren’t just any artists, they’re heavy hitters Judith Supine, Cleon Peterson, Skullphone, The Date Farmers, Richard Colman, and Erik Foss among others. Party starts at the gallery and continues on to the after-party at the Cha Cha in Silver Lake.

• Get your craft on at the Contemporary Crafts Market in Santa Monica as my dear old friend Tianna Osborne will be displaying (and selling) her art through her uniquely beautiful purses through the weekend. Flyer below is good for free admission for two!

• Want more Manny? Of course you do! So I suggest you start waiting in line now at Hollywood’s Montálban Theater as Nike Sportswear presents Under the Hood with Manny Pacquiao, a send off celebration and Q&A with the man himself and his team of Freddie Roach, Buboy Fernandez and Alex Ariza. RSVP is mandatory and capacity will surely be reached, but if you can’t make it in person the event will be streaming live on Niksportswear.com, Complex.com, and Facebook.

• The HVW8 Art+Design Gallery on Melrose reunites three old designer friends with the show Michael, Kevin & Geoff. Those three amigos would be: Geoff McFetridge who was of course in Beautiful Losers and whose work you’ve most recently seen in the title design of Where the Wild Things Are; graphic designer Michael Leon whose work with Nike is well documented; and Kevin Lyons who’s well, Kevin Lyons.

• Ever wanted to know how to blow yourself up? If your answer is yes (or if you just want to see some good art) then you’re in luck as WK Interact teaches you how to do so at Echo Park’s Subliminal Projects with his solo show aptly titled How to Blow Yourself Up.

• Speaking of blowing stuff up, the Three Apples Exhibition Celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty continues at the Royal/T Cafe in Culver City with limited edition print releases, live painting, and meet and greets with some of the participating artists of this never ending event. Along with my Hit+Run homeboys silk-screening gear, Buff Monster and Plasticgod will be among the artists on hand from 4-9pm. Presented by Juxtapoz and Japan LA.

• And finally, another celebratory show as the clothing line Blood is the New Black celebrates their five years of existence with a group show and party at Silver Lake’s JÜNC Gallery. And what would an art party be without my talented friends, the lovely Jesse Spears and the sometimes bearded Dan Monick, among the many participating artists.

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In continuing the films spirit of collaboration, creativity, and inspiraton, Beautiful Losers and Nike Sportswear teamed up this summer to give back to the community with the Make Something!! workshop initiative. Many of the artists from the film (Ed Templeton, Mike Mills, Thomas Campbell) their contemporaries (KAWS, Todd James (REAS), Jose Parla, among others), as well as the filmakers (Aaron Rose, Money Mark, Tobin Yelland, and me Lenny Mesina) taught classes to high school kids in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami on the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) aspects of art-making. The web series, which documents workshops in NY and LA, was just released to the public through Nikesportswear.com. As supervising film editor of the series, which was produced and directed by BlackLake Productions, I believe we really made a difference as the kids in the workshops were extremely inventive and clever with the work they created. Here’s a look at one of the webisodes:

Video Editing with Lenny Mesina from BlackLake on Vimeo.

Please check out the rest of the series on Nikesportswear.com or right here on CHUMPCHAMPION’s Make Something!! page.

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