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Three artists with extremely vivid imaginations come together as Aiko (formerly of Faile), Junko Mizuno and Samuel Lowder (FrePrs) open their group show Vivid Fiction at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery on La Brea.

Click here to check the vividly colorful preview of Vivid Fiction.

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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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Huge art openings, major and not so major motion pictures, as well as Trashy and Smelly events in LA. The end of May is a busy busy weekend and finds a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ for everyone, even peeps in Cinci!

• Tonight pop art legend Coop brings his trademark grinning devils, voluptuous vixens, and hell-bound hot rods to the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City as he opens his highly anticipated and hyped first solo show since 2006.

• While on my latest editing stint with the Motion Theory crew, we put together a couple of charming Nintendo spots for the upcoming video game The Legendary Starfy. What we didn’t know then was that the commercials were going to be featured in front of a small indie Pixar film coming out this weekend called Up. For the kids, yo!

• When you put the music of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse together with the mind and eyes of David Lynch you get The Dark Night of the Soul, a series of photographs influenced by the original songs created by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse for the album of the same name. This uniquely unusual collabo marks Danger Mouse’s first-ever gallery installation as well as Lynch’s first exhibition at the Michael Kohn Gallery in nearly 15 years. The album will be playing in the gallery’s two rooms as it is now one of the only places you can legally hear it.*

*As a result of a dispute with EMI, the record — featuring vocal contributions from members of the Strokes, the Cardigans, the Flaming Lips, the Pixies, and Super Furry Animals — is no longer receiving an official release. A book containing Lynch’s artwork, originally slated to be packaged with the CD, will now only include a blank CD-R, of which the artists cagily advise, “Use it as you will.”

• Sydney based street artist Kill Pixie (a.k.a. Mark Whalen) brings his latest works stateside with I’ll Hit You Up Tomorrow at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery on La Brea. Also featured in the project room, The Future Spa–collaborative Installation with Autolux. All this hosted by actor Tim Roth.

• Eat vegetarian, dance right, do yoga, and help raise funds for inner city youth as local artists make recycled art at Trashy L.A. sponsored by Breathe Los Angeles campaign. Proceeds go to the Art of Living Foundation Youth Programs in Los Angeles.

• If you’re feeling sleepy on Saturday sleep with the eternal sleepers at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery as Cinespia presents Woody Allen’s futuristic sci-fi romantic comedy Sleeper.

• Ohioans out in the naughty ‘Nati get two openings for the free price of one as Evan Hecox and Christina Seely open their respective shows, Unnamed Places and Lux, at the Country Club of course.

• One more event for Saturday night: Family member and fellow November 13er, DJ Nate Harrington, will be spinning the records before/after the Black Dice perform at The Escarpment presented by the folks at the F Yeah Fest.

• And finally, end the weekend on a high note as one of Aska (The Sads, AsDSSka) Matsumiya’s many bands, The Moonrats, rock The Smell’s Sunday show along with The Curious Mystery, Audacity, Devon Williams.

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• Pop surrealist and one of the more prominent artists of the Lowbrow art scene (and also one of my favorites), master painter Todd Schorr brings new works to the Merry Karnowski Gallery on La Brea.

• And speaking of ending runs, Giant Robot’s Silver Lake store will be closing it’s door after servicing east side pop culturists for the past couple of years. And to commemorate the occasion, and clear out their store, the’ll be offering up 50% off all items this Friday and Saturday (Silver Lake location only)!

• Last week to check out Bill McMullen’s “Hype, Hustle, Ripoff” show at the Constant Gallery on La Cienega as it ends it’s run this Saturday March, 28th.

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