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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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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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Bobby Solomon’s brilliant design site Kitsune Noir has teamed up with Poketo and Hollywood’s Space 15 Twenty to bring Angelenos the art market known as Los Angeles, I’m Yours. The ever-changing art in the gallery will feature works from LA luminaries such as our own Beautiful Loser Geoff McFetridge, Gary Baseman, Jason Schwartzman, John Pham, Mark Todd, Neil LaBute for Significant Objects, Saelee Oh, Steven Harrington and Tim Biskup among many other artists.

Also…on May 1st from 7-10pm come through for a special evening with Portugal. The Man as they perform a live acoustic set and more.

More from Kitsune Noir:

“Los Angeles, I’m Yours takes the best artists and designers from the Los Angeles area and brings them together into what we’re calling an “Art Market”, basically a gallery show formatted like a space you’d find in the Rose Bowl Flea Market. These creatives will be taking old and vintage pieces and giving them new life as works of art. Honestly we’ve got some really amazing artists do some really cool stuff with some unusual pieces. We’re also going to be totally transforming the Space15Twenty Gallery into an entirely new environment, filled with all kind of furniture and knick knacks.”

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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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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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Art all weekend long from Fullerton to Culver City to the entire expanse of Washington boulevard and Beyond Eden with a little ghostbusting thrown in for good measure.

• The Barnsdall Art Park in Los Feliz goes Beyond Eden for a two day art fair celebrating the latest movement in contemporary art in Los Angeles. Fifteen LA area galleries will be represented along with live painting, screenprinting, performance art and food trucks galore. Other highlights include the documentary film on southern California artists Scribble.08 and Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho’s photo series Heroes and Villains, intimate portraits of emerging and established figures in the Pop Surrealist, Graffiti and Alt-Comic Book worlds including LA based artists Todd Schorr, Dave Kinsey, Gary Baseman, Seonna Hong, Saelee Oh, Mark Ryden, Robert Williams, Tim Biskup, Mr. Cartoon, COOP, Shepard Fairey, Kozyndan, Souther Salazar, Shag and many more. Check Beyondeden.com for the full schedule of events.

• Homeboy Ito not only strolls into town from New York to catch all three Thom Yorke shows, but he also “presents images from his time traveling the world as Damon Dash’s personal photographer and a collection of personal work captured during the Summer of 2009″ in his photo show titled EVERYBODY SOMEDAY at the PÄS Gallery in Fullerton.

• Concert poster master/vinyl toy creator Frank Kozik unveils a show shrouded in mystery at Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City. Who knows what to expect but I have a feeling it involves these two mutants:

• The Scion Space in Culver City goes to Infinity with a “group exhibition of artists whose practices or aesthetics relate to the many facets of the infinite.” Featuring Richard Colman, Andrew Schoultz, Aaron Noble and many more.

• Spend A Day in LA as over 60 artists Los Angeles artists and non-artists show off their work in unused public outdoor spaces along the entire length of Washington Boulevard’s 27 miles, from Whittier to Venice Beach. “For one day artists will perform works, create installations, facilitate happenings, and make music in unexpected spaces, such as on the sidewalk, between dumpsters, along railroad tracks, as well as inside the audience’s cars as they traverse one of LA’s most iconic boulevards.”

• In conjunction with the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, end your weekend donating canned food for LA’s hungry while busting some ghosts at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for the 25th anniversary screening of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 classic Ghostbusters.

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Got time for things to do on a Saturday in Los Angeles? Sure you do. Hopefully LA will stop burning by then.

• Tony Alva’s Exhibit A Gallery on Fairfax goes Bipolar with the group show featuring the likes of Tim Biskup, Bigfoot and Tiffany Liu among others.

• Hi-Fructose and Gallery Nucleus present Sweet Streets, a group exhibition inspired by the ever-changing and uniquely unexpected Japanese fashion sub-cultures. Featuring Tim Biskup and
  Tiffany Liu in another weekend show, Junko Mizuno, Kozyndan, Yumiko Kayukawa and many many more.

• The Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo opens for Mike Shinoda (yes, the Lincoln Park dj) as he follows his highly-successful 2008 show, Glorious Excess (Born) with Glorious Excess (Dies), the next chapter in his series exploring society’s obsession with celebrity culture, consumer addiction, and fascination with excess.

• And why not end your Saturday watching werewolves while in a cemetery? Cinespia and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery screen John Landis’ classic 1979 horror film, An American Werewolf in London.

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