Breaking Bad Art Project at Gallery1988

Sometimes there are shows I get an invite to that make me tingle with excitement. This was definitely one of them. Although I came aboard a lil' while after the show started, I am a huge fan of Breaking Bad and was very excited when Gallery1988 asked me to participate in the special Breaking Bad Art Project presented by Breaking Gifs.

In coming up with my idea for the piece I knew that I wanted to incorporate some actual crystals. The tough part became finding the right kind of stones. I ended up using beach glass, which has a nice fog to it and isn't very shiny but couldnt find it in that particular shade of blue, so I wound up having to dye them; essentially creating my own little 'fake meth' production line. 

Figuring out how to float the painting over the crystals was slightly troublesome. A system of spacers was installed, and then to cut down on the weight of the piece I individually glued down each rock instead of my original idea of just filling the whole back with them loose. I didn't feel to safe doing that though with the glass.The actual painting was done on board and then adhered to glass.

 The final piece is titled "Baking Bad" in fitting with the 'cooking' of meth aspect of the show.

The Breaking Bad Art Project will be on display at the Gallery1988 Melrose location from Aug 20-26. Make sure to stop by this amazing show during the short time it will be on display.

http://nineteeneightyeight.com/

Gallery1988 takes Crazy4Cult to NY!

Ever since Ive known about Gallery1988 Ive wanted to participate in their stupendous Crazy4Cult show, and was thrilled to get an invite to this years event. 

As an added bonus, they decided to take this years show on the road to NY, so I will be able to attend the opening, which should be crazy! ( pardon the obvious pun) 

I chose to do a piece based on one of the best cult movies out there, "They Live", which has some of the most memorable one liners ever penned for cinema! 

With my recent G1988 pieces, ive been getting more adventurous with framing, so I decided to make this piece slightly sculptural and do part of the painting on an actual pair of sunglasses, which is very appropriate for this film. 

The piece is called "They live to reproduce". 

 The show will be on display  Aug 9 - Sept 1 in NY at 64 Gansevoort St. NY 10014, and then all unsold pieces will move to their Melrose location for display. 

nineteeneightyeight.com/

Get sloppy 'Wasted' on art!

 Your vision will blur and you'll wanna spew all over your best kicks at WWA Gallery   

on June 9th, thanks to the badass show put together by Dave MacDowell!

From WWA: 'Wasted – the Great American Pastime' is a tongue-in-cheek yet candid look at our complex relationship with drugs and alcohol through eye stimulating contributions by over 70 fine artists and creative professionals. Nothing was deemed off-limits or taboo, we only requested they ‘paint responsibly.’

Participating Artists: Peter Adamyan, Erik Alos, Michael Alvarez, Crystal Barbre, Dan Barry, Robert Bowen, Scott G. Brooks, Elliot Brown, Nicole Bruckman, Vincent Cacciotti, Nathan Cartwright, John Cebollero, Luke Chueh, David Chung, Joshua... Clay, Dave Cooper, Edward Robin Coronel, Johnny Crap, Steven J Daily, Matt Dangler, Cameron Davis, Patrick Deignan, Leslie Ditto, Jason Edmiston, Mark Elliott, Patrick Fatica, Rob Faucette, Richard Frost, Serge Gay Jr., Josh Geiser, Dan Harding, Chris Hoffman, Aaron Jasinski, JoKa, Aunia Kahn, Ken Keirns, Kolaboy, Larkin, Craig LaRotonda, Gabe Larson, Edith Lebeau, Tim Maclean, Jim Mahfood, Apricot Mantle, Michael Mararian, Bill McEvoy, Meats Meier, Chris B. Murray, Buddy Nestor, Augie Pagan, John Park, Shaunna Peterson, Chris Marrs Piliero, Lou Pimentel, Arabella Proffer, Dan Quintana, Jeff Ramirez, Cate Rangel, Brandi Read, Allison Reimold, Joseph Reyna, Gregory Rodriguez, KRK Ryden, Scott Scheidly, Chris Sheridan, Allison Sommers, Brandon Steen, Chase Tafoya, Big Toe, Christopher Umana, Dark Vomit, Jessica Ward, Casey Weldon, Michael White, Charles Wish, Trey Xander, Genevive Zacconi, Chet Zar, ZOSO

While coming up with ideas for the name of my piece, I discovered the most awesome term for puking, and from it the title "Doing the Technicolor Yawn" was produced.

As a special lil bonus, I did a small run of coaster sets that will be available at the opening as well as on my Etsy.

And for the first time, WWA is having a Pub Crawl to coincide with the show, where you can get special show incentives depending on the amount of receipts you bring in from it!

I hope the art will have splash guards!

WWAGallery.com

'I Like Soup' Warhol inspired can show at Virginia MOCA

Recently I was invited by Jason Levesque ( aka Stuntkid) to participate in an Andy Warhol inspired show to coincide with an opening of his portraits at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Was very excited to show on a museum level, as well as to be connected to an artist that I grew up being a big fan of. I kinda understood what Andy was all about at an early age and always thought he was a pretty humorous artist.

For the show, which is entitled "I Like Soup", each artist was given a metal soup can to embellish. In true Warhol fashion, I decided to make the can all about myself, and chose to do a self-portrait from this previous Winter, where I took a decent break from trimming the ole face warmer.

 

  

The title of my piece is "1.5 ounces of Fame", referencing Warhol's famous quote that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, as well as the weight of the can.

 The show will be up from May 26 - August 19, and includes a pretty astounding lineup: http://www.virginiamoca.org/i-soup

'About Face' at WWA Gallery

WWA Gallery is starting off the year with a stellar group show which opens this Friday!

From their press release:

" Let's face it people: we are our own favorite subjects. That is why portraiture has long been so beloved and why examples of it can be found throughout history and in nearly every culture on the planet. This January, WWA gallery explores portrait's current state by featuring 35+ hot contemporary artists, all known to work in the medium, in the aptly named show, About Face.

 A portrait speaks not only of the person in it, but of the society surrounding them. A great deal can be learned about a culture's values, styles, attitudes, and perspectives simply by looking at the types of portraits its artists produce. About Face isn't just a survey of contemporary portraiture, it's a mirror of contemporary life. "

My piece for the show is entitled "Smoke Rings", and its 8" x 10" acrylic on board.

Progress video with some still pics and lil bit of time lapse vid:

Also, there will be a limited run of signed/numbered prints of my piece, available through the gallery once the show starts.

 

 About Face will feature portraits by: Van Arno, Ana Bagayan, Sarah Bereza, Nicole Bruckman, Jeremy Cross, Tina Darling, Matt Doust, Michael Foulkrod, Richard J. Frost, Tom Haubrick, Charlie Immer, Jason John, JoKa, Ken Keirns, Joachim Knill, John Koleszar, Craig LaRotonda, Laurie Lipton, LOUD-TREE, Dave MacDowell, Bethany Marchman, CJ Metzger, Miss Mindy, CW Moss, Buddy Nestor, Jeff T Owens, Ruel Pascual, Chris Peters, Richard Salcido, Ilona Sampovaara, Johnny Sampson, Amy Shawley, Nathan Stapley, Jophen Stein, Guim Tio, Tracy Tomko, Casey Weldon.

Open to the public, the gallery reception for About Face is from 8 - 11pm on Friday, January 13th. The exhibition will run until February 11th, 2012.

Polaroid 50l50l50 Project

 I recently had the honor of being invited by Polaroid to show in their group show/auction 50 | 50 | 50,  which they've put together to promote their GL10 printer. Proceeds will be donated to Free Arts NYC. Artists were given on of these little suckers to use in their piece:

(bobbly head cyclops not included)

THE PROJECT.
The Made in Polaroid 50 | 50 | 50 Art Exhibition & Benefit Auction, is a group art show where 50+ select artists have come together to illuminate the creative possibilities when the same challenge-create art with a single device-is undertaken by range of artists from a variety of creative backgrounds. With no other limits. From single images, to multi-printed mosaics, to photographic sculptures, and hacked printers "performing" live, the project is as much about the creative process and a new era of creative spirit as much as it is about any resulting image or piece of art.

To highlight this, we've brought together an eclectic mix of some important & influential artists of our time-along with some select, emerging talent-from the disciplines of photography, filmmakers, graffiti & street art, painting, fashion design, performance artists, actors, and more. Names like:

_Mark Seliger (photographer - more than 125 covers for Rolling Stone)
_Philip-Lorca DiCorcia (photographer - credited with staged 'fictional' approach to creating photos - before him it was all journalism).
_James Franco (Actor, director, author, painter, & performer- star of Spider-Man trilogy)
_Hush (graffiti artist/toy designer)
_Eine (graffiti artist - partner in crime with legendary Banksy) i
_Marylin Minter (Painter - A Whitney Biennial artist along, SFMOMA and more)
_Rob Pruitt (late 80′s art legend as half of the art team Pruitt-Early)
_Gary Baseman (illustrator blurring the lines between toys & fine art)

and many many more...

Ive found out some of the other artists that are also showing (Scott G. Brooks, Stella Im Hultberg, Kent Williams, just to name a few) and im really excited for this show! The artwork will be on display to the public at Phillips de Pury gallery in NYC (450 West 15th Street) from Sept 7-13 during fashion week, with the reception and auction following at 450 Park Avenue on Sept 14th. 

ARTWORK

At first, I was a little flummoxed as to what I would do for this show. I haven't done many multimedia pieces, outside of painting on some vinyl forms. But after I snapped some shots of my artist buddy Kat Gun, and got this candid pic of her applying some makeup, I had the idea to do a half picture/ half painting piece. Popped it into photoshop, broke it up, and printed it out in sections with the traditional Polaroid border.

 

I started in the lower right quadrant, and snaked up and over, working on groupings of 4 at a time. Normally, I like to put down a real simple line layout to work over, but because the spacing between the pics was so slight, I decided it was easiest just to eyeball it, especially since it woulda been tough to get the graphite transfer to hold to the sleek photo coating.

 I spent a decent while making a grid to layout and center everything, but wound up just eyeballing most of that as well. I wanted to use a technique ive used before to have the images floating within the drop box frame. So I backed all the pics to give them some stability and then mounted them on half inch spacers.  Making sure all the floating pics were straight and equally spaced before the glue dried really drove me up the wall for a good half hr. (thinking about it  now, I don't know why I didn't just nail them in, hehe, next time!)

grid - puzzle pics - all mounted to board

 

pics floating nicely in between the backing and glass.

 

The pics measured 12"x16" and after mounting and framing the whole thing came to be 16"x 20". The piece is called "Do You See Me, Like I See You?"

 

Also, found out that Chloe, which is the exclusive retailer for the event, is going to hang a reproduction of my piece at their NY and Miami locations for 'Fashion Night Out' on 9/8. 

Overall, extremely pleased with how everything turned out, and cant wait to see all the other artists work from the show, which will hopefully be up soon at Polaroid/505050.

Sink or Swim

Was invited to participate in this event and was super stoked to be showing in Japan for the first time as well help out with this worthy cause! Peruse the info below for more details.

My piece for the show "Great White Smirk"



PangeaSeed.com

PangeaSeed Kicks Off International Shark Saving Campaign, Sink or Swim

Tokyo-based shark preservation group looks to broadcast its message on an international scale

Tokyo, Japan (June 2011) – In the spirit of ocean conservation the Japan-based non-profit organization, PangeaSeed, is ramping up it’s summer activities in Tokyo and abroad with events tailored to address one the biggest threats facing the health of world’s oceans today – the rapid mass depletion of sharks.

The series of events will showcase the issues surrounding shark finning in Asia and other parts of the world, where the majority of these sharks are killed only for their fins to satisfy an unsustainable appetite for shark fin soup. In the cruel practice known as “finning,” the shark is hooked and brought aboard the boat where its fins are then cut off and the still alive but limbless animal is tossed back into the sea to drown.

With each minute that passes close to 200 sharks are killed, adding up to an astonishing 80 million deaths each year. Scientists estimate global fish stocks will be in full collapse by 2048 if current consumption and destructive fishing practices continue. But what’s even more shocking is that the majority of the ocean’s shark species could be extinct within the next 10-20 years.

PangeaSeed, with its inclusive approach to spreading its message by engaging audiences through the mediums of art, photography, film, music and discussion, will embark on a series of events both in Japan and abroad.

First, PangeaSeed will host its third annual not-for-profit art exhibition. This year’s event entitled Sink or Swim will take place in Tokyo, July 16 – 22, 2011. The show aims to offer viewers new perspectives on the widely misunderstood and demonized shark. Located at Tokyo’s M Gallery in Daikanyama, PangeaSeed will feature never-before-seen artwork from over 40 global artists such as Dave Kinsey, Brad Klausen and Kelly Towels. With a reception party to be held on Japan’s Ocean Day (Umi no Hi) Monday, July 18, guests of the fundraising event will enjoy a screening of the award-winning documentary, “Oceans”, followed by special guest speakers, live paintings and DJs.

In addition to raising funds to keep sharks afloat both in Japan and around the world, PangeaSeed will donate a percentage of proceeds to help aid animals affected by the March 2011 earthquake in Japan.

Later in July, PangeaSeed has been selected to host an information booth at the 2011 Fuji Rock Festival’s NGO Village taking place from July 29 – 31, 2011. The booth will feature information and facts about the shark finning issue and aims to provide a venue for the organization to educate and discuss with its target audience such topics as the threat of shark extinction, and the need for shark protection and shark sustainability. At the festival, PangeaSeed will collect signatures with the goal of supporting the recent proposal to ban the sale and possession of shark fins in California, while guest artists will perform “live paintings” during the festival to raise awareness for the shark finning issue. During the event PangeaSeed also will address the audience on the festival’s Green Stage.

Following its footsteps in Japan, PangeaSeed will take Sink or Swim abroad for its inaugural international art exhibition later in the year. The event will be held at the prestigious Spoke Art Gallery in San Francisco, California, September 29 – October 2, 2011.

“We are very excited to showcase a not-for-profit fund raising art collection featuring works contributed from more than 40 international renowned artists, graphic designers and photographers never before seen in Japan and the United States,” said Tre’ L. Packard, managing director of PangeaSeed. “Sink or Swim is not only a reference to the cruel practice of finning but also a reference to our relationship with the oceans as a whole, “ Packard said. “As human activity is causing sea levels to rise and coral reefs to die, we see fish stocks rapidly disappearing. The global population must change course if we want future generations to experience the sea as we have. We are standing at the crossroads in terms of sustaining the oceans. We may sink and fail, or we may find a way to succeed and swim.”

Packard added, “We are thrilled with the opportunities we’ve been given to bring this message to the public. Through these events, PangeaSeed aims to open the eyes, minds and hearts of our neighbors and bring to the forefront the ecological and environmental problems that continue to be overlooked both domestically and around the globe. We believe these events are an excellent place to share our message and gain the necessary momentum to help safeguard sharks and our oceans.”

About PangeaSeed: PangeaSeed (pangeaseed.com) is a grassroots organization based in Tokyo, Japan dedicated to educating and raising international awareness on the plight of sharks and the destruction of their habitat. Through volunteer activism, research, and the various mediums of art, music, film, and photography, PangeaSeed aims to create an open dialog with the global community to develop an understanding of the need to preserve and protect sharks and the oceans. PangeaSeed is the first organization in Japan to raise public awareness regarding shark conservation and preservation. We rely on the generosity of our supporters.

Spoke Art Gallery: Spoke Art (spoke-art.com) is San Francisco’s newest art gallery and publishing house. Located in San Francisco’s dynamic Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, Spoke Art specializes in emerging new contemporary artists with a firm emphasis on figurative and illustrative works.

M Daikanyama: M (http://www.m-event.com/) is one of Tokyo’s premier event spaces specializing in art exhibitions, performance art, music and film located in the trendy Shibuya neighborhood of Daikanyama.