Following his solo exhibition "The Collected" at Gallery Wendi Norris, painter Amir H. Fallah is in the throes of developing more new works for upcoming international exhibits. We spent some time in his studio in Highland Park, Los Angeles recently, discussing his process and inspiration.
Amir H. Fallah admits that he's in the studio seven days a week, which is part of the reason he's chosen to build his studio into his home in Los Angeles. Fallah is an incredibly prolific visual artist showing nationally and internationally, and is also the founder and owner of Beautiful Decay, juggling both with incredible dexterity. On the tail end of his very successful and highly reviewed solo exhibition "The Collected" at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco, immediately followed by the opening of "Desaturated Rainbow," a group exhibition he co-curated which opened in NYC at Field Projects, Fallah is back to work without missing a beat. I visited him at his studio on a beautiful sunny day recently to get a behind the scenes view of his process and inspiration.
Fallah is currently working on a number of pieces for a group exhibition at The Third Line in Dubai and several works on paper for another group exhibit in Rotterdam. The exhibition in Dubai is called Arrangement, and he is developing painted and collaged works on paper-mounted-canvas for it that deconstruct and reconfigure flower arrangement. Fallah found himself making these pieces after creating a painting he titled "The Ultimate Mom Painting" in 2009.
He says, "my mom called me up one day and said, 'Can't you just paint me something pretty? Like some flowers or a pond?' She wanted mom art... I made the 7'x5' painting as a joke and halfway through the painting I realized I liked it."
Seeing his work during its developing stages, the dance between abstraction and realism and the spatial tension that Fallah is playing with become clearer. Balancing references to abstract painting, Persian Miniature paintings, Dutch and Flemish still life and graphic design, the works are multidimensional and increasingly textural the closer one looks. --continuing reading
Last Thursday we visited the studio of SFAI graduate painting student Alex Ziv located out in San Francisco's Dog Patch. Inside an old warehouse is SFAI's graduate studios, and within the massive building is Alex's studio space sandwiched between dozens of other students' studios.
We first met Alex when visiting Henry Gunderson's studio when he and Henry were undergraduates at SFAI. Back in like 2009.
Speaking of Jud Bergeron, who has been blogging his Miami trip for Fecal Face the last few days... we thought now would be a good time to feature our studio visit with him we did a couple weeks ago.
On the outskirts of the Mission, amongst motorcycle chop shops and other miscellaneous industrial buildings, Jud occupies a 1000 square foot studio where he casts his sculptures and works on his art projects. With enough room for his welding equipment and hardware, Jud is currently using the space to complete a show which he hopes to open sometime the next year- most likely to be shown in NYC.
We spent about an hour chatting with Jud and picking his brain to learn more about sculpting in metals and how the casting process works. It's a painstakingly slow process at times, but Jud's highly efficient having been working with a blowtorch for over a decade.
Jud in his outter Mission studio space.
Love the tall ceilings, roll up door and inexpensive rent.
Let's start with a few samples of Jud's sculptural work.
San Francisco based painter Kevin Earl Taylor opened a new show of paintings in Hamburg last week at Circle Culture Gallery. He created all the work for the show while staying in Berlin. He emailed over a few pics of his studio while he was creating the show.
We swung through the home and studio of San Francisco based artists Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock. The married couple are putting the finishing touches on the work for their upcoming food-centric show Edible Complex opening at FFDG on Friday, June 22nd (7-10pm). We spoke of San Francisco's love affair with food, got into their working practices, saw what makes them tick and how they keep up with their lively 2 year old son, Brixton while enjoying a couple Coronas.
Edible Complex Kelly Tunstall & Ferris Plock
June 22 - July 14, 2012
Opening reception: Friday, June 22nd, 7–10 pm
@FFDG
Your upcoming show at FFDG, opening on June 22nd, focuses a lot on San Francisco's intense food culture. How do you guys, as a family, fit in? Do you eat out a lot?
Ferris: Well... we order a lot of food in... Having a 2 year old with an attention span of 10 seconds means that when we eat out, we often eat
in shifts... We eat a lot in Japantown because our son Brixton really loves to run around there and he loves to eat sushi.
Kelly: We also have a very unique place that we're coming from- being kind of insiders and outsiders of the food bit at this point in our lives. I love so many places, and we've been lucky to be tangentially and directly involved in many efforts.
It's truly a special occasion that we're out for dinner together- and frankly, we're more often grabbing food from a truck at events and
stuff, but yeah- a little more out of the loop than I used to be, so it's interesting to see how eating in the Bay Area has shifted in focus and intensity in just the last five years or so.
Do you think San Franciscans are too focused on food?
Ferris: I think everybody is focused on food because we all die if we don't eat.
However, I feel like I have seen enough photoblogs of peoples' food to last me a life time.
Sometimes I feel like our food culture renaissance is a bit like couture... It is based more on concept and pushing the outrageous and less on consumption. Isn't weird there is a cupcake store downtown that puts cupcakes in its windows to show their outrageous culinary inventions... but no one ever eats them? They all get thrown out?
On a sunny February afternoon, I visited the studio of London based artist Sickboy, as he prepares for his solo exhibition at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco (opening Sat, Mar 17th). Famed for his street art throughout the world, this is Sickboy's debut solo exhibition in the United States. As he continues to paint one of the three canvases currently pinned to the wall, I ask him how he's getting on in the lead up to the show, about his history in street art, and his progression into galleries.
Your show is called 'Wonder Club'. What is the Wonder Club?
It's a few different things to me. I have a lot of crazy dreams, and I wanted to base the work around these dreams, as a personal surrealism. It's given me more room for freestyle. A lot of the content is based on childhood memories and fairytales. There's quite a whimsical theme running throughout.
So do you feel the work for this show is more personal than before?
Definitely. As you move through life you shouldn't lose track of what is important to you. I want to highlight the fun element in my work. A lot of the pieces are made up of drawings from sketch books that I make while having fun; hanging out, eating and drinking with friends.
You told me earlier that you're working seven days a week. With so much preparation to do for the show, how do you balance working between the studio and the street?
I try to make it all roll into one. Painting outside is like an exercise for me. I stay true to my graffiti roots and allow those experiences to fuel the paintings. I'm not knocking the kinds of artists who replicate what they do on canvas in the street, but I'm just kind of more lazy when I paint outside. I do it for the fun. I do it for the experience of hopping over hedges.
I first met Evan when I moved to San Francisco's Mission district from New York City in 2001. Evan, whose work I was not only familiar with but also loved, welcomed me to his home where I got to know him, his family and his studio. I ended up photographing him shortly before he and his wife Shawn moved to Denver Colorado in 2003.
Several years had passed until I took a trip out in both 2009 and 2011 to spend some extended time with Evan and his family, photographing him working in his studio, his home and throughout Denver. I have always loved being a bit of a fly on the wall watching him so methodically make art. There's are real sense of technique and pride in everything he does. These photographs represent my most recent trip to Denver, in Autumn of 2011, where I was fortunate enough to stay in their new guest home on their property, which shares a wall with his studio. It's lovely. I hope you enjoy these photographs of Evan and his world. -Andrew Paynter
So your most recent show in November was at London's Stolen Space where you created works based on buildings and scenes you saw in London. Can you tell us a little bit about the show?
The show in London started with a trip there in June when I wandered all over the city for several days just making observations, shooting photos and trying to get a feel for London. When I make a body of work about a specific place it's important to be there myself, not only to take photos but just to have the experience of what it's like there, the overall feeling of a place. For the rest of the summer and fall I worked on about twenty new pieces based on my trip. The work ranges from pieces that are nearly photorealistic, to other pieces that are a combination of abstract, geometric forms combined with people and elements pulled from the urban environment.
Trying to comprehensively capture London would be nearly impossible, my goal with the show was to offer a glimpse of what London felt like to me as an outsider.
I wanted to avoid showing the most typical, tourist attractions of course. I found myself drawn to the more traditionally working class parts of east and south London that have remnants of post-war industrial buildings, factories, canals, old pubs and such.
Do you travel much? Big fan of London?
I travel out of the country about two or three times a year, and domestically a few times a year. I have a family so I can't be traveling all the time, but I do get out and see a lot of the world. Since I live in Colorado I think it's good for me to travel frequently, I like living in a quiet, easy place but I like to experience things and get inspired. London is pretty fascinating. I love traveling in any really old city. The sense of history, traversing streets where people have been for centuries. In London there is the feeling of all the difficulties that city has had to endure over time and yet it's still there, stronger than ever, it feels important and weighty.
Shaun Roberts stopped by Brett Amory's Oakland studio last week as he prepared for his solo show White Light at San Jose's Gallery Anno Domini opening up Friday, September 2nd (7-11pm).
Brett Amory has played the drums for 21 years, he also happens to paint. Brett has a solo fine art exhibit of his paintings coming up this week.
Brett Amory — White Light
Solo Exhbition September 2 – October 14, 2011 Gallery Anno Domini
366 South First Street, San Jose, CA
I visited Erik Otto at his studio mid-April, right before he had a group show at the Mallick Williams Gallery (Robin Williams’ Daughter). I was stoked to have the opportunity to check out his studio, learn about his process, and maybe get inspired to paint more myself.
I first met Erik when I was covering a show of his at White Walls for FF and he seemed like a cool dude. Indeed he is cool, and was open to share his artistic practice, thoughts, and philosophies with me. It turns out he went to San Jose State and was involved with the animation department (which my brother is in). He was taught and influenced by Barron Story, and from fellow classmates who went on to have successful careers in the animation industry. Erik deviated away from illustration, choosing to focus on paintings and installations with reclaimed paint and wood as his medium. In our conversation we talked about working with companies, how not to get girls, tree hugging, Barron Story, and why school is cool. I hope you enjoy!
So what’s up with this NY thing, have you shown there before?
I haven't. They’re new, they've only been open since this last fall. It's Robin Williams' first-born daughter I think, along with her husband. The Williams family, little known fact, owns 6 pieces of mine. Since the divorce of his wife he's slowed down buying art and his kids are kinda steppin' in. Hopefully I get to meet him out of this.
Like Miss Doubt Fire, hey!?
Yea! But more like Toys. I used to have Toys and then pause it and sketch everything. It's kinda cool how it has come full circle, someone that influences you, probably more than you know it, and then he likes your work.
Do you do that a lot, stop and sketch from movies? Movies have great compositions.
When I was young, yea. Certain movies it's good compositions all the way through, just pause it anywhere.
Are you pretty busy these days?
After this show I hit the ground running as soon as I return, I'm doing this big commission for RedBull, on top of this piece (the house project installation) which will go live, that’s going to the dump basically (Recology), there's a sculpture garden down there. They do private tours, it's the dump over by Bayshore. I was there almost everyday.
And there is one more, a grant through the SF Arts Commission. Which is cool, all this outdoor alternative exposure stuff right after a super traditional style show. Me being the SF street artist, sort of lowbrow comin' in, who knows how it's gunna be responded to. They were like go easy on the reclaimed wood material, and I'm like that's my whole thing, I don't know how to go easy. You tell that to me and it makes me want to do it even more.
Last night we swung through Jeremy Fish's North Beach studio to have ourselves a look see at his current show before it's crated and shipped out to NYC for the June 23rd opening at Joshua Liner Gallery.
Instead of creating works on what's clicking around in Fish's own head, he gathered a list of artists, skateboarders, rappers, athletes, a stripper, a cop, and a historian whose funny, heartfelt, insanely interesting stories he would record and then illustrate.
The stories run from murder, fights, embarrassing situations, and one focused on a drugged out Keith Haring and some mural drama at a South of Market gay club in the 80s. 30 pieces of work and 30 stories to be heard. The gallery show will feature headphones next to each work where you can hear people like Snoop Dog recount a crazy childhood story involving him pulling a worm out of his pants. Or maybe you wanna hear from Ron English tell a tale from the early Billboard Liberation days.
We'll have more videos next week. In the meantime, let's figure out what's in a hard working artist's fridge... It may surprise you.
I stopped by Rob Minervini's studio in SOMA this week to see where all the magic happens, and I was not let down! His studio is filled with beautiful work. Rob has a show opening up this Saturday, Sunken Dreams, at Gallery Hijinks and in July he will be a part of The Bay Area Now 6 exhibition at YBCA. Below you'll see past works and works in progress for the YBCA show. Can't wait to see the finished pieces! -Ashley Taylor
Tell us a little bit about your personal and artistic background?
I have a mix of a fine art as well as a public art and mural painting background. I’m from the Philadelphia area and recently became a dual Italian / American citizen which I am excited about.
Manuel visits the Brooklyn studio of street artist (also w/ intense oil painting skills) Dan Witz whose show, WTF, just opened on Saturday @White Walls here in SF. ~CHECK IT.
San Francisco stencil artist Adam5100 has a show with Mike Giant opening this Saturday, Dec 11th at The Guerrero Gallery. Last Thursday we swung through Adam's Mission studio to see what he's been up to. The works for the show were at the framers, but he had plenty of goodness for us to take a look at.
Manuel visits the studio of Australian spray paint/ graffiti artist Kid Zoom now living in NYC. He opens his first NYC solo show this Saturday, Dec 11th. (72 Gansevoort St, NYC) ~check it
Long time Fecal Pal and fellow Ohioan, Tiffany Bozic opens her first NYC solo show Confiding to Strangers November 11th @Joshua Liner Gallery. We stopped by her studio a couple weeks back to have first look at her paintings before they were crated and shipped off across the country. Enjoy the photos and video.
Tiffany is lucky enough to get to travel to parts of the natural world very few ever have. Her husband, Jack, is a scientist who studies small mammals and birds. Africa, Papa New Guinea, far off uninhabited islands in the South Pacific, Tiffany has experienced what few others have... The last couple years of travel are evident in her new works below.
Our buddy and LA based artist Travis Millard visited the studio of childhood friend, Kiel Johnson, whose show opens on September 23rd in NYC @Davidson Contemporary. Kiel is one damn talented/ hardworking artist. This studio visit gives you a little insight into his talents and a look at some his fantastic cardboard works and drawings.
Detail of a large drawing featuring everything that Kiel owns.
We stopped through this SF based artist's Union Square studio and got some video and photos... We also got video of Kevin playing music too.
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We visit the Eagle Rock studio of Souther Salazar, Megan Whitmarsh, Carlos Ramos, Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, Seonna Hong, and Martha Rich in LA.
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Recently Nate Hooper had the pleasure of visiting the Amsterdam studio of Dutch graphic designer, illustrator, artist, art director, clothing company owner Parra.
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Two videos and some photos of Jeremy Fish's North Beach studio in San Francisco before his big show that opens Saturday August 11th at White Walls.
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Tucker Nichols emailed over this Whole Foods poster (below right) which looks a lot like one of Corey Arnold's photos (bottom left). Coincidence? Where they inspired by Corey's photo? Did Corey actually shoot the photo? Who knows and Corey is fishing for salmon right now (like this), so we can't ask him to find out.
Yeah, bad tattoos are basically a bummer, right? But they're also pretty much a rite of passage for bored and disenfranchised-feeling teenagers the world over. At least it was for about 95% of the people I know. Going to a reputable tattoo shop and getting a wizard or unicorn drilled into your lower back is totally fine, but nothing really takes the place of sitting around with a bunch of friends and some beers, enthusiastically taking turns poking each others' arms full of bad ideas-which actually is fun at any age.
OAKLAND -- First Fridays is hoping Oakland hasn't seen the last of the one of a kind event... The street art party is free to attend, but organizers say with police and other costs the price tag to throw the monthly party is $20,000... The City of Oakland has been footing the bill for months and after kicking in $500,000, it's pulling the plug... Organizers are now asking for donations and developing a vendor fee schedule to try and keep the party alive. ~continue reading
SAN FRANCISCO -- Guerrero Gallery, here in the Mission, opens their summer group show this Saturday, June 15th, featuring works from a steller lineup: Daniel Albrigo, Ryan Travis Christian, Alejandro Diaz-Ayala, Frohawk Two Feathers, Michelle Guintu, Justin Hager, Cody Hudson, Terry Powers, Rye Purvis, Victory Reyes, Jamie Williams, and Yarrow Slaps.
SAN FRANCISCO --- Southern Exposure hosts thier annual Monster Drawing Rally Friday, June 14, 2013 at THE NWBLK, 1999 Bryant Street (at 18th). Tons of great artists auctioning works at a starting price of only $60.
A live drawing and fundraising event with 120 artists working side by side. The event lets spectators to observe artists in the act of creation, providing the opportunity to watch a drawing come to life, and to purchase a work of art minutes after its completion. Drawings are available for purchase immediately for just $60 each.
~complete details
Wonder if our old emails with Banksy are worth a few thousand dollars. It seems everything the dude touches is worth a million dollars these days! Nutty and much deserved.
A disputed Banksy graffiti artwork removed from a gritty London neighbourhood has sold for approximately $1.1 million US at auction. The provocative Slave Labour (Bunting Boy) sold at a private auction held by concierge firm The Sincura Group at the London Film Museum on Sunday, according to Bloomberg news service. The spray-painted, stenciled work depicts a child labourer using an antique sewing machine to create a Union Jack bunting. -Continue reading
Germany's national railway is testing the use of mini-drones to curb damage to its trains from graffiti. Experts call the move pointless and excessive, saying that varnish for trains could solve the problem instead.
~continue reading
Daniel Cronin was hired to shoot photos for the ongoing feature series: the Road Trips USA: Pacific Coast... An interesting idea where the trip was live blogged/ tweeted/ Instagramed with people making suggestions for what to check out, and well, into FFDG they stopped.
Look ma, we made The Guardian U.K.
Come on, guys. Don't call San Francisco "San Fran".
Henrik Haven, who keeps us up to date in all that's Copenhagen, emailed over some photos from the Viborg International Billboard Painting Festival that's running throughout June. In this short installment he introduces us to the work of urban/graffiti artist and illustrator NYCHOS.
Kelly Tunstall, who's showing w/ Ferris Plock at FFDG this August 16th, recently finished some commissions for A16 in Oakland. Here's a little taste, and check out her last year's show at FFDG.
Brendan Monroe, whose show Melting Into the Floor runs through June 15th at LA's Richard Heller, creates these great wooden sculptures and featured a bunch in the show... He's often asked how he goes about making them and gives us at Fecal Face a little 'how to' on the process.
Mexico City based Curiot, whose sold out solo show Age of Omuktlans ran last March at FFDG, just finished this great mural entitled "El Retorno de Akhankutli" in Mexico. He recently completed one in Berlin too which we'll be posting in the coming week. The guy is very very talented in our eyes.
This made our day. Not only do we love pizza but we also love Henry Gunderson... So a board shapped like a hot slice designed by Henry Gunderson for The Good Company, well... this writer needs to go for a slice right now.
Wendell McShine (lives in Mexico City, from Trinidad) opened his newest show, Raccoon's Law, at Fifty24SF on Saturday night. ARYZ was a tough act to follow, but McShine held his own in the space... With a combination of a mural, a video, and both drawings and mixed-media works on paper, the diversity of this solo show was impressive. The Raccoon drawings were especially attractive as the way he executed them looked like they actually had fur coming off the page, and you can only imagine how soft it would be to touch. I was lucky to see his work in person through this show, and I hope to encounter more in the future.
Ingrid Wells just got her MFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and these oil paintings from her Honey Boo Boo's Amurrican Starquest were on display as part of the recent MFA exhibition... Ingrid Wells works and lives in San Francisco.
Henry Gunderson emailed over some photos from his recent group show with Andrew Luck, Jordan Bogash, and Mario Ayala "Out The Window" which ran at the Los Angeles based Prohibition Gallery.
I got there the day after the tornado came through. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. My mind just could not grasp what my eyes were seeing. It was just too much to take in, too much to process. So, I did what comes naturally and took images. It sort of helped me separate from the chaos and helped me focus.
Check out this, what could be, one of the longest murals ever created. Hyuro from Valencia, Spain was recently in Copenhagen for the solo show "In/Between" at ArtRebels.
Rachel Ralph spotted Barcelona-based ARYZ working on his mural in the TL a couple weeks back, and we forgot to share the pics. His show at Fifty24SF opened back in April.
Jeffrey Cheung emailed over some photos from a recent one night show he had at Terra Gallery/ event space. The May 19th show also featured live music by Oakland garage rockers Twin Steps and Coldtergeist.
Great solo show by LA based Alison Blickle (Born 1976) up now at San Francisco's Eleanor Harwood gallery. History of Magic Part 1... The Hermitage runs through June 15th 2013. -- 1295 Alabama St. Hours: Wed thru Sat (11-6pm)
Well, it looks like John Felix Arnold rocked Tokyo with his opening with Koutaro Ooyama at Spes Lab a few weeks back. Even a language barrier couldn't prevent the success of their collaboration. They invited everyone they met on trains, in cars, cafes, bars, restaurants, and people responded by attending, and bringing their families and friends as well.
Last Thursday evening, I was lucky enough to get invited to Nickelodeon's premiere party for their newest cartoon, Sanja & Craig, created by three awesome dudes - Andreas Trolf, Jim Dirschberger, and Jay Howell. Hosted at Tony's Salon with pizza provided by Pizzanistas, the premiere party was filled with libations and celebrations, even a break-dance battle broke out. Congrats to everyone who worked on the show, and especially Trolf, Jim, and Jay who all have been working tirelessly on it. Sanja & Craig premiered Saturday 10:30 am 11 am on Nickelodeon. You can watch Sanjay and Craig Episode 1: Brett Venom on hulu. and read about how the guys came up with it in this interview with The LA Times. Now, here's some photos from the premiere.
Drawing Stories is a new series from our buddy Travis Millard. Grab a cup of hot coco, get your slippers on and enjoy some time with your uncle Millard.
Los Angeles Christofer Chin (Tofer) emailed over some install shots of his current show Ar running in NYC at Lu Magnus through June 29th. Simple/ clean and continuing his op artstyle Tofer Chin features new paintings, photographs, and sculpture continuing his exploration of geologically and architecturally inspired Minimalist forms.
TrustoCorp's all new work for their exhibition at LeBasse Projects in Culver City, Los Angeles is a perfect continuum from past work that embraces the bipolar "have/have not" socioeconomic identity of Los Angeles, which they recently established their new studio in.
I didn't know if you came across this video yet, but I ran into my friend Brian Hanson yesterday who helped film and edit it. It's a film short documenting the work and philosophy of Huntington Beach surfboard Shaper Tim Stamps. Super rad and really inspiring! Anyhow take a peek.
Last year, Eric Caruso a teacher at Harry Wirtz Elementary School (Paramount, CA, near LA) had an idea to invite some artists to paint some murals at the school because there wasn't an arts program for the kids. That brilliant idea resulted in some awesome murals by artists Seitaku Aoyama, Yusuke Hanai, Rich Jacobs, Tim Kerr and Albert Reyes.
Ryan De La Hoz' show in the Upper Haight at RVCA runs through this Saturday... And the next time you're in the Mission, be sure to swing through his new shop on 14th St, Cool Try... We need to get over there soon and do a little photo feature for ya.
The Book and Job Gallery (San Francisco) really stepped it up with the opening of Daniel Chen's loveBlast on May 4th. Complete with a doorman, piano player, old fashioneds, and some really nice paintings, I could hardly believe I was at the Book and Job. The paintings varied in size, and the show was balanced nicely between them, the spray-can work on the walls, and the smaller drawings displayed throughout. The kind notes Chen wrote on the walls are certain to brighten your day, and the rest of the work is definitely worth a look. It was a very classy evening and I hope they continue to intersperse shows like these into their schedule in the future
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