Wasn't going to write an intro for Ron English because if you're here at Fecal Face you should already be well aware of this iconic artist. If you need to know, read his bio below.
Thanks to Daniel Rolnik (danielrolnik[at]@gmail.com) for conducting this great interview for Fecal Face.
One of the most prolific and recognizable artists alive today, Ron English has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books and television. English coined the term POPaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, populated with his vast and constantly growing arsenal of original characters, including MC Supersized, the obese fast-food mascot featured in the hit movie “Supersize Me,” and Abraham Obama, the fusion of America’s 16th and 44th Presidents, an image widely discussed in the media as directly impacting the 2008 election. Other characters carousing through English’s art, in paintings, billboards, and sculpture include three-eyed rabbits, udderly delicious cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America’s Premier Pop Iconoclast.
How do you teach yourself other artist’s techniques?
Trial and error. I had a gig painting landscapes a long time ago at one of those production houses where they taught me a lot of techniques. I also worked for a few different artists, so I had to learn how to mimic their styles.
What artists did you work for?
I did some paintings for Rohhny Decone, Larry Rivers, Marcus Darvy. When I first moved to New York in the 80’s I was a ghost painter. Yeah, it’s a good job to work and you get paid.
Was it frustrating to be a ghost painter because people wouldn’t actually know it was you who was the painter?
Oh yeah. It’s funny because I always get what I wish for, but it’s kind of like the old genie in a bottle thing – I wish that I could have people see all my paintings and the paintings I would make [for those artists] would end up in museums, it’s true. I always forgot to ask “could I sign them” but it’s not really your thing. It’s like if you go on tour with the Rolling Stones and you’re the bass player, you’re not really in the band and you don’t think you’re in the band –maybe after 30 years or so you think you’re in the band like Ron Wood [guitar]. It’s funny because it’s someone else’s art, they’ve built their own language, and if you went to art school there’s a certain amount of that stuff that you can just do. Their art was more about their concepts and I did it because I wanted to learn a lot of techniques.
Would you purposefully choose to work with certain painters whose style your wanted to learn?
Well Mark was probably the ultimate situation because initially there were only 3 other painters working with me, but later there were like 40. Guys were coming in from Russia and Poland, people who were trained as master painters and knew all the technique. And even from day one Clark Decarro was a classically trained painter from Canada, so he showed me how to make glazes, but it’s interesting to do something with someone sitting right next to you and where you can say “Why is this not working” and they’ll be respond by saying “here’s what you’re doing wrong”. They’re all there with you and I think that’s the best learning environment - when you can’t overcome something and there’s someone to show you how to do it right there. There are always bumps in the road, eventually you can figure it out on your own, you can read books, there are a lot of things you can do. If you want to get somewhere you’re going to get there, but it’s always nice to have a set of directions.
Do you have assistants help you with your paintings?
I have two assistants. One assistant comes in one day a week and stretches the canvasses and the other guy pretty much does everything - like all those weird houses with the comics all over them that are in the paintings. He puts together the houses and then puts the comic book collages on them and then he’ll set up the shot. When we were at Art Basil last week painting a big mural he took lined up and shook all the spray paint.
It’s kind of like being a surgeon and saying “Hooker Green ASAP” it really allows you to move like a motherfucker because you just reach your hand out and somebody’s putting whatever you’re asking for in your hand instead of you having to find it and shake it.
I mean all that time it takes to do that stuff slows us down and the fact that they are doing all that for us is just amazing.
Do you do anything to your spray paint cans to get them to behave in a certain way?
Sometimes they put too much pressure in the cans, so you turn them upside down and relieve some of the pressure. If you turn them upside down it just sprays, it doesn’t release the paint. And, as soon as you’re done spray painting you turn the can upside down so paint wont dry in the tip and ruin it. It’s also good if you want to do fine lines to make the pressure [in the can] super low. You never quit learning, you just don’t.
Do you read books on new painting techniques?
One of my friends learned a lot of his techniques from reading books, but I’m just not much of a reader.
I caught up with Corey earlier this week and asked him a couple questions that hopfully aren’t duplicative and the one question that everyone who has seen it wants to know, “When can we get the DVD?” The film is multi-layered and while skating plays a central role in the film, if was replaced by, let’s say pogo-balling it would not have hurt the main content of the film. Although, it would have been pretty funny to see Steve Olson on a pogo-ball.
I have a film called Machotaildrop that is playing at the SF indie fest.
Where is the film playing?
The screening will be held at the Roxie theater.
Have you been here before?
I have been there a few times. We actually shot a small piece of the film there with Frank Gerwer. Who hopefully knows about the screening. He is a very hard man to get a hold of. Frank if you read this we would love to see you there!
Corey Adams photographed by Isaac Randozzi
I know you are sick of this question but it is all people want to know. When can we get our hands on a DVD of Macho Tail Drop? Or will it be in theaters before that?
Well we are hoping for both. I am learning that getting a film out for people to hold in their hands is a very difficult task when you don’t really own the entire film. Others have there hands involved so we are dealing with higher powers.
Heroes & Villains is a photographic portrait project by the photographers Tatiana Wills and Roman Cho that spotlights a wide array of innovative contemporary artists who drive popular culture today... The subjects include both well recognized and emerging artists within the world of alt comics, street, graffiti, painting and illustration. All the subjects have roots in emergent underground.
Interview by Daniel Rolnik (danielrolnik[at]gmail.com)
Gabrielle Bell by Tatiana Wills + Roman Cho
Mr. Cartoon by Tatiana Wills + Roman Cho
When did you start taking portraits of the artists for Heroes & Villains?
The Heroes & Villains project got started in Los Angeles around 2005. Roman Cho (my co-photographer) and I knew it would be a long-term project and turn into a book, but we weren’t quite sure who would be in it. We just knew who the first people would be and it just kind of snowballed from there.
I was photographing a lot of street artists prior to the project because they were friends of my husband, who was an avid collector of Sheppard Fairey’s work. I’d go with the artists on their missions and because my husband knew them they didn’t put up too much of a stink about me being there. I went to their houses, hung out, took some photos, and it developed into where I gained their trust and was able to take their portraits. Because the street-artists didn’t want their identity revealed, I would always reassure them I was just taking portraits for a personal project and I was going to keep them to myself for now.
As time went on, Roman Cho and I were looking for personal work to do because I wanted to shoot more portraits but couldn’t find the time. Roman was assisting photographers and I was a pretty busy lady working full time at a day job as well as freelancing. We had worked together before when I was at an ad agency and we complimented each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We felt that working with another photographer would motivate us more to finish the project. He initially thought of photographing comic book artists to compliment my portraits of street-artists, but we started to notice there was an overlap between the styles that was indefinable.
Shaq
Like David Choe?
And Travis Miller, Jordan Crane... it was LA, it was a particular niche of artists all hanging out and doing their thing.
I actually ended up working with David Choe for a very brief time. He had a comic book for sale at an ice cream shop that I used to take my daughter to. My husband and I bought it and brought it back to the agency where we worked. The creative director loved it and hired Choe to illustrate something. I don’t know if he ended up working with them much more than a day. It was most likely his first and last foray working for the man. That was in 2004, a really interesting time because street-art was getting co-opted by movie studios who were trying to do subversive ad campaigns. It became pretty clear that the street-art movement was starting to get a lot more attention. I certainly wasn’t there at the beginning of any of this happening, but I was for sure at the right place at the right time to explore it to the fullest.
Fresh off his first solo show in NYC, 'THIS CITY WILL EAT ME ALIVE', this Australian transplant and aerosol wizard, Kid Zoom, answers a few our questions to get a lil' better perspective on how this young talent ticks.
Ron English called him Rembrandt with a Spray Can... He's damn talented.
How has the transition to NYC from Australia been so far? How long have you been in the States?
I moved over in May. The transition has been amazing, the winter is taking a little adjusting, but it's been a great experience, I feel really at home in New York.
Why are Australians so cool?
We have a culturally ingrained system of ego destruction called tall poppy syndrome, which basically cuts anyone who's head rises above the crowd off at the knees. It helps keep us all pretty down to earth, but it's a blessing and a curse, especially when you're in a creative field.
How do you feel about Ron English giving you such a glowing recommendation? That's got to feel pretty good.
Ron has been someone I've looked up to for a long time and to have him be so supportive of my move to New York and of my work has been amazing and very surreal.
What celebrity's vagina would you like to photograph posed with one of your sculptures?
Very good question!! But somehow I can’t find an answer to this, strange isn't it? It might be the reason that I don't search I just find.
Where's the best surfing spot you've encountered?
For me it is the north coast of Spain, between France and Portugal.
The irregular coastline gives many different kinds of beaches. Every evening I decide the best beach for the next day by looking at the wind and wave forecast. I drive to this beach with my van and the first thing in the morning after waking up is surf. Spain is the only south European country where it is legal to sleep at the beach in your car. I never go to Mundaka though…
How do you convince beautiful women to pose naked?
I don't believe in convincing. I just work with women that like and enjoy to be naked. I’m also interested in wired, non-fashion, non-porn and politically incorrect photos.
Anthony Ausgang is one of the original godfathers of Low Brow art. Most of you
will recognize his recent painting for MGMT’s record cover Congratulations. He is a
master of painting psychedelic cats, and was a trailblazer in artistic method - he was
doing improved art (painting over already famous paintings) well before Banksy and
his reworking of Monet.
Interview by Daniel Rolnik
In life do you prefer to own cats or dogs?
I prefer to own cats since they use a litter box, unlike dogs that need to go out
on “walks”, a process that should be more accurately termed “shits”… Nevertheless, I
appreciate dogs and enjoy their idiotic enthusiasms.
Who is your favorite dub artist to listen to while you paint?
I mostly listen to different online stations so the mixes are always different. These days I
have been listening to Sir Coxson Sound, Twilight Circus, BLOOD, Alien Dread, Yabby
You, Sound Ministry, Mentor Kolectiv, Dublab, just a whole mess of weird stuff. There
are a few strange stations that play “Ethnodub”, a hybrid dub from India and other off
beat places featuring Jahtari Riddum Force, ah Seal, Zomby, Jah Batta & Bullwackies All
Stars, Ustad Sultan Khan & Sunidhi Ch, Kid Gusto, Sanchez Dub and Phat Boy Singh.
You use photoshop to manipulate your sketches before you paint them. Once you
finish your process in photoshop how do you transfer that image onto your canvass?
Are you working with Photoshop CS 5?
First off I just wanna say that I seldom try out color combinations on the computer, I
prefer to work with “real” colors in “real” light. Anyway, I print out the line drawing
then project it onto the canvas with a large opaque projector. I use Photoshop CS5 or CS2
depending on what computer I’m using.
No computer used in the making of her collage; pure scissors, glue and a lot of patience. Intense work from this Glasgow based artist. We love it, and Jessica emailed her a few questions to get some insight into this talent whose works takes on avergage 25 hours to produce... She's also available for commissions. Wink wink.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, Age? Location? Hometown?
Name: Lola Dupre, Age : 28, Location, between several locations in Scotland, my main studio is in Glasgow and I also work and live in two remote studios in the far north of the country.
I consider Glasgow my home town, but I was born in Algeria. And spent my childhood in Paris France and London England.
Have you always created collage-based works? What was your early work like?
I have always created collage, since I was 9 or 10. But I spent most of my teenage years experimenting with papier-mache and this was my real initiation into photomontage. With papier-mache I made 3D forms, the surface of which was composed of many pieces of paper stuck down upon paper. I was always very interested in this accidental photomontage and it led me to my first experiments towards the photomontage style that I do today.
I’m so curious about your process - it looks like you must use multiple prints of the same image. Can you tell us about your process, how long it takes?
Indeed, I use multiple prints of the same image, printed on (typically) A4 and A3 paper. And I also generally print a few different crops of the same image, so that when they are combined in one piece you have several sizes which can be manipulated together.
The process itself of mapping out, and sticking down each individual piece does take a long time, I guess my average working time would be between 20 and 30 hours per image.
Using the right glue, brushes and scissors you can get pretty quick, and with a bit of practice you dont smudge any glue.
If you think of some of Jean-Paul Goude's work with Grace Jones, this is what I do, just with more pieces.
Mark Mulroney opens a solo show at Ever Gold here in SF this Thursday, Dec 2nd. Jamie Alexander from Park Life conducted this short interview which includes a general sampling of Mark's work.
PR: We are proud to announce Mark Mulroney’s second show at Ever Gold Gallery, “I’m Trying Really Hard.” It will be a show of reasonably tasteful works that address contemporary issues such as malnourishment and decorative pumpkin carving --> Mulroney is represented by Mixed Greens Gallery in NYC and Ebersmoore Gallery in Chicago. He has also shown in Copenhagen at V1 Gallery, National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and Park Life in San Francisco --> He currently lives and works out of Rochester, NY.
Buffalo sounds like a really amazing place, how does it inspire
artistically and otherwise?
Buffalo is a fine place indeed but I live in Rochester also known as Rock
City or Smugtown USA, although since the riots in '64 and factories closing
down a lot of that smugness has worn off. Living here has been quite an
adjustment but it has been good for me. I don't see any other artists and
I don't go to any shows. It is pretty hard to get caught up in all the petty
competition when you just sit in your room and work. Also minor league
baseball is the greatest thing ever. My wife and I pack sandwiches and ride
our bikes to the Rochester Redwings games.
/// Andreas has finished Part Two of the interview. To skip to Part Two, click here.
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Glen Friedman is showing works from two of his books, Fuck You Heroes and
Fuck You Too, at the 941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco starting tomorrow night, Nov 6th.
These photos have been touring the world for the better part of a decade and half,
and so they’ll be familiar to many of you already. The point of the show, then, may
not be to see these photos for the first time, but to see them again and be reminded
of why they’re so firmly a part of this culture (skateboarding, punk rock, hip hop)
that we love so much. Additionally, we’ll get to see some of Friedman’s
collaborations with Shepard Fairey.
In advance of the opening, this Saturday, November 6th, I spoke with
Friedman over the phone (after an elaborate ritual by which I contacted his
publicist, who then e-mailed Glen my contact information, who then called me from
his blocked number—a level of secrecy and intense concern for privacy I’d never
experienced before [maybe I’ve been interviewing the wrong people so far?]). What I
took away from our talk was part awe at an inarguably legendary photographer (one
whose work I personally admire and find greatly inspiring), and part confoundment
due to Friedman’s lack of humility and his bitter disdain for art he dislikes and for
any criticism of those he holds in high esteem.
In short, during our brief chat, Friedman lived up to every expectation I’d
held; every anecdote of pompousness seemed to me truer after having spoken to
him, but likewise, my appreciation of his doggedness and artistry was also more
actual and, in a way, deserved. At the end of it, the idea was only reinforced that
there’s no true answer to the question of art vs. artist. Whether or not art can be
separate from its creator, we live in a world of copyrighted images and brand names,
and our discussion of a work of art takes place within a framework of context and
intent. Regarding something and being able to appreciate it based purely on
aesthetic grounds is noble and maybe the only true measure of its value as art, but
our valuations remain colored by our own biases. But still, but still, Glen Friedman
has made some of the most beautiful and important and inspiring images of the past
30 years. They’re even in the Smithsonian.
Anyhow, here’s the first part of the interview. Take from it what you will.
To begin, and in a garbled and uninformed way, I asked Glen if there would be
any new photos in the show, or what, if anything would be different from past
exhibits of his Fuck You… works.
GF: There will be two new photos added at the last moment, that I literally took this
month, or in October, two photos that I took that I thought were pretty cool, to show
people that I’m still doing it sometimes.
AT: Are these skate and music photos as well?
GF: They’re just music photos. I have been shooting skating stuff as well, but I didn’t
put one of those in the show. I just liked the music stuff. One of the music shots
[was] this really young band that I don’t even know what to make of them at this
point, but I had a really good time at the show so I shot some photos and I got a
picture that I think is my favorite photo of the year, or one of them anyway, so I
figured I should put it in the show because it’s so bad ass.
*Vancouver based Lucas Soi opens Cradle Stories at The Shooting Gallery in SF on Saturday, Oct 9th. Niall spoke with Lucas and touched on his working method, living and working in Vancouver and how the work in Cradle Stories focuses on suburban teenagers and the dark undertones prevalent.
There’s this excerpt from Life After God by Douglas Coupland that comes to mind when I think about Cradle Stories.
Oh yeah?
Coupland grew up on the North Shore, and now lives in the same neighborhood as you in West Vancouver: “It was the life of children of children of the children of the pioneers - life after God - a life of earthly salvation on the edge of heaven.”
Oh cool. Growing up in West Van is crazy. It's great, but you definitely grow up with a warped sense of reality; you're totally ignorant to how other people live. It's this weird combo of beach town and retirement community. The only people you find in West Van are babies, teens, MILFs and old people.
The drawings in Cradle Stories depict events in the lives of privileged suburban teens, often in the safety of their own homes. The images have very dark undertones. Are you commenting on the Millennial Generation’s self-destruction?
I think being young, you're closer to conception than to existence. Meaning you're really closer to death than life. If you're fourteen years old, surrounded by your parents who are, say, triple you’re age, you're closer to "just being born" than to "everyday life". So destruction, which is a kind of creation in reverse, is closer to your understanding, maybe? When you're growing up you're always looking backwards, comparing what you can do now to what you couldn't do before. There's not a lot of forward thinking, no matter how many adults are helping you navigate the way. So maybe the darkness that you see in these drawings is just the connection all youths have to that unknown place where we come from, and where we go when we die.
This November, sculptor Jud Bergeron and painter Joe Sorren will unveil eight new bronze sculptures, created in collaboration, by the two noted artists. The show entitled “Interruption” will be at California State University Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center (GCAC), in Southern California, then will travel to Sorren’s hometown in Northern Arizona.
The exhibition opens at Grand Central Art Center on November 6, 2010 and runs through January 8, 2011, then will be presented by Flagstaff Cultural Partners at the Coconino Center for the Arts, Jan. 22 through Feb. 25, 2011.
We recently had a chance to do a quick interview with Jud Bergeron about the works presented in the show through email.
Blob creatures viewing geometric forms as if in awe of them. Can you explain how those came to be? Which one of you both was responsible for what in the works?
Joe came to my studio in NY 3 times and each time we would just make stuff, sometimes ceramic figures that we would pass back and forth until we liked them, sometimes wax figures that we would cast in bronze, just stuff. Joe would go back to AZ and we would talk everyday and send hundreds of phone pics and the work just sort of evolved. It became a call and response sort of thing, I would think of strange situations to put these figures in and then we would change the idea a hundred times until we hit on what felt right.
Feeling of helplessness or giving over to a higher and cleaner form Sitting back and taking it all in. These characters, how would you describe their milieu?
I would say that the 'higher power/helplessness' feeling you are sensing is probably a function of where we were in our personal lives at the time. When we started working my son (Fletcher) was around 6 months old and I was still coming to terms with being a new father. Also, the country was in shambles and the art market had just taken a nose dive so there was this feeling of 'oh shit! How am I going to support this family?' Joe had things going on in his life as well and we were not only creating art together but it seemed like we were counseling one another as well. I would describe these figures in the most basic sense, they are dealing with their environment. We really wanted these pieces to be truly sculptural in nature yet still maintain the narrative that is so prevalent in painting and in doing so what we ended up with were these environments or situations that these figures inhabited and the goal was to create beautiful pieces that left the viewer with questions and a smile.
Wowzas, there's a lot of art happenings this weekend, and while you're making the rounds, be sure to stop at SFAI's MFA show Currency opening Friday, May 17th at the beautiful old SF Mint Building (88 5th Street).
SFAI's 2013 MFA graduates—working in painting, photography, printmaking, film, sculpture, installation, digital media, performance, and across media—will present work that embraces the Institute's signature spirit of experimentation and conceptual risk-taking.
Opening reception: Friday, May 17, 7–9 pm & running through Sunday 11-6pm daily. -- complete details
London based Pedro Matos opens the solo show Building Castles Made of Sand this Friday in Los Angeles at the Martha Otero Gallery featuring a new series of oil paintings on canvas and azulejo panels - a traditional Portuguese medium of hand-painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tile work.
San Francisco -- CCA opens their 2013 MFA Thesis Exhibition this Thursday, May 16th at their SF campus. Every year another graduating class produces steller work. One of the best SF art events worth getting to, but be sure to get there early as there's always a long line. ~details
Our buddies at Needles & Pens celebrate their 10th anniversary on Friday, May 10th, and it's not to be missed with this steller lineup - all going down at The Luggage Store.
Check the details, mark it in the calendar, and we'll be seeing you there!
San Francisco based photographer, Michael Jang, who's been shooting for decades and who has captured some great shots over the years (Reagan and Frank Sinatra is a good one) turned his camera on his family while growing up in the suburbs in the 70s. An intimate portrait of a Chinese-American family inside their Pacifica home living their lives. Sounds benign, which it is, but what also makes the images fascinating.
The Jangs - Opening reception, Thursday, May 2, (5:30-7:30pm) Stephen Wirtz
"The Jangs" photography by Michael Jang opening Thursday
British artist Ian Francis opened up the solo show Season 1 Episode 0 last night, April 25th at NYC's Joshua Liner. We've been fans of Ian's work for years. ~show details & works.
Although I missed the opening of Northern-California photographer Michael Garlington's newest show, Constructed Realities, I was fortunate enough to see the work still up during the Metaphysical fundraiser a couple weeks back at 111 Minna. Metaphysical fundraiser, an auction to benefit Wayne Ernzer. --- The ghoulish photographs in their heavy, hand-made frames are reminiscent of photos from the old west, and the glass crucifixes, complete with fetuses and guns, emphasize the accumulated time within the works themselves. Whether you're looking at the frames, the photos, or both, this show deserves a visit, and a walk through the golden archway Garlington constructed around the front door.
Fecal Face contributor Rachel Ralph (rachel(at)fecalface.com) has been profiling this Oakland based painter as he travels about Japan. In this segment, we feature some photos as he prepared for this show and residency at Spes-LaB in Tokyo which opened last weekend. Arnold will be featured in SFMoMA's Minna Street windows on June 8th.
Last Saturday, here in SF's Mission district, Guerrero Gallery opened two new shows with Philly based Alex Lukas and SF based Richard Colman respectively. Colman's work occupied the project space while Lukas' work and foliage was presented in the main space. Worth getting to if you haven't already.
Just got back to SF after a little trip south to Sayulita, Mexico. After 10 years without a vacation, me and the Mrs. headed south for some mental time off sitting in the sun, swimming and enjoying the watery Mexican beer. Here are some photos as we get back into the swing of things again.
Athens, Greece based designer, architect and artist Dimitris Polychroniadis emailed over more of his work which consists of mixed media, pop-humorous diorama sculptures that make a comment on the harsh realities my country and much of the world is facing at the moment.
FFDG will open a group show with the artists from the famed Skull & Sword Tattoo on Friday, May 17th (6-9pm). Artists: Grime, Henry Lewis, Yutaro, and Lango. Below are a series of videos on Grime for Vice's Tattoo Age produced in 2011. Fascinating look at one of the greatest tattoo artists alive today.
ARYZ (Spain) opened his newest gallery show at Fifty24SF last Friday and, if you live in the Bay Area, you need to go. This dude can obviously paint, and he doesn't need an entire building to show his impecable skill. The show has lots of small works on paper which contrast his highly-defined line work to his hard-edged painted objects. The contrast between the hard and soft was the most striking thing to me about his work, since I had never seen it in person before, and the washes blend with the thick paint seamlessly. The show also contains a larger work on canvas, a huge head suspended in the back of the room, and a big wood sculpture of a wolf figure. This diversity in such a small space was impressive, and those of us that went to the opening even got to meet the man in person. If you didn't make it out this weekend, check it out before May 31st when it closes and these works will be off to some very happy new homes.
Water McBeer is please to announce its latest exhibition "Precious" a solo exhibition by David Bayus (April 6 - May 4, 2013) -- David Bayus born 1982 holds his BFA from the Savannah College of Art and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. David lives and works in San Francisco and is a founding member of the basement collective. This will be his first exhibition with the world renown Water McBeer Gallery highlighting his most recent achievements with paint and digital media. David Bayus will be exhibiting 5 relatively large-scale mixed media works along with a collaborative object featuring Hungarian sculptor H.R KOONS.
The Shooting Gallery handed over the reins to the Red Truck Gallery (a New Orleans based gallery) which curated their new show, Hard Time Mini Mall and opened the it on Saturday night. This is my favorite show (so far) in the Shooting Gallery's new space and was packed full of art, a mini bar, and cowhide rugs. The Red Truck Gallery chose works with clear craftsmanship and it was easy to see in Ian Berry's denim assemblages and Chris Roberts-Antieau's awesome quilts. The space was completely packed, making it hard to see each piece individually, but this show deserves a second trip anyway. I look forward to spending more time with the chandeliers, automatons, and paintings before the show comes down on May 4th.
Toronto based photographer Nathan Cyprys emailed to let us know about his newest series "Neighbour State", and we were about to post it when we spotted this series on his site entitled "Ayre (of Distances)" and had to post this one instead. After you view this one, view "Neighbour State" on his site. Both are visually enjoyable.
Working from found photographs, Lyle's paintings are created through a reductive painting process where each piece is rendered using only black paint and turpentine. Lyle begins this process by priming a panel with white gesso. He then paints a thin, rich, oily black veneer over the primed panel, slowly and systematically developing his images by removing some of the black paint with a cloth. In doing so, Lyle renders layer upon layer of various values of black paint resulting in his signature-style of luminescent works.
London based David Shillinglaw who's blogged it up for Fecal Face in the past recently completed this mural in London as he prepares for his solo show at Stolen Space opening on April 26th.
Our buddy Henrik Haven, who brings us some goodies from his native Copenhagen, has been shooting some of his city's graffiti and street art. Last week we brought you part one of his camera's explorations.
San Francisco based artists Raphael Villet and Sean Vranizan are currently showing Just the Two of Us at Adobe Books through April 21. Here are some photos from the opening and works.
Two twin brothers from Brooklyn, Skewville brought the fun to their opening at White Walls last Saturday night with their new show, Amusement. After all, you can't take a show that starts with a sign reading "Sucks either Way" too seriously. Besides the simplistic yet detailed paintings, visitors got to ride on a bike-powered merry-go-round and throw bean bags at bottles like a carnival game. Even the works made of found materials, like the Battleship boombox and the suitcase made of tin lunch pails, brought a sense of humor to the night. After seeing the work in the back of the gallery, which was much more crowded, Skewville provided a light-hearted atmosphere in which viewers could drink beer, play games, and see some really great artworks.
Brooklyn based artists Sheryo and The Yok recentely completed the mural "Pipe Dreams" in Long Island City at 5 pointz. The Yok also emailed over some photos fom a recent trip to Mexico for the Festival Anonymous held near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from this past January... Awesome, we're heading to Mexico in a couple weeks.
In the ever-expanding genres of vinyl and resin based sculptural art, there are often players behind the scenes making some of the most impressive pieces come together. Whether you hang out at ComicCon or Art Basel Miami, you've seen sculptural works that PIP (Pretty in Plastic) literally had a hand (or several) in fabricating. Here, Fecal Face interviews PIP founder, owner and fabrication mastermind Julie B., to find out more about how their work all plays out.
I live in SF. I drove across the US last summer in a 30 ft. RV from SF to Brooklyn and did portrait series called Darth Across America, every day people in every day situations, wearing a Darth Vader mask. I raised $2600 through Kickstarter along the way, that paid for gas and beer. I was travelling with 2 other photographers who also did a series of portraits. Mine drew the most attention. It was an experiment in a way, to see if I could use a pop culture icon to unite people that had nothing in common. I was right. I created a community of people across the United States that continue to follow my project, which is soon to be a book. -Julie Schuchard
Our buddy Henrik Haven, who brings us some goodies from his native Copenhagen, has been shooting some of his city's graffiti and street art. Much to offer, we've broken the posts into 3 and will be posting more in the coming days.
Our friend Nicolas Le Borgne, who's shown with us for The Diamond Sea, emailed over some pics from his current show at Spacejunk Art Centers in Lyon, France. Incredible watercolor, pen & ink or acrylic works from this talented 28 year old Frenchman.
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