Above emailed some pics from his recent show Jet Set which ran during the first couple weeks of July at Melbourne's Metro gallery featuring Above's internationally themed show... Street artist Above travels the world adjourning walls like this and also tosses high his arrowed wood works... The stewardesses handed out "Above Airlines" boarding passes to arriving guests. Check out Above's recent book featuring work from his travels.
Last week hundreds of people came down to Backwoods Gallery to see off one of Melbourne's most prolific street artists, James Reka. Before moving to Europe next month, he put on a pop up show that tied together all of the loose ends of his decade long career. Featuring a final fresh body of exhibited work alongside selected works from 2004 to 2006, fans came down in hordes to pay their final respects to one of Melbourne's finest.
In addition to this new body of work, Reka pulled a large collection of old works out of the vault from some of his original shows in the early to mid 2000s. Many of these canvases haven't been seen for six or seven years and produced a huge, esteeming response from the crowd. Displaying works that have been painted over a decade apart, the audience could see Reka's transformation from being known as having the strongest graffiti inspired line-work in Australia to his now renowned free-form canvases. Whether it is one of his iconic characters from the early 2000s or an incredibly intricate new work, Reka's style is revered within the community and has continues to influence younger artists. There is no doubt it is commendable to already have such a strong retrospective of work and such a huge turn out of admirers in what is guaranteed to be a long and illustrious career.
Australia is losing one of their best to the bright lights and bigger walls of Europe, but there is no doubt that Reka's legacy will continue both on the laneway and gallery walls for years to come. Gone, but not forgotten.
Sydney based Scott Marr emailed over some recent works which he creates through pyrography, the process of burning wood or other materials with a heated poker. All the colors in the works below have been collected in nature and processed by Marr... Very natural style.
"Short Yarn",
Pyrography and natural pigments on ply.,
29.5 by 30.5 cm
"Humpy",
Pyrography and natural pigments on ply.,
29.5 by 30.5 cm
"Bull Ship",
Pyrography and natural pigments on ply.,
29.5 by 30.5 cm
Pyrography is the practice of burning an image onto a surface, using specially designed tools. I work mostly on paper but I also enjoy working with wood.
The pigments I use are all handmade from natural materials, most of which I collect from the bush near my home, the roadside, the garden and sometimes even the kitchen. Some of my favourite raw materials include ochres, sap, flowers, bark, leaves, coffee beans and berries. Part of my processing technique is to add natural mordants (fixatives), preservatives and binding substances.
Kid Zoom: HOME Tuesday, 08 November 2011 /// Written by Trippe
Australian born, New York based artist KID ZOOM (Ian Strange). Returned home to Australia to build a massive full-scale replica of his childhood home from memory at Cockatoo Island's prestigious Turbine Hall in Sydney.
KID ZOOM : HOME is Strange's first exhibition in his homeland of Australia in 3 years and represents a multi-layered home-coming for the artist. Coming home to reflect on his origins as an isolated teen in the Australian suburbs the installation also involves a film work of Strange blowing up and then smashing 3 iconic Australian cars.
As you enter the house it becomes a gallery inside which is showing the film of the cars being destroyed.
I would drive around with friends in similar model cars with friends when I was younger, painting, getting in trouble and occasionally crashing them. The Holden Commodore is also a staple of the Australian suburbs, you'll see one parked in the driveway of nearly every outer suburbs home in Australia. For me it is a symbol of suburban culture and under-ambition. The rejection of the suburbs and the desire to simultaneously destroy and create your own environment at the same time as enjoying its safety is the contradiction I'm reacting to. I think suburban angst led me to being an angry graffiti writer when i was 16, but with this installation I've been able to return home to create a more refined work using that same emotional catalyst and perspective from having somewhat escaped. -Kid Zoom
The Aussies really do have it. Maybe it’s all of that isolation all the way over in Australia, but the opening of Young & Free: Contemporary Australian Street Artists on September 10th at 941 Geary (SF) proved that the deserve a place on the international stage. It was the largest collection of new Australian street work that has ever been exhibited in the United States, featuring the likes of Anthony Lister, Kid Zoom, Dabs Myla, Ben Frost, Everefresh founding members Meggs, Reka and Rone, and many many more.
Nearly 1,000 people floated through from the two entrances in the first hours. Entering from Geary Street was like walking through one of Melbourne’s bombed out alleyways as the artists had taken the liberty to ‘decorate’ the walls beyond recognition.
The artists were working up until the last minute to prepare the final details for the show. Below are some of the images of the final day leading into the exhibition’s opening night. Young & Free: Contemporary Australian Street Artists is showing at 941 Geary in San Francisco until October 22nd.
Stencil artist Ha-Ha with the final layer of one of his iconic face stencils, used a little more literally in this sense.
Two thirds of Ha-Ha’s main exhibited work was actually of fellow artist Ben Frost, who is shown here against his homage pinning one of his prints to the wall.
Dabs Myla spent the day finishing a mural collaboration with members of Seventh Letter, the infamous crew that they were recently asked into.
Reka, a founding member of Everfresh known for his perfect lines and vivacious characters, mapping out the beginning of carcass character.
A gallery crew member placing ‘sold’ pins on Ben Frost’s work before opening.
I'm Ryan Malley owner of 827INK.com.
On June 24th, 2011 I flew to Melbourne, Australia with artist Sylvia Ji for her first Australian exhibit.
For the past few years I've been working with a really amazing guy named Martin McIntosh, owner of Outre Galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Sylvia and I, along with Martin, thought it would be cool to have a Pop-up Ji show at his gallery in Melbourne.
This is kind of a crazy post because after Sylvia's show I did an art/drinking tour of Australia.
Australian Scott Marr creates works through pyrography which is the process of burning wood or other materials with a heated poker.
Where you see Scott Marr painting, he's applying natural pigments that he's made himself. The raw materials for these are mostly collected from the bush near Scott's home - ochres, bark, flowers, sap, berries and other natural products.
A small taste of a great show featuring some of Australia's best street artists creating works from stencil to spray paint on all mediums filling 941 Geary's large walls. Should be a great show that you should get to when SF's art season gets kicked off in a couple weeks. Now go back to sitting on the beach or by the pool while your vacation lasts.
Our friends in Australia at Empty Magazine (Fecal Face was featured in the first issue years back) and Semi Permanent, where we spoke last year, are releasing the 20th issue of Empty, and to celebrate will be putting on two great group shows in Waterloo April 14th and in Brookvale on the 29th. If you're over in that part of the country, be sure to get there... Wish we could be there for it. Miss Australia!
Last Chance Studio member and art buddy from Perth, Australia Sean Morris recently emailed me some of his photos and a link to a really awesome national art tour they took. They traveled around and launched 3 art exhibitions in 14 days. Check out the photo diary below.
Last Chance Studio is an art gang from Perth, Australia, the most isolated capital city in the world. It’s the sort of town where you kinda have to make cool shit happen for yourself, ’cause it’s probably not gonna come to you. That’s pretty much why Last Chance exists. The east coast hubs of Sydney and Melbourne might traditionally be home to the nation’s most prolific artists, but out west in sleepy Perth this band of brothers have been kicking it pretty hard for about 18 months now. Established by Daek William and Kid Zoom, Last Chance began as an independant studio in a decaying main street shopfront – next to a skydiving business and a gun store – and has grown into a pretty solid collective, made up of about ten mid-20s dudes who share an general interest in painting rad stuff. -Michael Hsiung
A couple of weeks ago Last Chance Studio went on a national art tour. We drank too much beer, almost missed a couple of flights, met some rad people, and launched 3 separate art exhibitions in 14 days. Following the first show in our home town, Perth photo lord Elliot Strang got on an eastbound plane with us and shot a hell of a lot of photos. Here are a few of them.
We like Sydney and we like the work from Sydney based Mike Bennett whose show, unfortunetly, ends today in Brisbane @Nine Lives Gallery, but it shall live on via the interwebs. Cheque it.
A new HBO documentary looks at the work of street artist JR, whose giant portraits force people in troubled areas to confront the humanity that's all around them... On the day JR found out he'd won the $100,000 TED Prize, the French pasteup artist found himself in China being questioned by police for doing his thing on the streets of Shanghai. ~continue reading
Street artist JR HBO documentary premiered yesterday, May 20th
Art lovers, collectors and gallerists will gather on Thursday for Hong Kong's inaugural edition of Art Basel, sealing the city's status as an international art hub and Asia's leading art destination... Hong Kong has surged to third place in the global art auction market behind New York and London and Western galleries are falling over each other to open franchises in the former British colony. ~continue reading
Our buddy Ferris Plock opens a small show of drawings at Benny Gold on 3169 16th St this Friday, May 24th (7-10pm) featuring 31 drawings priced at 75-140 bucks.
Ferris also released the video Fingered! he produced with animator Jim Dirschberger. View it
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
FFDG opened up the group show featuring original works by the artists of the world famous Skull & Sword tattoo last Friday here in San Francisco. Thanks to the huge crowd who turned out to support these four incredibly talented artists. Here is a taste of the show, and be sure to swing in to view in person. The show runs through June 8th.
Gary Baseman's retrospective "The Door is Always Open" at the Skirball in LA opened recently to massive crowds in a huge celebratory opening party. The exhibition is so complex and personal, delving into Baseman's background, family history, and all the layers of prolific work that he has done over the years. After the opening festivities winded down, I caught up with Baseman for an interview. We discussed the underlying meaning to some of the components of the show and how it felt for him, coming from such an honest personal perspective in putting this massive show together.
Fertile Menace, a new show of Mark Mulroney's (NY) work opened at Ever Gold on May 4th and it's not one to be missed. It is intelligently hilarious, with jokes riffing off sex, Foucault, and the body, and while it makes you laugh it's also going to make you think.
Our buddies Jay Howell, Andreas Trolf, and Jim Dirschberger are hyped as their show, which they've been working on for like 2 years, premieres on Nickelodeon Saturday. From the trailers we've seen so far and from what Jay has told us about, the show is going to be pretty epic. Congrats to those radical fellas.
Here's a little taste of work by the artists of the world famous The Skull and Sword tattoo shop who open their show at San Francisco's FFDG on Friday, May 17th (7-10pm).
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.
We were first introduced to the photography of Spanish born NYC based Bubi Canal when he emailed us his great video Trust in Me a couple years ago. His solo show Special Moment recently ran at NYC's Munch Gallery in February, and he recently released his newest video Chrystelle below.
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.
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