"New Beginnings" at Space Gallery in San Francisco, This Friday!

Zira from Planet of the Apes by Isabel Samaras

"New Beginnings" at Space Gallery

Opening: March 11, 7 pm to 12 am

Thru April 2nd, 2011

1141 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA

Annie Owen's Solo: I'm "Terribly Happy" It's Happening...

Annie Owens is exhibiting in LA this month, at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica. If you are down that way, try to make it, her works are wonderfully expressive little dark peaks at characters with attitude. Annie is half of the Hi-Fructose art team and founder, Atta-Boy being the other half.

This is a solo show of all new works by Annie, aptly titled "Terribly Happy". The show opens March 19th and it is up thru April 9th, 2011.

There are a ton of great newbrow and surreal art shows going on down there in La-La land right now, so make an art trip of them all! Do some homework and for the easy highlights, check out the Eclectix site, event listings  - "Eight Days A Week".

Keep a sharp eye out for the upcoming interview with Annie, right here at Eclectix. Annie's website is here.

New Works by Jennybird Alcantara

Just received these wonderful new images from the ever fabulous Jennybird Alcantara. Hope you enjoy, I bloody well do! She has some new shows coming up so check her site to see if you can make them.
LINK

Upcoming Ray Caesar Exhibit in New York

If you are lucky enough to be in New York to catch this exhibit, you'd better do so! If only I could....

A Gentle Kind of Cruelty

New Work By 

RAY CAESAR

Jan 22nd to Feb 19th 2011

Reception Jan 22nd 6-8pm

Jonathan LeVine Gallery

529 West 20th Street, 9th floor

New York, NY 10011

212-243-3822

www.jonathanlevinegallery.com 

Visiting "Art From The New World" in The Old World of Bristol

Personal favorite in the show is this stunner by Ray Caesar

A stroke of good luck came my way when I was able to see the "Art From The New World" show in Bristol, while visiting family in England. The exhibit's date had been extended due to it's popularity, bringing in lots of new visitors to the Bristol Museum. 

The museum is an incredible art piece on it's own- detailed Roman castle architecture, as many of the university buildings nearby are. Easy to spend the day just checking out the scenery- arched gothic churches and medieval looking spires abound. It's a nice college town and makes a pleasant day trip by train if you happen to be in London.

Walking thru the doors, the first art attack is a huge stack of books painted on their sides- a dark bride and groom appraises you.... by Mike Stilkey.

 

Loved this piece, a different and original approach.

Once inside the main lobby, a wonderful angel greets you with a paint can dumped on her head, gotta love it! 

This is an excellent show with an all-star line up, most with new pieces created for the show. The press for the exhibit described it as - "a big brash exhibition of the new American art scene". Many thanks and kudos to the Bristol Museum for having the balls to show this work in an environment worthy of it's vision. They gave Banksy a show a few years ago; that would have been fun to see. Only a very few American museums have stepped up and shown these artist's, the Laguna Museum of Art and the San Jose Museum of Art; maybe now some more will. Also a thanks to the Corey Helford Gallery for arranging it all.

Octopus chandaliers hover overhead, by Adam Wallacavage 

Camille Rose Garcia's "Sneewitchen" 

Pictured here are just a few of the best from the show. I have omitted some pieces that have been very publicized already (for example: Mark Ryden's "Snow Yak"), hoping to concentrate here on the less exposed ones and of course, some faves.

Marion Peck

Chris Anthony

Detail from Ray Caesar's "Love Letters"

Mia

Johnny Rodriguez (kmndz)

Melissa Forman

As wonderful as this show is, I can't help but dream of a "bigger and brasher" show of just the cream of the pop. An exhibit of the surreal masterpieces of the newbrow scene, the original best pieces by the best artists. Even if they have been sold, to get them all together on loan, for a  show to travel thru-out the States. It could start at LACMA and then to SF MOMA and then to MOMA in New York and onward to European museums. Perhaps the art list might read- Ryden's "The Creatrix", Ron English's "Abraham-Obama", Camille Rose Garcia's "The Night Greed", Shawn Barber's  "The Unsaid", Sylvia Ji's "Dona Dolorosa", Todd Schorr's "Wish Fulfillment From Another World", Isabel Samaras' "Gone Native", Brian Vivero's "EvilLast", Chet Zar's "Sallgood", Jennybird Alcantara's "Treacherous Gardens", Chris Mars's "Dichotomy", Ray Caesar's "Descent", Marion Peck's "Bouquet" or Colette Calascione's "Anarchist In Love"... I have to stop myself here, it could and should go on and on, but you get the fantasy... A show of shows so to speak, to blow that boring art world away. 

Participating artists include:

JOSH AGLE (SHAG)

JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER

CHRIS ANTHONY

VAN ARNO

GARY BASEMAN

RAY CAESAR

COLIN CHRISTIAN

SAS CHRISTIAN

LUKE CHUEH

COOP

DAVE COOPER

RON ENGLISH

NATALIA FABIA

KORIN FAUGHT

SARAH FOLKMAN

MELISSA FORMAN

AJ FOSIK

CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA

MERCEDES HELNWEIN

DAVID HOCHBAUM

SYLVIA JI

ERIC JOYNER

DAVE KINSEY

KUKULA

JOE LEDBETTER

HENRY LEWIS

LOLA

TRAVIS LOUIE

MICHAEL MARARIAN

ELIZABETH MCGRATH

MIA

BRANDI MILNE

BUFF MONSTER

MICHAEL PAGE

MARION PECK

JOSHUA PETKER

CARLOS RAMOS

JOHNNY RODRIGUEZ (KMNDZ)

GRETCHEN RYAN

MARK RYDEN

TODD SCHORR

KATHY STAICO SCHORR

MIKE STILKEY

GREG SIMKINS (CRAOLA)

JOE SORREN

DAVID STOUPAKIS

ADAM WALLACAVAGE

MARTIN WITTFOOTH

KENT WILLIAMS

Not So Haunted at the Guggenheim

Visited the Guggenheim last time I was in NYC as I always do. This is my favorite building in New York and as far as museums go, probably my fave as architecture goes. The exhibit they had sounded promising - "Haunted", oh the wonderfully creepy images of ghostly art that flew into my brain....
Alas, the images in my brain were the best of the show. This exhibit lacked any creative spark- it was pretentious, calculated, lame and boring. So sad that such a great museum can waste it's gorgeous space on such listless art, especially when there is so much killer art out there. Any number of artists could fill that space with well deserved exhibits. Concurrently in NY galleries at the time, there were two - Judith Schaechter and Greg Simkins. Or how about really curating a show about really being haunted? Maybe some Chris Mars, Travis Louie, Mark Ryden or Colette Calascione? There was a  familiar Warhol and a Rauschenberg to open it up, a Cindy Sherman and a not-so-strong Annette Messager. The only two new, fresh or moving images in the show are these, one is on the exhibit card (above) and the other is by Joan Jonas (below).

There seemed to be a plethora of snapshots, lacking quality composition and inventiveness as well. Still waiting... for the contemporary museums to get on the ball and show something different, deserving and contemporary.

Just off the top my head, a piece by Michael Ryan that would have been great in a "haunted" exhibit.

 

or this fantastic piece by Laurie Lipton...

And there is so much more out there...

"As They See It" Exhibit, Our Favorite Picks, 941 Gallery

Posted here are some faves from the gallery's second and current show, As They See It, which opened Saturday night. Shooting Gallery and White Walls owner- Justin, just opened 941 in the Tenderloin. You enter thru a long narrow hall, past the bathroom and bundled art to a nice large and open space. Many of the pieces were familiar from previous exhibits. 

I really loved the 3 bunny/kangaroo pieces floating in their urban environs by the pretty Jessica Hess, not to mention the fantastic little neckpiece she created out of 3 vintage ties.

She graciously let me check out  the stitch work on the underside and wow, this was an art piece by itself!  

Isabel Samaras has a hilarious new painting of a Victorian woman getting serviced under her ballgown.

Scott Hove's new chandalier "cake" piece dominated the huge space with his usual sweet ferocity.

Akira Beard had a nice wall full of his wonderful mixed media portraits, some of the best stuff there. 


And here are a few other wonderful pieces... 

The artists contributing were Kevin Cyr, Jessica Hess, Isabel Samaras, Shawn Barber, Aaron Nagel, Eric White, Robert Burden, Coro, Dave Schubert, Jonathan Darby, Morgan Slade, Pedro Matos, Akira Beard, Danny Heller, Michael Forbes, Adam Caldwell, Scott Hove, and Derek Weisber.


Gallery Link

Best of New York Art, June 2010 - Judith Schaechter's "Beauty and the Beef"

This show tied with Greg Simkin's show, ranking top-of-the-mark on recent NYC art offerings. Seeing Judith's work in person, after viewing it on a computer all these years, was a revelation. Most art is always better in person but glass works benefit especially from the glistening light and the bare eye. Judith's art is vividly saturated with the glorious colors only stained glass can emit. Juxtapose that with it's subject matter and you get killer art. No typical church art here, just pure beastly beauty. Painterly and dripping, scratched and rubbed - the glass becomes layered worlds upon worlds under her labors. Darkly human, innovative, emotive and lustrous.
Way too many beautiful images to post them all here, so just a select few, some cropped and some showing just the devil in the wondrous details.

The exhibit was at the Claire Oliver Gallery which is a nice space, however the peeps there were full of attitude. Refused to let my tired kid lie down for a second on their un-upholstered bench. I mean, come on... it's not like we were setting up a homeless encampment or even taking a nap. The snotty ambiance in some galleries really goes a bit too far, showing a little humanity sometimes can be a good thing. Judith's art made the rudeness all worthwhile.

"Another major reason I stick with stained glass is because I think the raw material is pretty. The uncut sheets of colored glass are really seductive, awesome, and unarguably lovely things. Naturally, the temptation to cut and damage all that pristine beauty is too much for me to resist."- Judith Schaechter, excerpt from a great statement, well worth a read, to be found here.

Schaechter's "Late Breaking Noose" here.

Pete Glover's "Junk Pirate" at Compound Gallery

Dropped into Pete's show's opening night and was so glad I did. The exhibit is a collection of collections, of thrift store and found objects. Originally, I was pretty skeptical about seeing the show; although I love vintage memorabilia and "junk" as much as the next gurl, I thought it might just be a let down.
Boy, was I wrong. Pete's editing, eye, sense of aesthetic and juxtaposition were top notch. The presentation and placement of the pieces were really well thought out, not to mention the actual "junk" itself. An overall symbiotic sense of America and it's surreal waste pervaded the exhibit. Each selection made sense and flowed nicely from one to another.  Some were bunches of the same thing, like old chess pieces and some were single items, spotlighted for their unusual (or just usual) specialness. Cast out photos, bizarre in their flavor, spoke loudly to my own personal sense of the strange and beautiful. The arrangement of multiple items was artistically perfect, unique to itself. Old View-Master disks were sensibly displayed on top of a wall mounted light box.

Next to a collection of plastic ray guns and then an vintage ad, the eclectic choices were all engrossing. In one piece, he took those crusty frosting cake letters you can buy and mounted them in a phrase- "The Romance of the Fungus World". How perfect is that?

Off the wall, symbolic, fun, nostalgic, beautiful and weird - this exhibit is a must see. Words and pictures cannot begin to touch on the wondrous variety of the presentation, no way can you judge this book by it's cover! Pete has a sympatico mindset to the unreal reality of consumption, a sarcastic wit, a sensitivity to the frailty of human mortality and a keen eye. All of which enable new visions of art and commentary, where once before it was just a bunch of old dice. Don't miss this show!

Pete, caught triple fisted!

Exhibit dates: (May 29-July 4, 2010)

Compound Gallery

Pete Glover's Website