Nick Kushner's Art Party Opening Tomorrow Night in LA

New York based artist Nick Kushner will be hanged at Los Angeles Studio Servitú on Saturday, Sept. 10th. 'Les Crimes De L'Amour'  marks Kushner's first solo exhibition displaying his signature works which speak of disillusionment & pain within the themes of love, death, and abuse. Most notable is the medium he uses to create them - painting with his own blood. DJ executed by Marilyn Manson's Chris Vrenna. Star-studded performances, appearances and presenters.

You must RSVP to this show -

via http://lescrimesdelamour.com/, http://studioservitu.com/contact/  or StudioServitu@Gmail.com are required and does not guarantee admission.

Over 21 venue, no admittance fee. This will be a 4 hour premiere event, from 9pm to 1pm. Subsequent viewings available the next 30 days by appointment. 

Herakut in Culver City

On our travels around Southern California in early August, we spotted these great murals by Herakut. They were wrapping the corner of a vacant building in Culver City (maybe Washington Blvd.?)  So glad to spot these, they made the day so much happier with their art! Love the emotive and drippy works by this duo, hope it gets to stay.... maybe a great spot for an art supply store?

Herakut Website

New James Jean Works, in Los Angeles Thru April 30th

We peeked into the Martha Otero Gallery in LA for James Jean's new exhibit, titled "Rebus". 
From the web - "A rebus (Latin: "by things") is a kind of word puzzle that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. The term rebus also refers to the use of a pictogram to represent a syllabic sound."


Hadn't been to this gallery before, it is a nice space kinda tucked away on Fairfax, right above Melrose. James had painted most of the walls, before installing his works, with a wonderful light whimsy of free flowing organic narratives. The images made me feel like I was in Tolkien's hobbit land. Most of the large paintings are more abstract and symbolic; less representational than his prior works. They crossed over into a wonderful, dreamlike surrealism with a more ambiguous nature; a daring and ballsy exhibit, straying far from his more commercial earlier works.

Of the paintings, the mainly black and white -"Recumbent" (below) was my favorite by far, a masterpiece of sensuous smears of paint and emotions.

The drawings (below) were our overall favorites from the show, we stood in front of them for a good long time and enjoyed every errant graphite stroke. They had a warmer, fun freedom the paintings didn't convey. The show is up thru the end of April, 2011, so check it out if you can. 

For all the pictures from the gallery click here.

Pix From The "Dystopia" Show - Super Surreal in Santa Monica

Visited the BeinArt Surreal Collective's show "Dystopia" at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, along with a ton of other peeps. Great show, wonderful artists and incredible art. Way too many good ones to post them all, but here's a link to them. Met up with artists Pamela Wilson and Carrie Ann Baade, both looking happy and dapper. It was wonderful to finally meet people I have had an "online" relationship with for so long... Laurie Lipton, Sandra Yagi was there from SF and of course Jon Beinart.

Pamela and Carrie

Brian Viveros

Karl Persson

Sandra Yagi

Ray Donley

Matt R. Martin

Chris Mars

Rachel Bess

Brian Smith

Pamela Wilson

Carrie Ann Baade

Larkin, a cool marriage of painting and sculpt, (see the neck detail, below)

 This is a show really worth seeing, so many more stupendous pieces!


And last but not least, the award for best dressed couple goes to---

The Doll Show Opens Saturday, at Cactus Gallery in Los Angeles

Cactus Gallery Link