Five Stars For Femke! "The Bone Shaped Bone" Exhibit

Made it up to Seattle and was so stoked to be able to go to the opening reception of Femke Hiemstra's new body of work. Rarely do I see a solo exhibit where every single piece is of top notch caliber. 

Her superlative works, currently on view at Roq La Rue in Seattle, fall into every category of excellence possible. The vision, creativity, technique, imagination, originality and presentation - all exceeded expectations and then some. They are smallish, beautifully solid works; so fine was the detail and shading it looked as if it had been painted with a single bristle. In fact,  I can't believe she's not blind. Some were painted directly on vintage book covers or game boxes and some were black and white graphite renderings on paper. The imagery is fairy tale in feel, lots of animal characters and fantasy scenarios. Typographic embellishments  highlighted a few of the pieces - graceful additions of vintage lettering styles, they wove in and out of the imagery, as only a keen eye for design can accomplish.

Roq Le Rue interior

It was rewarding to finally visit Roq Le Rue gallery as it has been on my hit list for way too many years. They have had incredible shows over the years that fill the newbrow art niche for Seattle. A nice space with cool tunes (playing Bowie as I walked in...) and a wide open feel, one couldn't have asked for a better exhibit to see than Femke's "The Bone Shaped Bone". If you live in Seattle or plan on being near there, make sure to put this on your "must do" list! The show is up thru Dec. 4th, 2010.

The beautiful and friendly Femke Hiemstra, love her!

If the images weren't enough to satisfy your soul, here's some more words - a nice take on Femke's works from the gallery site:
Femke Hiemstra’s meticulously tight, jewel like mixed media paintings and exquisitely rendered black and white drawings are homes to a dark fairytale land where inanimate objects come to life and frolic with animal neighbors. Lollipops become ship captains, strawberries become giant wrestlers, and vegetables become Halloween gods with lantern eyes. Femke occasionally uses typography in her work, using words from various languages and letters in her paintings to further enhance the narrative while still retaining a playful sense of mystery, or as a visual device to frame in the scenery, as if you were looking at her world through a secret window. She also uses found objects to paint on, such as boxes and wrappers, to create imaginary products with magical properties. In this series she has several paintings on vintage book covers, which are then tantalizingly sealed up in a frame, leaving the viewer to speculate on the full story.

Links: Roq Le Rue, Femke's site

Ron English Takes on Magritte

Dang! Just got this hot little piece in my inbox and you get to see it.  It's titled "Apple and the Afterlife", and it is so phenomenal! Right down to the apple core, in more ways than one. Announcement of Ron English's huge show at the Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion with over 200 pieces. Go if you can, wish I could.
From the announcement: "Status Factory," a surreal assemblage of over 200 artworks by Ron English. This highly interactive exhibition traces the arc of English's most ambitious themes across mediums. 
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, television, and album covers. 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. Ron English's art, whether in paintings, billboards, murals, or sculpture, blends stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America's Premier Pop Iconoclast."

Collection and Exhibit of Day of the Dead Art, Eclectix Volume 5

Lady of the Dead by Edith Lebeau

For Eclectix Volume 5, we've put together a spectacular selection of Day of the Dead art and related topics. Just  a few selections are posted here. This collection will continue to grow with new additions.

Enjoy all the deadly art here.

Artist: Jessica Ward

Day of the Lady Bird by Patrushka

Eclectix Interview With Genevive Zacconi

New work: Illusions of Grandeur by Genevive Zacconi

Just posted a new artist interview, this time it's with the ever so fabulous Genevive Zacconi. She has a new body of work and her upcoming exhibit at Last Rites Gallery promises to be outstanding.

Link to the entire interview and images.

Genevive in her studio

Ewelina Ferruso Is In Town! New Works at Gallery 1988

"Who Let the Cat Out of the Bag?" by Ewelina Ferruso. 5 x 7 oil on board, encased in antique shadowbox with engraved title plate

Ewelina Ferruso will be showing "Meanwhile in Purgatory", a new collection of 5 x 7 oil paintings at Gallery 1988 in San Francisco, opening on November 6th, 2010. We love her art and this is a great chance for all Bay Area locals to get out and see it in person. Jeremiah Ketner and Yosuke Ueno are also showing works in this exhibit.

View the preview at www.nineteeneightyeight.com

and here, at Ewelina's site: www.ferrusos.com.

Previous Eclectix interview

Foto Fix: Chad Michael Ward

Visited the website of photographer Chad Michael Ward, which he calls- “Digital Apocalypse”. Not sure about that - but it definitely has some riveting, dark and intense images. Some are posed, pretentious naked women in goth settings (altho you dudes may like them). There are a number that may set off angry sparks - might be interpreted as misogynist and overly violent. Whatever you may think or however you may react, many of the pieces are worthy of a good look, shocking and moody nightmare imagery, it gets the creep on big time. 

Ward's website link.

Eclectix Issue No.5, Nightmares Before Xmas

Dan Harding

Our fantastic fantasy exhibit of the best of all the "dark art" out there. Need labels? How about - scary, creepy, Halloween, evil, and goth. Chock full of scary monsters and super freaks, devils, blood, ghouls, skeletons, monsters, witches, bones and vampires by all the best newbrow, nobrow and lowbrow artists out there.
Online now HERE.
For the front page and weekly related posts go HERE.

Artists Included (so far... and more to come!) -
Adnrey, Dave Aikins, Bundy Al, Jennybird Alcantara, Suliman Almawash, Amy Kollar Anderson, Esao Andrews, Carrie Ann Baade, Tom Bagshaw, Shawn Barber, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Christine Benjamin, Brom, Marc Burckhardt, Nicolas Caesar, CW Carter, Santiago Caruso, Sean Chappell, Sue Coe,  Anita Collins, Coop, Corey Corcoran, Mike Davis, Jenny Dayton, Sheri DeBow, Dave Decaro, Sarah Dolby, Camille Rose Garcia, Frank Garvey, Kelly Haigh, Dan Harding, Sean Harty, Gottfried Helnwein, Joshua Hoffine, Michael Hussar, Inertiak, Malgorzata Jasinska,  Jessica Joslin, Marcin Klicki, Nick Kushner, Eric Lacombe, Craig LaRotonda, Jason Levesque, Paul Lewin, Laurie Lipton, Travis Louie, Eric Orhun, Chris Mars, Elizabeth McGrath, Mia Makila, Angie Mason, Matt Mahurin, Brandi Milne, Mike Nash, Chris Parks, Petrushka,  Ravenar, Cate Rangel, Bonni Reid, Jenifer Renzel, Mark Ryden, Isabel Samaras, Maya Samuels, John Santerineross, Scott Saw, John Seabury, James Guinevan Seymour, Pete Schlasser, Natalie Shau, Ian Strawn, James Wolf Strehle, G. Edwin Taylor, Strephon Taylor, Anwar Vazquez, Jessica Ward, Edward Walton Wilcox, Joel Peter Witkin, Martin Wittfooth, Jasmine Worth, Genevive Zacconi, Chet Zar

New Eclectix Interview With Dean McDowell

"Dean is an exceptional newbrow artist who has shown works with Eclectix in the past. His acrylic portraits have a wonderfully deep base of fleshy, thick textures and layered strokes, hints of mummy wrappings. The images evoke emotion, red eyed from crying, some bruised and bloodied by life or it’s vampires, some lipstick smeared and hinting of violent encounters. They may have been victims, hardened by abuse; becoming cold and indifferent as a form of self-defense and survival. In spite of it all, beautiful and sensual colors bleed through, and a strong and silent resolve seems to mature..."

For more images and the entire interview with Dean click here.