Aiko‘s solo show at Andenken Gallery in Amsterdam opened last week. Here are a few photos of Aiko out on the streets of Amsterdam and in the gallery. You can check out more on Aiko’s blog. Also, Aiko released a print at Andenken called Save Our Souls, which comes in 3 colorways and goes for 150 euros each. Check those out here.

With Laser 3.14

Photos courtesy of Andenken Gallery

Shepard Fairey

A group show with a unique and possibly interesting twist is opening today at Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton, New York. Curated by Carlo McCormick, Nose Job featured a variety of artists working on old airplane parts, primarily nose cones. The line up includes street artists like Swoon and Shepard Fairey, graffiti artists like Futura and Mare139 and more mainstream artists like Richard Price and Raymond Pettibon. Here’s the full line up… Aiko, Dan Colen, Peter Dayton, Viejas Del Mercado, Jane Dickson, Shepard Fairey, Futura, How & Nosm, Juan James, Ryan McGinness, Tara McPherson, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Lee Quinones, Carlos (MARE 139) Rodriguez, Retna, Saner, Kenny Scharf, Shelter Serra, Swoon, JJ Veronis and Aaron Young.

Nose Job opens today and runs through August 21st. Here’s a little preview of what to expect…

How and Nosm

Retna

Photos courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery

The queen of sexy stenciled girls, Aiko, has a solo show opening in a few weeks at Amsterdam’s Andenken Gallery. Andenken used to be based in Denver, but has relocated to Amsterdam. Her show, Unstoppable Waves, opens on July 9th (6-10pm) and runs through July 24th. The spray cans that Aiko contributed to Up Close and Personal, the show I put on with MANY last month, were some of the most popular pieces in that show, so this should be a real treat for anyone in Amsterdam. Unstoppable Waves will be Aiko’s first solo show in Europe.

Photos courtesy of Andenken Gallery

How and Nosm. Photo by Michael Pearce

Thursday night was the opening of Up Close and Personal, and it was a pretty great (although my opinion is biased since I helped curate it). We’re open through Sunday evening, so if you’re in New York, please stop by and check it out and let me know what you think. Up Close and Personal is taking place at an apartment on the Upper West Side; it’s not the traditional setting for art, but trust me, buzz and somebody will let you in. We’re at 217 West 106th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, between Broadway and Amsterdam.

Here’s some photos from last night:

Troy Lovegates aka Other. Photo by Michael Pearce

White Cocoa. Photo by Michael Pearce

Skewville. Photo by Michael Pearce

R. Robot. Photo by Michael Pearce

Aiko. Photo by RJ Rushmore

Know Hope. Photo by RJ Rushmore

Radical. Photo by RJ Rushmore

Photos by Michael Pearce and RJ Rushmore

In two weeks, Vandalog and Murals Around New York (MANY) will be putting on a pop-up show in a New York City apartment. Up Close and Personal mostly came out of two ideas: 1. Street artists tend to work large outdoors and we wanted to challenge people to make art on a small scale and 2. We’ve all seen artwork in galleries that either would only look good in a gallery but not in a home, or is just too big to fit into a typical apartment and we wanted to see something different from that. With Up Close and Personal, the show itself is taking place in an apartment on the Upper West Side, and we have capped the size of the artwork at 30 x 30 inches, with an emphasis on going as small as possible.

I’ve worked with Keith Schweitzer and Mike Glatzer of M.A.N.Y. to curate this show, and we’re really excited with the line up that we’ve managed to put together: Aiko, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Don Leicht, Edible Genius, Elbowtoe, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jessica Angel, John Fekner, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mike Ballard, OverUnder, R. Robot, Radical, Retna, Skewville, Tristan Eaton, Troy Lovegates aka Other and White Cocoa.

Up Close and Personal opens May 12th from 7-9pm. We’ll also be open from 7-9pm on the 13th. Then noon-9pm and noon-7pm on the 14th and 15th respectively. Particularly on the 12th, it is possible that we’ll be shifting people in every half hour or so, since the space is a small apartment. The show is taking place at 217 West 106^th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, NY 10025 – Between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues.

Hope to see you in a couple weeks!

Chris Stain

It’s been a long time since Seth and I have had a group show this big at Carmichael Gallery – there will be over 35 artists represented on the walls when we open “Booked” on Saturday, June 5th! Some of the artists we’ve worked with for several years and others we’ll be showing for the first time. We’re also going to have lots of great art books and magazines from publishers like Drago, Gingko, Studiocromie (I really enjoyed opening up the box of Blu and Sam3 books!) and VNA. Books and art are two of the best things in the world, in my opinion, so it should be a fun event! We will be open from 12-8pm on Saturday for Culver City Art Walk (make sure to visit all the other galleries on the block if you come by; there will be lots of cool things to see) and the reception itself is from 6-8pm.

Here are some of the pieces in the show.

Martha Cooper

Escif

SpY

Anthony Lister

Lucas Price (aka Cyclops)

Bumblebee

Brad Downey

Here’s the full line up of artists and publishers:

Aiko, Banksy, Beejoir, Blek le Rat, Boxi, Bumblebee, C215, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, D*Face, Brad Downey, Eine, Ericailcane, Escif, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Gaia, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Dave Kinsey, Know Hope, Labrona, Anthony Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Aakash Nihalani, Walter Nomura (a.k.a. Tinho), Other, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops), Retna, Saber, Sam3, Sixeart, Slinkachu, SpY, Judith Supine, Titi Freak, Nick Walker, Dan Witz and WK Interact

Drago, Gingko Press, Murphy Design, Prestel, Rojo, SCB Distributors, Studiocromie, Very Nearly Almost, Zupi

The show runs from June 5 – July 3. Drop in to say hi if you’re in LA!

- Elisa

In fall of 2008, Andrew Michael Ford curated Dark Pop, a show at Last Rites Gallery which challenged artists to create a piece of “dark” art. It was a big hit. Since then, Andrew has begun working at Last Rites, and now Dark Pop 2.0 is almost here. Looks like a very interesting show.

Last Rites Gallery has again decided to find out what several of today’s brightest art stars are capable of when asked to create ONE piece of what could be considered truly ‘dark art’. Many artists find themselves in a nice groove of creating a certain mood or emotion through their work and have, understandably, become quite comfortable following this path in their art-making. We were curious, however, what would happen if things were to get a little uncomfortable, as the artist challenged themselves to search through new or buried feelings and emotions, the kind which might find their place on the ‘darker’ side of the artistic spectrum. With that in mind, Last Rites Gallery proudly presents “Dark Pop 2.0″: A collection of truly ‘dark art’ from an incredibly talented and diverse group of artists who would normally never get anywhere near this stuff! If the first Dark Pop was any indication, Dark Pop 2.0 is guaranteed to astound.

Participating Artists Include: AIKO (Aiko Nakagawa), Lisa Alisa, Esao Andrews, John Cebollero, Benjamin Clarke, Joshua Clay, Molly Crabapple, Amy Crehore, Yoko d’Holbachie, Leslie Ditto, Mickey Edtinger, Mark Elliott, Eric Fortune, GAIA, Stella Im Hultberg, Sarah Joncas, Aya Kakeda, Ben Kehoe, Dan-ah Kim, Daniel Hyun Lim (Fawn Fruits), Danni Shinya Luo, David MacDowell, Mike Maxwell, Simone Maynard, Dennis McNett, Tara McPherson, Michael Page, Nathan Lee Pickett, Leslie Reppeteaux, Mijn Schatje, Tin, Dan Witz, Jaeran Won and more.

As you may have noticed, Seth and I have been spending most of our free time away from SCOPE (not that we’ve had a whole lot so far - see what we (Carmichael) and the other galleries were busy with yesterday) down the street at Deitch’s Wynwood Walls, where many of our friends are hard at work on their murals for Thursday’s opening (Nina, osgemeos and Finok haven’t stopped since they arrived). Here are some pictures of what Nunca, Aiko and Clare Rojas’ walls were looking like last time we checked.

We also paid a quick visit to Al from O.H.W.O.W. the other night. This is a cool space. Here are some set up shots.

First, a peek at It Ain’t Fair, large group show. The Parla is beautiful.

This girl gave me one of her lollypop rings.

Here are a few of the pieces in Dark Night of The Soul.

And here’s where I wrote this post from, in case you were wondering. It’s super busy in here (it’s the SCOPE preview day) so I better get back to work!

Seth and I haven’t even been in Miami twenty-four hours yet, but I wanted to quickly share a few of the things we’ve seen so far. There’s still time to buy a plane ticket if you haven’t already – this year is going to be one of the best yet and you don’t want to miss it. The piece above is by Nina, one of the artists participating in Deitch’s Wynwood Walls. osgemeos are beginning their work alongside her below (that’s Otavio in the pic).

A block away is the Barry McGee building.

Then Shepard’s wall, the first of several he’ll be working on in Miami.

Then there’s the main complex; when we were there last night, Nunca, Aiko and Clare Rojas were hard at work.

Then there’s SCOPE, not too far down the street. This is the Vandalog fair! Gaia’s piece is looking amazing outside.

And here’s a peek at our booth, #127. Just waiting for Nunca’s piece to come back from the framers, then we’re ready to hang!

This year the art fairs in Miami are going to be complimented with two massive mural projects.

First, the classic: Primary Flight came out with their promo video yesterday. PF have been doing a mural project in Miami for a few years, and their line up is a grab bag of awesomeness with artists like Ron English, The London Police, Logan Hicks and Revok. Here’s the video:

Primary Flight 2009 Teaser from Primary Flight on Vimeo.

And then there is a the guy in town: The Wynwood Walls is a project by Jeffrey Deitch. The line up isn’t as expansive, but the names are all international superstars like Swoon, Barry McGee, Futura, and Os Gemeos.

There’s even a lot of overlap between the projects with artists like Shepard Fairey and Aiko painting for both groups.

Naturally, I’ll be there filming for Babelgum and taking photos for Vandalog.