Swoon, Thalassa, screenprint on mylar with coffee stain and hand painting

Since 2006, Joshua Liner’s Chelsea gallery has consistently featured an amazing range of works by first-rate artists. His new venue – a huge, bright ground-floor space at 540 West 28th Street – is ideal, as the artworks beckon you in from the street. These are a few of my favorite pieces – by artists who also work in public spaces – from his current exhibit, Direct Address: An Inaugural Group Exhibition, that closes this Saturday. It is worth a visit.

Greg Lamarche aka SP1, Free for All, acrylic and graphite on found wood

Oliver Vernon, Renegade Trajectories, acrylic on canvas

David Ellis, All That Glitters, kinetic sound and light installation

Photos by Dani Mozeson

This weekend Bring Back The Boadwalks is holding a benefit art auction to raise money to help rebuild the Rockaways and Coney Island, two communities were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The silent auction will have work from some major names including Futura, Swoon, Phil Frost, Faile, David Ellis, Shepard Fairey, and Dennis McNett, and 100% of the proceeds from the auction will go to recovery efforts.

The auction will take place this Saturday, November 17th, at Trais Gallery at 76 Wooster Street (between Broome and Spring) in Manhattan.

More info on the Bring Back The Boadwalks website, and they’ve been posting photos of artwork that will be at the auction to their tumblr.

A unique screenprint donated to the auction by Faile

Photo courtesy of Bring Back The Boardwalks

Dancing Trash Bag is one of Mathieu Tremblin‘s latest pieces. If you like it, also be sure to check out Strictly Cone Dancing by Filthy Luker and David Ellis’ trash sculpture.

Via Rebel:Art

I’m a huge fan of David Ellis’s intensely rhythmic artwork. I’m especially mesmerized by his motion paintings, which I discovered almost two years ago at a brilliant street art exhibit at the Montserrat House in Washington, D.C.  Ellis’s current exhibit, True Value, at Joshua Liner brings all his amazing work together, as it features his motion paintings, his sculptures and his recent pieces on panel and tobacco-stained paper.

Here are some stills from his motion paintings:

And a small sampling of his paintings:

If you are anywhere in the NYC vicinity, this exhibit is definitely worth checking out before it ends this Friday, the 14th.  The Joshua Liner Gallery is at 548 W. 28th Street in Chelsea.

Photos by Lois Stavsky & Lenny Collado

Anonymous Gallery is launching their permanent space in Mexico City with Fresh Kills, a group show opening this weekend. The artists in this show are purported to, in an effort for renewal, reuse materials that most would consider trash, so the name Fresh Kills comes from Freshkills Park, an upcoming park project in New York to redevelop a site that used to be a landfill. As usual, Anonymous Gallery have put together an impressive group of artists for this show: Aaron Young, Agathe Snow, Barry McGee, David Ellis, Greg Lamarche, Hanna Liden, Richard Prince, Swoon and Tom Sachs. Fresh Kills opens on the 17th, this Thursday and runs through January 15th.

We visited Opera Gallery earlier today just a few hours before the official opening of “Abstractions,” a retrospective of the abstract movement that features artists who’ve used the streets as their canvas, alongside such “fine” artists as Miro and Matta. Here are a few images:

David Ellis

Ron English

Futura

Saber

Sixeart, close-up

Photo by Lord Jim

David Ellis is going to be Philadelphia soon for a talk at muraLAB, “an experimental creativity hub” within the Mural Arts Program. The talk, Thought Experiments, will take place on April 14th at 6pm. I wis I could be in two places at once, because I’ll be in LA then, but Philly residents should definitely check out this event. I’ve only met Ellis once, but it was one of my most memorable conversations of my life. Make sure to RSVP though by emailing muraLAB@muralarts.org. More info on the muraLAB website.

Photo by Lord Jim

EVOL will be at the WILDE Gallery booth at Volta

With two midterms exams tomorrow, I’m rushing this post, but here’s a simple list for some of what to check out at the art fairs in New York this week.

• The Armory Show:
  - Honor Fraser (Kaws and Kenny Scharf)
  - Ratio 3 (Barry McGee)
  - Stuart Shave/Modern Art (Barry McGee)
• Fountain:
  - 140-foot long street art installation, although it sounds like this might be the same installation as was recently at Fountain in Miami, or at least partially the same.
• Verge Art Brooklyn:
  - Arch 402 (Cept aka Mike Ballard)
  - English Kills Gallery (Don Pablo Pedro)
• Scope:
  - Contra Projects (D*face, How&Nosm, James Marshall aka Dalek, Ron English, Tristan Eaton, TrustoCorp and more)
• Volta:
  - Carmichael Gallery (Mark Jenkins)
  - Wilde Gallery (EVOL)
• Pulse:
  - Joshua Liner Gallery (David Ellis)
  - Ben Wolf’s installation (He has collaborated with Swoon and Maya Hayuk)

I won’t be in NYC for the fairs myself, but I’ll hopefully have some photos to post. Otherwise, the places I will be getting my art fair news will be Hyperallergic and Arrested Motion.

Photo courtesy of Volta Art Fair

David Ellis has a solo show, Mona Salsa, opening this Saturday night at New Image Art in LA. There are 15 new works, many of which look like a completely new direction from Ellis’ many-year-long artworks based on sound and painting sound. Should be an interesting show for sure. Check out more of the new work over at The Citrus Report.

Photo courtesy of New Image Art

I have to say that I really appreciate galleries that continue to do shows during the Holiday season. While most just shut down because “everyone else does” I find it admirable when a curator puts together a show, and a decent group show at that.

Martha Cooper Happy Holidays

Opening December 11 at Subliminal Projects is Wreck the Walls, a group exhibition of over 30 artists combining rebellious urban artists, street pioneers and young emerging fine artists.

The show includes the likes of some heavy hitters like McGinnes and Cooper and some of my favorite new names like Greg LeMarche and Kelly Berg. The full list includes: Alan Shaffer, Alejandro Gehry, Andy Moses, Bertil Petersson, Billy Al Bengston, Blek Le Rat, Craig Stecyk, Curtis Kulig, David Ellis, David Yow, Ed Moses, Ellwood T. Risk, Erik Foss, Eric Schwartz, Eric White, Evan Hecox, Greg Lamarche, Jason Alper, John Van Hamersveld, Laddie John Dill, Larry Bell, Martha Cooper, Monica Canilao, Retna, Robbie Conal, Ryan McGinness, Ryan Travis Christian, Skullphone, Swoon, Tim Biskup, Vanessa Prager, Kelly Berg.

Photo by Martha Cooper via Subliminal Projects