David Choe has posted a lengthy mish-mash of links on his blog, with the point being that in April he’s got a solo show in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles with Lazarides Gallery called Nothing to Declare. And, he’s also got a book being published this summer
This month, Clare Rojas’ show We They, We They opened at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, UK. For whatever reason, this hasn’t gotten as much attention as it deserves. It took me a while to warm up to Rojas’ paintings, but now I’m definitely a fan.
Ikon presents the first UK museum exhibition by American artist, Clare Rojas (b. 1976, Ohio, lives and works in San Francisco). Best known for her folk-inspired practice, Rojas uses a wide range of media, including painting, installation and printmaking. Her work is characteristically made by using flat areas of colour betraying her origins as a printmaker, its naïf, homespun style thrown into relief by a knowing subject manner. Thus Rojas challenges, with humour and irony, stereotypical representations of the sexes.
The exhibition at Ikon, comprising much new work, marks a shift in Rojas’ practice. Paintings of empty domestic interiors suggest people have just departed, leaving clues of their identities, subtle revelations of gender and class. In other paintings, images of women are increasingly abstracted and yet retain a deceptive playfulness. Stacked conglomerations of shape, colour and pattern evoke figurative presence – a crescent of hair, a waist of a figure – all rendered in Rojas’ distinctive, flat style. It is as if she is reclaiming tropes from early modernist masters, visual languages that were particularly focused on feminine subjects such as the cubism of Picasso or the surreal biomorphism of Miro.
Rojas’ paintings will form centrepieces in a larger installation that is the entire exhibition, walls of the gallery covered by a patchwork of painted panels akin to a quilt. Some are focused on particular imagery; others are assemblages of colour and pattern. They combine to recall a myriad of references from West Coast modernism, to Latino folk or Native American craft, outsider art and street graffiti.
Ikon’s Tower Room will contain paintings on antique banjos, drawing together Rojas’ musical and literary interests where lyrics describe relationships, sometimes with tenderness, sometimes with pointed humour. Around the time of the exhibition opening there will be a concert in which the artist will perform songs taken from her albums released under the name of her alter-ego Peggy Honeywell.
A publication will accompany the exhibition; a children’s story illustrated with images of new work.
In collaboration with Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco.
I’ll probably try to make a trip up to Birmingham in the next few weeks. This looks like it could be something really special.
Photos courtesy of Clare Rojas and Ikon
The artistic community is continuing to raise money and awareness for the recent earthquakes in Haiti.
ABOVE’s has put up his latest stencil in Cuba. The piece is meant to raise awareness for the continuing struggles of people in Haiti who have been victims of the recent earthquakes.
ABOVE says:
Cuba is less than 90 miles away from Haiti making them very close neighbors. The young and courageous neighbor is embarking to Haiti to help out those who have fallen victim. The recent earthquakes in Haiti has taken over 230,000 innocent lives, wounded 300,000 and made 1,200,000 people homeless.
Please GET INVOLVED and help donate to send aid and resources to the people of Haiti.
Here’s a video of that new painting…
HELP THY NEIGHBOR from ABOVE on Vimeo.
And Agents of Change have put together Au Secour, a group show in London to raise money for Haiti (all the money goes straight to the DEC):
Armsrock has just posted some photos on his blog of his beautiful exhibition Zettelkasten at We Are Related in Copenhagen. The show is open until March 16th, so check it out if you’re in Copenhagen this month or next. Here’s a few of those pics:
Check out more on Armsrock’s blog…
On Thursday night, Lazarides‘ Greek Street and Rathbone Place galleries were both packed for the private view of The Faile/Bast Deluxx Fluxx Arcade at Greek Street and a Faile retrospective at Rathbone Place. The arcade is something you really just have to experience in person, but basically, Faile and Bast have transformed the gallery into a 1980’s style video game arcade, but an arcade in a Faile/Bast world. All the games (officially, “interactive artworks”) are based on art by Bast and/or Faile. It’s crazy.
And if you’re a fan of Faile, their retrospective at Rathbone Place is a great place to see all of your favorite pieces from as far back as 1999:
Photos by S.butterfly
And now for the giveaway… Thanks to The Lazarides Galleries, I’ve got a Faile/Bast tshirt and some stickers to give to one lucky winner.
All you have to do to enter is either comment on this post, or go on twitter and link to this post and put the hashtag “#deluxxfluxx” in your tweet. Do one of these things before noon (GMT) on Monday the 15th, and you’ll be entered in the random draw.
Ian Cox just sent me these exclusive pictures of the Faile/Bast Deluxx Fluxx Arcade which opens tomorrow at Lazarides Gallery Greek Street. It’s going to be crazy. It looks like Faile and Bast have completely transformed the gallery space, it’s going to be an immerse experience into the worlds of Faile and Bast. Hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, I’ll probably be tweeting pics from the opening.
And Ian has some more pics on his flickr
If you’re in New York City this weekend, be prepared to shield your eyes in case you accidentally catch a glimpse of Mr. Brainwash‘s show Icons. Please, somebody who likes his work, please explain to me what you like and what I am missing (no conspiracy theories please). I am so confused! That is all I will say for now on the subject.
On Friday, Pufferella’s solo show will open at Factory Fresh in New York. I didn’t know much about Pufferella’s art, but this video enlightened me a bit:
The London Police are headed to Kentucky. Next month they’ve got a solo show at The BLDG, a gallery that makes some of my favorite screen prints.
The London Police
“The London Police Ride Again”
Opening Reception: Friday March 19, 2010 8-11 PM
Exhibition Dates: March 19, 2010 – April 30, 2010The BLDG Gallery is pleased to announce the opening exhibition of British art collective The London Police (TLP), March 19, 7 pm to 10 pm at 30 West Pike Street Covington, Kentucky. This show is the first of four international exhibitions planned by TLP for 2010 and will present new original works of Cincinnati and Kentucky themed paintings and videography.
Born in Chelmsford, Essex, The London Police founders, Chaz and Bob, moved to Amsterdam in 1998. Recognized for their iconic LADS characters and precision marking, TLP is universally renowned as “pivotal voices in the history of street art.” Their acclaimed works include: murals of titanic proportion, (The largest can be found in Kreuzberg, Berlin a mere 6 story outdoor installation.) coveted original canvases, short films and even shorter music quips of high regard.
TLP generates an ever growing network of loyal fans spanning Europe, Asia, North America and South America. TLP works have graced the walls of the Stolenspace Gallery, London, GO Gallery in Amsterdam, Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art in LA, Fresh Factory in NYC gaining resounding praise and selling out most of their original works. The artists were recently spotted in Miami, South Beach, executing an install in conjunction with the Primary Flight Collaborative.
I’ve had the chance to see a lot of TLP’s art recently, as I was in Miami for Primary Flight (see this video of TLP and Galo) and New York City for their show at Factory Fresh. The more I see, the more I like. The work is friendly, extremely well-executed and usually has clever references to whatever city they are exhibiting in.
Later this month, Eelus will have his first London solo show. You may like the content of Eelus’ paintings, you may not (personally, I’m split, some I like, some I don’t), but you can’t argue with his technique. His stencils are always some of the best cut and best sprayed in street art.
Here’s a sneak peak at one of the Eelus’ new paintings, Firestarter:
