Curiot’s piece for La Familia at Thinkspace Gallery. Photo courtesy of Thinkspace Gallery.
This week folks in LA and NYC have reason to celebrate with two historic shows opening in those cities.
On the West Coast, Thinkspace Gallery has their La Familia 10th anniversary group show, which will be historic in the sense of looking back over the first decade of a great gallery. Thinkspace is one of my favorite West Coast galleries, so it’s exciting to see them celebrating 10 years. For La Familia, Thinkspace are reuniting with the myriad of artists they’ve shown and supported over the last decade for a group exhibition of over 120 small wood panels from as many artists (panels provided by Trekell). I’m not usually one for overloaded group shows, but this is one that I can get excited about. La Familia opens on Saturday, January 10th. Learn more here.
Selfie: Feng-shui 1 by KATSU. Photo courtesy of The Hole.
And on the East Coast, NYC’s The Hole is holding Remember the Future, a KATSU solo show. Of course, this show has the potential to be historic for being KATSU’s first solo show. It’s no secret that I’m not usually fan of The Hole’s program, but this is an important exception. KATSU is one of the most mysterious, groundbreaking, and potentially influential graffiti writers to come to prominence in the 21st century. He’s a member of BTM and F.A.T. Lab, and he’s produced innovations in traditional graffiti as well as net art/digital pranksterism. The few pieces of KATSU’s gallery work that I’ve seen have ranged from absolutely awesome (see above) to hokey. Although the press release offers some ideas, I’m still not totally sure what to expect from KATSU’s first solo show, but I’m optimistic that it will be pretty damn impressive and I’m sure it will be something to remember. Remember the Future opens at The Hole on Thursday, January 8th.
Photos courtesy of Thinkspace Gallery and The Hole
LA’s Thinkspace Gallery was just in Philadelphia guest-curating a show at Gallery 309. Looks like the opening was absolutely packed, and with good reason. The show, LAX/PHL, includes installation from NoseGo and work by La Pandilla, Pixelpancho and many more. It’s open now through June 21st. I can’t wait to stop by myself as soon as I finish my exams.
LA’s Thinkspace Gallery is coming to my city of Philadelphia soon for a show they’ve curated at Philadelphia’s Gallery 309. LAX / PHL will include work from dozens of artists including Dabs Myla, Gaia, Ghostpatrol, La Pandilla, and Pixel Pancho, but the highlight is likely to be an installation by NoseGo. Thinkspace Gallery is suggesting that this show includes artists from the “New Contemporary Art Movement.” I call it that movement “The artists that Juxtapoz might cover,” but whatever. The point is, there’s gonna be a lot of really impressive artwork at this show.
LAX / PHL opens on Saturday, May 11th from 6-10pm, and runs through June 21st. There will be a second opening reception on June 7th from 6-10pm to coincide with Philadelphia’s First Friday art events.
There are a bunch of shows open now or opening in the next month that I’d like to mention, but there are only so many hours in the day. So here’s a bit of a round-up:
Détournement: Signs of the Times is a group show that just opened at Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. It was curated by the legendary Carlo McCormick and features artists who “subvert consensus visual language so as to turn the expressions of capitalist culture against themselves.” Some of those artists in Détournement are Aiko, David Wojnarowicz, Ripo, Posterboy, Ron English, Shepard Fairey + Jamie Reid, Steve Powers, TrustoCorp and Zevs.
Chris Stain and Joe Iurato are showing together for a two-man show at NYC’s Mighty Tanaka. The show opens on Friday. These are two great and underrated stencil artists. I highly recommend checking out this show, particularly given the superb quality of Stain’s recent indoor work.
Sweet Toof has a solo show opening this week at High Roller Society a pop-up space in Hackney Wick, London.
Contemporary Wing’s (Washington, DC) latest group show, opening on the 16th, is an exhibit of secondary market work, but there should some nice stuff, including work by Shepard Fairey, WK Interact, Gaia, Faile and Blek le Rat. I must admit that I’ve included a piece in this show, but I’m not going to say which one (so if you want to help me out, just buy the entire show…).
Nina Pandolfo has a show coming up this week at Lazarides’ Rathbone Place location. Despite Nina’s talent, it’s unfortunately difficult to shake the knowledge that she is married to Otavio Pandolfo of Os Gemeos and make comparisons to Os Gemeos’ work.
Street Art Is Dead used to be a blog that mostly complained about the bullshit involved in street art. Now there’s a newish blog with that name that indiscriminately posts photos of street art despite quality.
Animal New York’s analysis of JR’s latest mural in New York seems pretty spot on… “Let’s agree that it is not an vicious affront to the eyes, but it’s not ‘absolutely genius’ either.”
Banksy updated his website. A couple of really nice new pieces, both indoors and outdoors.
The Duke Spirit used Kid Acne’s Stabby Women film series footage and used a version reedited by Dscreet (who also directed Stabby Women initially) for their latest music.
I love the idea behind The New Blood, a show that Morgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me) has curated at Thinkspace Gallery: He asked established artists to each select one up-and-coming artist whose work they want highlight, with both artists having work in the show. Here’s what Spurlock has to say about the show:
I’m a massive art collector who, by way of my habit formed a relationship with Thinkspace’s Andrew Hosner, and when he offered me the opportunity to curate a show I jumped at the chance. The concept of the show is how the torch is passed from one artist to the next. One opens the door so another can follow. And this show is all about artists who I think have and are continuing to impact and change the art world, and each one of these artists is bringing along an ‘apprentice’ or ‘protege’ who they think we all need to know about, the artists they believe are the ‘New Blood’ of the art world.
The line-up looks really exciting…
Camille Rose Garcia / Travis Lampe
The Date Farmers / Albert Reyes
Dzine / Jesus Bubu Negron
Elizabeth McGrath / Morgan Slade
Gary Baseman / Jesse Dickenson
Gary Taxali / Adrian Forrow
Jonathan Yeo / Charlie Gouldsborough
Mark Jenkins / Sandra Fernandez
Nicola Verlato / Marco Mazzoni
Ron English / Kid Zoom
Saber / ZES
Shepard Fairey / Nicholas Bowers
Tim Biskup / Patrick Hruby
The New Blood opens at Thinkspace Gallery on April 28th and runs through May 19th.
Brooklyn Street Art and Thinkspace Art Gallery have put together a huge group show called Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories. It opens next Friday, August 12th at C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice, CA (not Thinkspace). The 40+ artists (39 names, but some are duos) come from around the world, but mainly New York. There’s a great range of artists from up-and-coming guys like Radical! to legends like Futura.
