Friday, February 29, 2008

New Hi Fructose



The new Hi Fructose is due out any day, and it's looking good! I wrote articles about Xiaoqing Ding and Naoto Hattori.
I'm really proud of Hi Fructose and being a part of it. Because I'm crazy I have two other projects in the works, hopefully at least one will come to fruition. If something happens I'll post about it because it's art related of course. I like to have multiple irons in the fire at all times.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Death is the Maiden



Sylvia Ji has a great new show at Corey Helford, all the paintings have a Catrina theme. I couldn't swipe a pic of their site so the one above is an older piece I believe. My folks just moved to Mexico and when I was there I picked up this Catrina, she's pretty fantastic.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Things of Beauty



No, that is not some crazy abstract painting above, it's a photograph of a glow worm cave! You can see more wonderful pictures here...
via Neatorama

Below is a photograph by Olaf Otto Becker...it has a painting like quality as well. It reminds me a little of of Bocklin's "Isle Of The Dead", in its grandeur and aloof mystery.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Lori Earley



Lori Earley has a new show opening this weekend at Jonathan Levine Gallery. Mostly drawings with a couple of paintings, the show is very blonde on blonde....

Lisa Black


"Fixed Duckling" by Lisa Black

My Dad just sent this over- the steampunk-ian taxidermy of Lisa Black. I have to say I have very mixed feelings about taxidermy art. On one hand- I feel a corpse is a corpse, an empty shell, and to make stuff from it is not a bad thing at all. There is a society of "rogue taxidermists" that make fantastical beings from roadkill (and probably other unsavory sources such as previously euthanized shelter animals, dead zoo animals, lab specimens, ect), and I have to hand it to them. There is a preciousness and squeamishness about death that is not healthy for society, and for this group to not only have a laugh about it, but also create some very interesting things from it is fascinating to me.
I also have zero problem with the work of Gunther Von Hagens, who makes art (dressed up as science, but in reality it's pretty freaked out, crazy stuff) from donated cadavers.

On the other hand, I once watched a Joel Peter Witkin documentary where he was searching for props for one of his baroque grotesque photographs. He uses everything from bits of cadavers to people with birth defects or missing limbs as characters in his work, something I found interesting, usually.
However, in the documentary he went into a bird store (I think this was at a market in Mexico if memory serves), picked out a bird, and asked to have it killed so he could just have the wings. My stomach completely flopped over. WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong. What a head spinning nightmare, to kill a living creature so you can make "art". Not only that- he asked so cavalierly that it compounded the horror of it for me.

Now- if he had asked for the bird to be killed so he could make a stew, somehow that would seem different, right? Art is not the same as food. Or is it? Is it food of a different kind? The bird doesn't care if it's art or in a stewpot, (it'd rather not be in either place I'm sure)...so why should I care so much? I guess I feel that art serves as a reminder man can transcend higher than base instinct, that art serves as a foil against the fact we must kill to eat, that there is a transcendent quality to life that rises above the fact we have to behave as murderous thugs to survive. (I'm a vegetarian, but I hold no illusions to the fact my survival depends on millions of teeny deaths in the production of what I eat and how I live.)

I feel I have to explore this question because of my intense reaction, but I'll tell you...frankly to purposely kill an animal to make art is total bullshit to me.
What do you think?


A tamer Joel Peter Witkin image, but I love this one...


A piece from Von Hagen's "Body World" exhibit

Monday, February 18, 2008

Interview

The lovely Meighan of My Love For You just interviewed me for her blog...thanks Meighan!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Victoria Reynolds



I was just reminded of the "meat" paintings of Victoria Reynolds. They are quite something, disturbing and beautiful at the same time. I would not mind having one of these.

Mark Dean Veca



Artist Mark Dean Veca has a beautiful new show up at Milieu Gallery. This is probably my favorite series of his that I've seen. I met him in December in Miami and he was a super nice guy.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Nick Brandt



I am in love with Nick Brandt's amazing wildlife photographs. Here is an amazing selection of his work...

Maya Kulenovic


Click to enlarge!

A collector just turned me on to the work of Maya Kulenovic- wow! She has four different series of paintings on her site, faces, still life, buildings, and landscapes and they are all very, very different and very, very amazing. Bleak, in a beautiful way.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Ana Bagayan



Ana Bagayan has a show at Billy Shire coming up. Her work has a cartoon quality, but with a nice crispness to it. I love the serenity of the painting above.

"Cabinet..." Opening Night



The "Cabinet of Natural Curiosities" show at the Roq opened last Friday and it was really fun. Packed all night, people seemed to love it. Here's some snaps...


Yumiko Kayukawa dropped by to say hi to Chris Ryniak

Brian Despain poses with the hippest cat in Seattle, artist Maurice Caldwell

John Brophy with his painting "The Blue Baku"

Lisa Petrucci with her painting and a lil' bat by Chet Zar

Chris Ryniak and Robert Hardgrave spent the evening looking for "blog content".

Kamala Dolphin Kingsley's dog Otis stole the show

Jim Woodring poses with his painting and the gadget that lets him see into other dimensions.

Artist Laura Plansker gets the vapors with her piece "Vapeurs de Rongeurs"


Artist Jennifer Zwick stopped by to say hi, I blogged her recently but did not know her. Now I do! Blogging is good for you.

Collector Grady West (aka Dina Martina!) dug Christian Vanminnen's painting so much he actually let me take a picture of him.

Brian Despain poses 4th grade style with his painting "The Accidental Usurper"


Uber-collectors Jo David and Marlow Harris came and saw the sights...

Beasts



Jacob Covey, who put out the great "Beasts" book, is working on volume 2 and it's looking good! You can check out the progress on his blog, where I snagged this great image by Femke Hiemstra...

Friday, February 8, 2008

Audrey Kawasaki



Audrey Kawasaki has a breathtakingly beautiful new show at Copro Nason. More of the same of her slightly sinister, enigmatic girls, but so incredibly well done.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Gaston Bussiere



I love these paintings by Gaston Bussiere (1862-1929). I like that he painted "exotic dancers"...they have a romantic, mythological look about them, but also a strangeness to their faces that makes them very compelling.



Miss Derringer/ Liz McGrath



A few nights ago several of my cohorts went with me to go see Liz McGrath's awesome band Miss Derringer, who I can best describe as goth-western-murder-ballad-a-go-go. You can see a few pics of the insane cuteness that is Liz here.

Thanks Jo David and Marlow Harris for the pix!

Bratsa Bonifacho



Tonight Kenny went to the Art walk while I stayed at the gallery finishing up for tomorrow's opening. He called me all excited about Bratsa Bonifacho, who he met at Foster White Gallery for Bonifacho's opening. It was so cool to hear Kenny SO excited about art he'd seen...we both collect art but he was over the moon about Bonifacho's work (the dog paintings from the 80's) and of course made instant friends with him. (Kenny confessed to me that when he was talking to the artist he got so excited he accidentally gleeked on him. THAT'S appreciation!) Maybe I'll meet him tomorrow at the opening at the Roq.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Skelywags


I love this super cute "graffiti" from some dude named Chewie...loads of fun pics here...
via Neatorama

Monday, February 4, 2008

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

Here is a link to Roq la Rue's new show....

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Gary Monroe



Gary Monroe draws huge charcoal drawings depicting snake handling. They are quite amazing. These are older works but pretty awesome so I thought I'd post them.

Dave Burke



Look at that little rascal. Dave Burke is true to his love of monsters and I can definitely appreciate that. Valentine's Day is pretty horrific so I think this sums things up nicely.