Camille Rose Garcia

It's not secret I love Camille Rose Garcia's incredible apocalyptic work. She has a new show at Merry Karnowsky's new gallery. Divine.

Erik Mark Sandberg

Erik Mark Sanberg is an artist that didn't really "click" for me until just recently. Looking at his latest show of collage/paintings at Jonathan Levine Gallery really amazed and delighted me - I am now a big fan. His work will appeal to those who like the Clayton Brothers and that pop folk type look. Some of the paintings have sly references to/ use of classical paintings (such as a pose of a "character") that is fun to spot as well.

Melissa Forman

I really like these delicate-yet-rich paintings by Melissa Forman, who is part of a group show at Corey Helford Gallery this month. It's hard to pull off the 19th century meets 21st century look but I think Melissa does a very good job of it. I wanted the one on top but was too slow on the draw!

Lovie

I hit up my local "Antique Mall" (ie Crap Cornucopia) every few weeks, I keep hoping one day I'll find something super cool and today I hit a jackpot. This is an original photograph of an exotic dancer from 1964. The text on the card says:
" Lovie - Afro-Cuban Exotic Dancer at The Colony (4th and Virginia) Circa 1964 "
I haven't been able to find anything on Google about the Colony but there are some people savvy to sordid Seattle history I could ask. Anyway- she's beautiful! You probably can't see it in the pic but she's covered in glitter. I wonder if Lovie is still around.

Great Moments in Cool Part 1

Bo Diddley, 1966.



You're welcome.

Alan Aldridge

Feast your eyes on the opulent sumptuousness of Alan Aldrige's illustrations. When I was small I had several of his kid's books ("The Butterfly Ball" and 'The Peacock Party") and I would stare at his paintings for hours and hours. (He also did the artwork for Elton John's "Captain Fantastic" album.) It definitely helped define my artistic sensibilities.
Click to enlarge images!

From The "You're Doing It Wrong" Files...

This turned up in the Roq inbox today:

"Hi there,

My name is [redacted] and I have a proposition for you;
You'll arrange 8 nice big canvasses, a location to paint/work and materials.
If my flight and hotelcosts will be payed (for ten days) plus 1000 dollars cash for food,
drinks, cabfare's and all, I'll make you ten paintings.
To get an impression of my work you can take a look at my website [redacted]

Maybe it would be a nice stunt, doing something different...
For me it would be nice because I love the States and it would be very inspirational...

Let me know if you like the idea,

Sincerely,
[redacted] "

Hi Fructose Vol 8

Hot dang the new Hi Fructose will be out soon. Atta and Annie just posted some preview pages on the Hi Fructose blog. I have three articles in this one, Camille Rose Garcia, Femke Hiemstra, and Victor Castillo.

Ai Shinohara

I just stumbled across Ai Shinohara's site. The site is in Japanese, so I have my trusty gal Noriko on the case to find out more about this artist. But it's lovely work!

Masami Teraoka

Masami Teraoka has an amazing and ambitious new show opening at Samuel Freeman Gallery in LA. I've been aware of his work for a long time, and very interested in it although I admit I haven't ever taken the time to really research it. He usually seems to deal with socio political themes. This one looks like it's all about organized religion. Seeing this new body of work reminded me I want to do a big post soon about the "re-emergence" of the grotesque in art.

Gail Potocki

Gail Potocki is a contemporary painter who's work looks like it's from an older time.
I had a few paintings by her in Roq la Rue's "Venus" show last year, and while it stood out technical-wise (by that I don't mean quality-wise but rather her specific painterly technique) it still fit in amongst the other, pop-ier work. She's one of those exceptional artists who doesn't need a gallery as her work is bought off her studio walls- but I think she'll be at Billy Shire Fine Arts in December.

Commenting on commenters

I just want to do a lil' shout out to the people who comment on this blog- thanks! You guys are so nice and informative and I really appreciate you taking the time and being into the art!
-K

Paintings of Sphinxes

The Sphinx was a popular image for painters working with mythological and allegorical themes in the 19th century. Many painters chose to paint sphinxes as "real", half human chimeras that interacted with the protagonist in the painting, but I prefer sphinxes as enigmatic stone sentinels gazing over moonlit deserts. I find it much more mysterious and romantic.


Luc Oliver Merson "Le Repose En Egypt" 1897


Frantisek Kupka "The Path of Silence" 1900


Salvador Dali (strangely I snagged this image, lost the page with the info- and can't find it again!)


Louis Welden Hawkins "The Sphinx and the Chimera"


Elihu Vedder "Listening To The Sphinx" 1863

Edward Gorey

We all know and love Edward Gorey so I don't need to write too much about him. I mainly just wanted to post the picture below. It is one of my favorite artist portraits ever.

Rebecca Shapiro

I rarely do the First Thursday Death March (aka Art Walk) in Seattle anymore. However- the last time I went I stopped into a thrift shop that was hosting a little art show and I saw Rebecca Shapiro's great embroidery art. I bought this little "Anatomy of a Vulture" that sits on my bookshelf. She has a show at Seattle's Cafe Venus- I recommend checking it out!

Vania Zouravliov

My pal Joe Newton just sent me a link to Vania Zouraliov's online portfolio. I've seen some of this guy's work for a bit but never had a chance to sit and really look at it. It's very beautiful with heavy macabre elements (there is an image that looks like a Joel Peter Witkin image was used partially for reference). Which means of course I love it. Be sure to look through the "tonal drawings" part of the portfolio.
From his bio: "He was something of a child prodigy in his homeland, championed by many influential classical musicians including Ashkenazi, Spivakov and Menuhin. He even had television programmes made about him and was introduced to famous communist artists, godfathers of social realism, who told him that his work was from the Devil. By the age of 13, he was exhibiting internationally, visited Canterbury several times as well as Paris, Colmar and Berlin..."

Lame

I walked up to the gallery yesterday to be greeted by this:


I don't know if you can see that too well but my entire right front window is scratched to hell by some tagger. Pretty awesome, huh?

Chris Berens

Yesterday after a crappy morning I got treat in the mail, a gallery in Amsterdam sent me a book about one of their artists, Chris Berens. It never ceases to amaze me how many astonishing artists are out there. I am totally in love with Chris' work. What's interesting about it is that it looks digital but is completely hand painted. Slightly eerie, unfathomably beautiful. I'm going to write an article about him for Hi Fructose, his story is quite interesting.


Astute viewers will notice this is a play on "The Young Martyr" which I posted an image of in the "Ophelia" post below....it is called a Midnite Voyage and is now in my top 5 desert island paintings list.

by Paul Delaroche

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to San Francisco to go to Maker Faire, meet up with Annie and Attaboy of Hi Fructose, and see my pals David and Kelly's kid. We stayed at the Hotel des Arts which I'm going to talk about in an upcoming post. Today I have to handle the new shows waiting list and uninstall the old show and put the new one up! So I am feeling our pal Napoleon's exhaustion up there.

What is UP with art theft?

There has been a rash of art thefts lately. My pal Jason D'Aquino has a piece stolen from an exhibition at Cpop Gallery. Here is the notice. It's kind of funny.


(image yoinked from Rue Morgue Abattoir)