With the proliferation of text-messaging and chat conversations and all sorts of data! being! transmitted! at! amazing!! speeds!!! throughout the world at any given SECOND, and in all sorts of RiDiCuLuZ FoRmZ, it seems only appropriate to base one show… or maybe even tons of shows… off of this theme. Which leads me to this post.

James Harris Gallery in Seattle currently has a group exhibition going on entitled TXT. Graphics and text converge to create two- and three- dimensional works that can be interpreted on multiple levels by viewers. This show runs through August 20th. Here are some of the pieces:

Lawrence Lemaoana’s Things Fall Apart, 2009
Textile (49″ x 32″)

Walter Robinson’s Forest, 2008
MDF, Epoxy, metalflake (84″ x 62″ x 1″)

Anthony Discenza’s EVERYTHING YOU’VE HEARD, 2009
Vinyl on aluminum, Ed. of 5 (24″ x 18″)

Alejandro Cesarco’s Footnote #7, 2008
Vinyl text on wall, Ed. of 5

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On a similar note, Portland’s Recess Gallery has an open call to artists who are working with text. Call is as follows:

Work that recontextualizes the text. Work that informs, invites, or inquires. Work that sends, receives, documents messages/ideas. Work that does work. Work you made. Work that you and someone else made. Work that you want to make with people. Work that is technically proficient? Sure. Work about ideas about ideas about ideas. Work in Helvetica. Work in Garamond. Work in video. Works on paper.

Do you have something that seems to fit? Does it coincide with at least three of the above statements? That’s okay, even if it doesn’t, you should send it to

recesspdx@gmail.com by the end of July for a show opening in the middle of August.

Please include your proposal/project description/artist statement along with some contact informtion, artist bio, or link to a relevant/personal website.
Suggested Additions:
Images of proposed work
Images of recent work
Your phone number

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to recesspdx@gmail.com.

What happens when you mix two familiar faces together? The result can be scary, we’ve learned, from those image-generating programs that mash two adults together to create warped, inbred-looking potential children. But somehow illustrator Jesse Lenz has mixed Andy Warhol’s iconic image of Marilyn Monroe with creatures like Frankenstein and dictators like Chairman Mao to create strangely visually-appealing hybrids. I mean, maybe it’s just me, but even Predator mixed with Marilyn Monroe is pretty freaking cute. It’s no coincidence that a lot of dictators seem to show up in the works alongside monsters, though. Lenz’s artist statement on the subject includes a C.S. Lewis quote and a George Orwell 1984 reference. And that’s just the beginning. Visit his Flickr to see the entire collection, which is screenshotted below, and to read his artist statement on the series.

In addition to the screenshot, of course, I must include Predator-meets-Marilyn. I was serious. I’m in love.

As if Portland didn’t already have a big enough reputation for being a beard-friendly city, The Tribute Gallery has a new show, titled Keep Portland Beard, opening tonight. But don’t worry: the opening itself isn’t until April 24th! If you’re not sure whether you want to turn out for the event, hopefully the images below will convince you.

The Renaissance Man by Rachel Caldwell.

Quickly by Chad Eaton.

Beard Hat by Kyle Durrie.

Your Great-Grandfather Would Be Proud by BT Livermore for his own company. Awesome!

Portland Hipster Bigfoot by Santiago Uceda (that’s kind of a beard, right?).

These are just a few of the artists showing. There’s more! A bunch more! (This is strangely a very blue post. I don’t think the show will be a very blue show.)

Guest-curated by Michael Buchino of BeardRevue. RSVP here.

Bubblegum colors like baby pink and baby blue?
Check.

Images of torture, death, and sadism?
Check.

Leave it to Los Angeles artist Kill Pixie, or Mark Whalen (formerly of Sydney, Australia) to put hooded madmen in settings rife with geometric shapes and patterns. Pieces like Group Sessions (left) and Ill Do Anything (right) might seem nearly like vector art created for posters, but in actuality, are the result of a technique that blends acrylic, ink, and gouache on paper that’s then pasted onto wood panels and coated with resin. The resulting pieces seem to have a sense of smoothness and vividness that make them nearly print-like. His 2009 pieces are a step towards simplicity from his dizzying 2008 pieces, but they remain just as interesting.

www.killpixie.net

On a recent trip to Peru, I was keeping my eyes peeled for contemporary Peruvian art, and was lucky enough to stumble across Mullu, a boutique and art gallery in the towns of Cusco and Pisac. One particular artist, Eugenia Werner Muñoz, had some work showing at two of the Pisac shops and, I later found out, also designs most of the clothing found at the shop. Her newest series of works, pictured above, blend contemporary pop art with traditional Peruvian elements, including the local currency and women wearing traditional native dress. In a place like Peru, where traditional art and elaborate textiles seem to hold precedence over contemporary art, coming across the work of Muñoz and of Mullu was an exciting treat.

If you’re ever in Peru, they have two locations in Pisac and one in Cusco, and the Plaza De Armas branch in Pisac offers some very tasty food.

www.mullu.com.pe

On rare occasions, a gallery does such amazing things with its space that you kind of want to poop yourself with excitement. Gallery 1988, which has one branch in Los Angeles and one branch in San Francisco, makes me want to just that with their latest exhibits. They are doing such exciting things with their space that I kind of wish I was in California to be able to attend their openings more often. While tomorrow’s show will be about the current show at their SF location, this post will be about their current exhibit on display at the LA location, entitled Idiot Box. Prepare to be absolutely astounded by what these artists have managed to turn memories of your favorite childhood television stars into. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Jem, Alf, Gumby, Ren & Stimpy, Urkel, and many, many more individuals are paid homage to, artistically, offensively, and ridiculously. Honestly, though, this group show is so amazing that this blog post CANNOT even come close to doing the show justice, so please rush over to the gallery’s blog about this show or to their website. Seriously.

Fan favorite Alex Pardee flexes his horror-art muscles yet again by turning Urkel from “Family Matters” into an infected (playful) beast in S.Urkel Jerk.

If all of the mishaps, misunderstandings, and formations of social circles from “Saved By The Bell” were present in this day and age, the playful high school television show might look a little something more like this bloody video game pixel mess. Raw as the idea for this piece is, Jude Buffum has managed to genius take on a classic television show.

Valued at $2,500, there’s a damn good reason this piece by Ewelina Ferruso has been sold. Waa, The Trash Heap Has Spoken is an oil on canvas exercise in patience. Brilliantly colored and masterfully textured, the piece is equally playful as it is technical, making it a solid tribute to “Fraggle Rock.”

“Schoolhouse Rock” has been parodied in many a television show, but it’s hasn’t been quite so present in the art world. Interplanet Janet Leaves The Boys Behind by Patrick Gannon features colored, cut paper marvelously arranged on wood.

Part of me thinks that Nickelodeon wouldn’t be too pleased at these plushies of Ren and Stimpy, but these 12″ tall plushies by Jen Rarey are just precious.

Believe it or not, there are 99 Seinfeld references in this piece by Kiersten Essenpreis. Ridiculous. The piece sold out quickly, as one might imagine, but prints will be available through Gallery 1988 soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

Although the real MacGuyver would have been equipped with some items more useless than duct tape and a Swiss army knife (such as a clothes hanger and some chewing gum), Wade Schin’s one-of-a-kind acrylic MacGuyver is a terrific creation. Kudos.

Lolcats meet Alf? Casey Weldon’s We Can Has A.L.F.? is horrific and awesome at the same time.

The sheer number of amazing pieces in Idiot Box is amazing and this post could honestly be three or four times longer, but I will close it out with Another Battle For My Affection by Roland Tamayo, which references Gumby, The Twilight Zone, Ninja Turtles, and many other lovable television shows.

Again, though, head over to Gallery 1988 now if you’re in the Los Angeles, or at the very least, scope out their blog and be prepared to be extremely amused by this remarkable group show, which is on view now until April 23rd and features one freaking hundred artists!!! (Although I’m sorry, for your sake, that you’ve probably by now missed the art opening, which was hosted by Dennis “Mr. Belding” Haskins, formerly of “Saved By The Bell”.)

www.nineteeneightyeight.com
idiotbox88.blogspot.com

Every once in a while, I get really excited about a new artist, and Dennis Zimmermann is one who has definitely sparked my interest as of late. Despite the fact that he’s been holed up on the generally fine art, mom and pop-friendly art Whidbey Island for the past three years, it’s about time to get Zimmermann’s work to the larger cities. He doesn’t seem to have one style, but does have the unique ability to do it all, from graphic design and hand-drawn works to computer rendered, multi-layered beauties. Ultra Libre VII, shown above, features inkjet projections onto vellum paper, which can be a frustrating task for those of us who have ever worked with vellum. But what’s even more interesting is Zimmermann’s ability to crank computer-created works out into formats that can be accentuated by or even mistaken for a more hands-on approach.

Below is one of his newer pieces, on display now at the goforaloop Gallery in San Francisco.

zimmermannstudio.blogspot.com
www.goforaloop.com

The Suite 100 Gallery, now has work of Jason Limón in their Uniform group show (which unfortunately ends in two days — sorry! At least their doors stay open until 10:00pm this Friday, though!). San Antonio’s Jason Limón is an illustrator whose work has been seen in publications like Communication Arts, American Illustration, Print Regional Design, and Graphis. What’s special about this particular piece, Generate.5, is not the acrylic paints he uses, but the custom canvas panels he paints on, which give his paintings the illusion of being, in this case, almost wood carved and definitely three-dimensional.

www.suite100gallery.com
www.limon-art.com