art shows & news

It’s easy for artists to be really sketched out about sending around 300dpi images of their works, because 300dpi is print quality; anyone who gets their hands on a 300dpi image can print a copy of an artist’s work.

Luckily for art lovers, Christopher Davison is not too concerned with this issue. In fact, he welcomes it. As of yesterday, he made this particular piece from his Disasters Are People Too series. Check it:

Sculpture Garden (Study Alone) — DOWNLOAD HERE

And here is an older piece:

Christ’s Descent Into Hell — DOWNLOAD HERE

Davison has 18 new pieces available on his website as well, if you’re down to take a look!

Last year, I stumbled across Gabriel Mark’s work in a Portland art gallery and was extremely shocked that he was in the back of the gallery, working on a piece for all to see. Furthermore, despite the fact that his price point is probably higher than the average REDEFINE reader is used to, Mark is a genuinely nice guy; he was more than ready to field questions and more than gracious to answer them.

What stuck out in my head instantly is that Mark has traveled the world gathering arts training, whether it be in the form of a more formal education or simply living and learning. And with his diverse variations on oil paintings, he seems to be absolutely at home in the medium. Below are just some of Mark’s works, and I suggest you visit his website to see much more.

Dionysus And Ariadine from his Urban Legend series.

Balance Of Power from his National Cowboy series (giclee print available).

Suzy And Badda from his Cookietown series.

Mark also teaches painting workshops in Oregon certain parts of the year, and his work is currently on display in Jacksonville, Oregon, Ashland, Oregon, and Nashville, Tennessee. See his website for details.

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

Just stumbled across this really awesome zine. Printed in black and white and accented by one color, it’s a zine that features illustrations from low-key artists centered around a central term. For the limited edition zine above, artists created pieces around the sentence, “Don’t worry about the smiles; they’re normal.” Click here to purchase a copy or here to view the spreads on Flickr! Awesome!

testeverythingzine.wordpress.com/store/
www.flickr.com/photos/testeverything

Imagekind has just written up a blog post featuring 31 pieces from their various members who do photo manipulation. Most are great, a couple are not so great, and way too many seem to play off René Magritte.. and umbrellas! Why so many umbrellas?

Above, a piece by Vanessa Ho, which is available for purchase here. It would certainly be interesting to set this piece upon a textured floral background such as the one in the piece itself, wouldn’t it? I can’t say I feel much other than annoyance for her artist statement on the subject, though, but maybe it’ll speak to you.

“Me looking at me. Me on the wall, me in the fiery red room, me out in the cool blue room. Which is real? All is real, none is real. Imagination. That is real.”

www.imagekind.com

Ben Zhu has done it again.
The director of Gallery Nucleus has managed to muster yet another sick puppy of a show, but this time a serious panty buster. Tomorrow, Nucleus will be exhibiting the tricks of four ingenious Pixar artists [Don Shank, Lou Romano, Nate Wragg, and Scott Morse], prepared to drop somadat ancient knowhow on your virgin asses with their latest book, The Ancient Book of Sex and Science. I’m positive the show is going to be sensational, considering all four artists are going to be there in the flesh, representing “original artwork straight from the book’s pages.”

I’m sorry, excuse me?
You don’t know who Shank, Romano, Wragg, and Morse are?

Well, fxck.
You do if you’ve seen Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Wall-E,  Ren and Stimpy, Dexter’s Laboratory, or The goddamn Powerpuff Girls. So hustle on over. If anyone knows what science, sex, and the science of sex are, it’s definitely these guys.

www.gallerynucleus.com
www.donshank.blogspot.com
www.louromano.blogspot.com
www.n8wragg.blogspot.com
www.scottmorse.blogspot.com

For a measly $60, you can now buy a limited edition Blaine Fontana “Fernwood Keeper” print. Limited to 250 copies, this signed and numbered giclee print is a fashionable square size of 24″ x 24″. It’s size, striking colors, and dramatic composition make it a perfect piece to make an impact on any wall.

Go to his store — http://www.blainefontana.com/storefront.html — ALL DAY today and get 20% off all prints, with the exception of a couple of pieces. It’s a good deal.

www.blainefontana.com
www.blainefontana.com/storefront.html

I can scarcely think of a better pairing of artists than the current show at the San Francisco branch of Gallery 1988, which features gig poster artist Daniel Danger and Daniel McCarthy. Both artist create pieces with heavy nature elements, stark color contrasts, and grandiose underlying messages that truly, truly appeal to the heartstrings of individuals who can understand slightly poetic sentiments. A truly amazing show, and I look forward to scoping it out 100% when I’m in the Bay Area the last day of the show, April 25th.

Daniel Danger’s we were waiting at the seams, bursting but through quiet means.

Dan McCarthy’s while you were sleeping.

www.nineteeneightyeight.com
1988watcher.blogspot.com

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

Sold by Seattle’s Flatcolor, this rainy day beauty by Ego is set on a blue background and limited to 25 copies.

www.ego-art-blogspot.com
www.flatcolor.com