Shepard Fairey took a break from the turntables to hang with Weezer’s Brian Bell, while beauty echoed beauty elsewhere in the gallery…

SHEPARD FAIREY’s Echo Park hotspot, SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS played host to the opening of a show of new works by comrades-in-arms ANDREAS GUERRERO and ALBERT REYES on Saturday nite, proving to be the undisputed bright spot of an otherwise gloomy weekend in the Southland. Showcasing his typical demented teenage Hessian detention room drawing style, Reyes produced an unfailingly funny array of new offerings and prints featuring subjects as diverse as Obama, Ghandi, Woody Allen, and Iron Maiden muse Eddie. Guerrero, conversely, consturcted much of his skull-centric imagery from layers of collaged currency which appeared to be angular homages to Damien Hirst’s Calavera spin paintings. Above all, the show proved that Subliminal’s dedication to presenting good emerging art at great prices will make it one of the last galleries standing when this bleak economic crisis finally runs its long, dark, demonic course. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Our friends at SOUR HARVEST have provided this weekend’s lineup of must-see shows in the Southland:

Sat, Feb. 6th 8-11PM
Merry Karnowsky Gallery
170 South La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles / 323.933.4408
‘She Wolves’ featuring new works from Miss Van + ‘Strange Fruit’ featuring new works from Victor Castillo
(On view through March 6th)
www.mkgallery.com

Sat, Feb. 6th 8-11PM
Subliminal Projects
1331 W. Sunset Blvd in the EchoPark region of Los Angeles
New works from Albert Reyes & Andres Guerrero at Shepard Fairey’s personal gallery
(On view through March 6th)
www.subliminalprojects.com

Sat, Feb. 6th 6-10PM
Copro Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave, Space T5 in Bergamot Station in Santa Monica
Closing reception for ‘Desensitized’ featuring new works from Brian Viveros and Dan Quintana with a live performance from The Billy Bones
www.coprogallery.com

Sat, Feb. 6th 7-11PM (with a special Zombie walk at 6:20PM)
Gallery Nucleus
210 E. Main St., Alhambra / 626.458.7482
‘Zombies In Love’ group show featuring works from Yoko d’Holbachie, Junko Mizuno, Jonathan Wayshak, Scott C., Mindy Lee, Kevin Dart, Ippei Gyoubu, Edith Abeyata, Anna Chambers, and many more + tons of Zombie goodness going off throughout the evening including a Zombie walk near the gallery before the event kicks off, signings, contests, and more – check their site for full details and lineup
(On view through Feb. 22nd)
www.gallerynucleus.com

Sat, Feb. 6th 8PM-12:30AM ($8 at the door)
Hive Gallery
729 S. Spring St in downtown Los Angeles
Monthly group show with featured artists Eric Vasquez, Michael Pukac, Andrea Shear, Jessica Ward and Mikolaj Wyszynski with performances from live acts and resident DJs and more
www.thehivegallery.com

ST buddy SHEPARD FAIREY has teamed up with his STUDIO NUMBER ONE (creaters of the “Hope For Haiti” CD cover) designers CLEON PETERSON and CASEY RYDER to create a new poster for HAITI relief based on a photo by TAO RUSPOLI. The $50 signed and numbered edition goes on sale at an unannounced time on Friday, February 5th at Obeygiant.com, with all proceeds from the sales going to ARTISTS FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE:

“Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ), established in early 2009, is a fundraising effort founded by Paul Haggis and friends that encourages peace and social justice and addresses issues of poverty and enfranchisement in communities around the world. Over the past year, APJ has directed its efforts to raising enough funds to fully sponsor three schools in Haiti in support of the initiatives of Father Rick Frechette and his team. These schools aren’t just a place to learn but provide for a hot meal, clean water and a chance at the future to children who desperately need it. Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, APJ has focused its efforts on raising much needed dollars for emergency aid in the ravaged country that is only a few hours from our shores.”

We recently paid sincere homage to our dearly departed amigo SHAWN MORTENSEN in the pages of ST, and Hollywood institution UNDFTD has just unveiled a fitting tribute in the Hollywood skyline with this image of Shawn on one of his many trips to Africa. Rest in peace homie. You are gone, but not forgotten…

Photo by Jupiter

It is truly with a heavy heart that we must break the news that one of Supertouch’s dear friends, photographer SHAWN MORTENSEN, passed away last nite. A kinetic force of optimism and seemingly limitless positive energy, Shawn’s hearty career as a photojournalist and artist took him around the world several times over, unselfishly spreading his endless supply of good vibes as he went. Particularly renowned for his portraits of musicians, artists, and entertainers, Shawn photographed a stunning array of pop culture demigods in his 20+ year career including Keith Haring, Tupac, Henry Rollins, James Brown, The Notorious BIG, Bjork, Jun Takahashi, Leo Fitzpatrick, Christopher Wool, Mark Gonzales, Ed Ruscha, Vivienne Westwood, The Bad Brains, Dash Snow, Grandmaster Flash, Neil Young, MIA, John Lee Hooker, Nigo, Sofia Coppola, Agnes B., Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys, Keith Richards, Chloe Sevigny, The Foo Fighters, Everlast, Kraftwerk, Wu Tang Clan, and The Sex Pistols, to name but a few. Shawn was also a successful commercial photographer who worked with clients like SUPREME and NIKE, and publications like VIBE, and I-D Magazine, where his streetwise eye was a highly prized commodity. Within the artistic community of his homeland of Los Angeles, Mortensen was a local legend whose constant presence at weekly art openings was a staple of the scene, his favorite Polaroid camera always in hand. At the time of his death, 43-year-old Mortensen was working on a series of new artwork titled “M.O.R.= Monsters!, Outlaws, & Renegades” set to debut at SPACE15TWENTY in Los Angeles in June of this year, and a collaborative photo-based T-Shirt line with Hollywood fashion brand BARRACUDA. Our hearts go out to Shawn’s family during this difficult time. Needless to say, Shawn may be gone, but he will not be forgotten. For newcomers to Shawn’s work, his excellent book, “Out of Mind” is a must-have reference. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Beijing-born and Queens, NY-based Chinese artist YI CHEN is a rising force in the world of modern figurative painting. His newest show “Beaut-Esque” that opened its doors at Culver City hotspot HONOR FRASER GALLERY this Saturday nite was full of gorgeous, color-dense examples of his playful and expert signature style full of playful references the modern masters (Picasso and Hockney spring immediately to mind), and loads of painting chops to spare. The artist uses culturally mediated images from advertisements and fashion magazines as inspiration for his work and sees his paintings and collages as metaphors for hybrid, mutated concepts of beauty borne from a global popular culture. This concept of hybridization and mutation formulate a tense balance in his work, combining enticing beauty and repelling grotesqueries that result in magnetic paintings. Chen begins his creative process by assembling collages of human (and sometimes mammalian) facial features cut out from popular fashion magazines. These collages of perfect/imperfect specimens are the foundation of his work. Like an artistic scientist, he disregards race, gender and age and selects individual characteristics and reconstructs them to form a new human species. These collages then become the figurative models for his lushly rendered oil paintings. All art-crawling denizens of the Southland should consider this essential viewing. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

LA might not be ground zero for the next visual renaissance (at least not from how things are looking as of late), but it is home to some solid decorative art. Enter SYLIVA JI who’s been painting for some time now in a fun style that might be best described as Nagel Vs. Gustav Klimt on Dia De los Muertos. Her solid new solo exhibition “Haute Eopch” at Culver City’s COREY HELFORD GALLERY featuring Ji’s usual array of painted doomsday femme fatales opened to a packed house on Saturday nite where the looks made it worth the drive and the ratio of lovely ladies to men was advantageously high. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »