By the blind architect

John Wentz is a teacher at the Academy of Art in San Francisco with a perspective that all teachers would do well to adopt.  As an artist he pushes the envelope, challenging the manner in which we, as a culture, view heroes, the idea of archetypes and the effect on future generations of depriving them adequate heroes and stories.  His interview blew my mind.  Read it.

Introduce yourself, what is your favorite, sandwich, have you ever died your hair, are you right or left handed?  You know, the usual…

Howdy. I’m a native Californian born and raised in the Bay Area. Don’t know about a favorite sandwich, but I sure do like Mr. Pickles sandwich shop and it’s close to my studio. I’ve dyed my hair every color imaginable and I used to have dreadlocks down to my ass. Right handed because left handed is of the devil. I’ve been doing art most my life. I actually used to work in the art department for Tower Records back before the digital print explosion. My job was to reproduce record covers on a large scale.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW AT EMPTY KINGDOM

The first amazing gallery spotlight we’re shining is on 111 Minna Gallery, a San Francisco institution that has been around since 1993, specifically known for its focus on underground, low brow, edgy and often controversial art. Micah LeBrun, the curator of this laid back gallery, speaks with us about their selection process and the interplay between art as art, art as business, and the internet.

Hey Micah, can you tell us about the vision or philosophy behind the 111 Minna Gallery? Do you think it has or will change over time?

I think Eiming’s original vision was to provide a low-key, warm, non-pretentious and family oriented environment to patrons around art and music. He initially made the gallery a place that felt like home to him and offered that freely to the community. Over time, 111 Minna became a meeting place for local talent that included all types of artists, designers and musicians and would later grow to gain international acclaim among more underground and urban art scenes around the globe.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW AT EMPTY KINGDOM

Saeki works with the terminology of the four-color printing process: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK).  For example, he indicates a woman’s skin tone should be reproduced with 10% magenta, while her nipples should be 60% magenta.  Most of the men in Saeki’s artwork have a skin tone that is 30% magenta, 20% cyan, and 50% yellow.

He calls this method chinto printing – the picture is complete only after it has been printed.  It is a modern version of the ukiyo-e, a genre of Japanese woodcut prints or paintings produced between the 17th and 20th centuries.  Ukiyo-e were works of collaboration between the eshi (artist) and the surishi (printer).  Saeki is paying homage to this style, and considers himself an eshi.

Harum Scarum — Teaser #4: Translation from Shaun Roberts on Vimeo.

David Ball

David is a collage/ mixed media artist located in San Francisco.  His interests range from observed relationship dynamics and social commentary to more introverted personal works, all in surreal, other-worldly landscapes driven by character and narrative.  David creates both fine art and illustration works with the help of his talkative cat, Cho Cho and lots and lots of coffee.

Katherine Brannock (below)

ART WORKS AS AN AGENT,
COMBINING OUR SENSES IN WAYS THAT BROADEN
THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF OUR EXISTENCE.

I AM GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY
TO COMMUNICATE WITH ART
FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF OTHERS,

AS I ATTEMPT TO UNCOVER AND UNDERSTAND
THE DIALOGUE THAT DEFINES
OUR TIME AND PLACE IN HISTORY.

WORK WAS DESIGNED FOR THE FUNCTION OF ALL PEOPLE
IN THE WAY A GEAR WAS DESIGNED FOR THE FUNCTION OF AN ENGINE.

WE ARE INTENDED TO CONDUCT AND CONSTRUCT OURSELVES
IN A WAY THAT PROPELS US FORWARD,
WHEREVER THE DESTINATION IS NECESSARY.

MY WORK CONSTRUCTS COMMUNICATION
FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONDUCTING CONNECTIVITY.

REACHING TOWARD OTHERS ON A COMMON GROUND
IN ORDER TO IGNITE AN ATMOSPHERE OF EVOLUTION,
IS NECESSARY TO ME.

Jesse Balmer (below)

“I’m always trying to convey my general distaste toward civilized society’s planet-sized shit storm we get to look at and take part in every single day – and the inherent helpless feeling that comes with being one in 6.5 billion. I’m also interested in mortality, and whether or not I should think it sucks.”

http://jessebalmer.com/

Peter Solmssen began his career as a photographer for LIFE magazine, working with such photographic icons as Alfred Eisenstadt and Andreas Feininger.  In the 1960’s, while serving for five years as an American diplomat in Brazil, he photographed and filmed the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salvador, capturing the very distinct personalities, cultures and people of these three very different communities.

While Rio and São Paulo are only some 200 miles apart, Peter found that moving from one to the other was like moving from one country to another. The climates, populations and activities are markedly different.  Rio is the capital of “tropicalismo”, with life centered on the beaches and samba and a very fun-loving people.  São Paulo is cooler, less colorful and focused on its role as a major industrial center.  Peter felt that Rio wanted to be photographed in color, while São Paulo seemed to call for black and white.  Each was tremendously stimulating in its own way, he found.

Peter concluded his long diplomatic career as Deputy Ambassador-at-Large for Cultural Affairs in the U.S. State Department, guiding major international cultural efforts such as the King Tut and Chinese Bronze Exhibitions.  He became the founding President of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and continues as its President Emeritus.

A group exhibition featuring the uniquely different styles of: Alphonzo Solorzano, Josh Lawyer, Wednesday Kirwan, Ryan Malley, Tim Dangaran, Crystal Sylver & Lindsey Kustusch

Crystal Sylver | csylver.com

Native to the San Francisco Bay Area, Artist and Designer, Crystal Sylver paints colorful, exotic women with a dark side and a secret.  Using Oil and Encaustics on wood, her emotional and erotic figure paintings are an expression of life and beauty, inspired by Couture Fashion, dramatic costumes, color, and design.  Her work is as refined as it is expressive.

Lindsey Kustusch

Lindsey Kustusch’s work is a study of observation, a perpetual search for balance between “realism” and the infinite abstract harmonies shaped by form, color, and space in which it’s created.

She’s inspired by the seemingly endless possibilities of paint and the city that she lives in. The streets of San Francisco have been a favorite subject of hers for years. Whether it’s drifting below the wires along an iconic SF street, the silhouette of a crow, or a Friday night arranged neatly behind the bar, the daily influences are impossible to ignore. Every encounter is reflected on the canvas.

“The Northern Raven found all over the bay area are one of my most favorite subjects to paint. They’re opportunists and survivors, a force of nature with a presence that commands respect.”

Each subject is engulfed with it’s own mood, executed with it’s own set of tools, resulting with a unique life of it’s very own.

Ryan Malley

Ryan Malley uses a decidedly realistic approach to spotlight subjects that we often overlook in our everyday life. These are the people and objects that create the world around us, sometimes literally. In our culture we are so often wrapped up in digital chatter that we don’t acknowledge the importance of these things that make life possible. Malley seeks to remind us that every thing has a story to tell.
Ryan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his BFA from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco in 2003. Malley currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.

Wednesday Kirwan | photo credit: Purebred Studios

Wednesday Kirwan’s work plays on classic painting genres from turn of the century portraiture to pin-up art of the 50′s but with a whimsically dark twist on the subject. The female protagonists of her paintings display varying mixtures of comeliness and fierceness, interacting with the viewer, not as passive beauty to voyeur but as predator to prey. This current series is inspired by pop culture zombie films, a field rife for the exploration of the themes of beauty, decay, attraction and repulsion. Wednesday studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute and works in San Francisco as a fine artist and illustrator.

Alphonzo Solorzano

Alphonzo Solorzano is a visual artist whose current work can be traced to early ideas and themes found from his creative explorations as a child. His earliest drawing experiences would include comics, animation and endless drawing sessions with his 2 brothers. From these experiences, the use of graphic line work, typography, and the element of narrative would emerge as major components to many later works.
His current work is interested in creating objects that explore the relationship between early memory and its context on present day. These works provide a bridge that foster reflection, celebration, and understanding in these memories that exist independent of time. He hopes that they may serve as a vessel towards a state of time travel, to a place of childhood wonderment.

Alphonzo Solorzano currently resides in San Francisco where he continues to experiment with new medias that combine illustration, fabrication, three dimensional elements and other technologies.

Tim Dangaran

People often comment that my work looks like a photograph, and though I do use photographs as reference material, I don’t consider my work to be photorealism. As an artist I observe the unique details of the subject. I will deliberately omit undesirable effects and imperfections while enhancing those that I find important. My process begins when I take photographs for reference but my observation and interpretation of the reference photograph as I create the final art is what makes it unique.  I do not draw what I see exactly. In fact I often use several photos in creating a single piece.  My work is a combination of the information from the reference material and the emotions or feelings for the subject that are not captured through the lens. It’s the unique little details that I strive to capture in my art. I focus on those particulars of the subject that a camera cannot distinguish as important. The transformation results in art that cannot be created by a camera.

Joshua Lawyer

A bay area native, this freelance artist is self-taught, with a background in street art. Joshua draws a lot of his inspiration from his street art. He paints people juxtaposed to a grey industrial background, to symbolize the great bright beauty you see in this gray cement world, if you just look hard enough. His subjects are mainly females trying to tell a story through small phrases and images found in the background, the shape of their bodies, the things being done to them, and the look on their faces.

Joshua works in a wide variety of mediums from acrylic paint and pencil, to wheat paste and aerosol. He usually works on found wood and makes them look as if they were new frames, an almost Cinderella story for discarded wood.

Solo Exhibition by Merkley???

like the zzz’s we catch when we check into the tripleZ hotel. that’s where all the fun shit happens, also the murderous shit and the shit where you are naked at work or on the bus. People sometimes say, merkley???, i’d give anything to have a brain that could go nuts and be ridiculous. I like to ask them for a few texts worth of details what they did last night while they were snoozing.

Yeah we all have brains like that. ALL OF US.

What I did last night + what she did last night = ZZZ???

ROB REGER | solo exhibition | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | VIEW THE ART

Born Again (Again) is a transformative and figurative mixed and multi-media art exhibit featuring the collage work of Rob Reger.

Rob Reger – creator of Emily the Strange

The 3 STATES of BORN AGAIN (AGAIN)

1. Original collage state: (mortal, shortest life span, the child)
2. 2D prints on wood and panel with original paint: (mortal, long life, sometimes larger than life, the adult)
3. Collage animation: (new spiritual life, digital, freedom, the spirit)

“Select areas of imagery are first dissected, then carefully brought back to life one connection at a time through the surgical practice known as collage. This life, as these frankensteined “originals,” is similar to childhood- finite in time that it exists, given the nature of the materials used. That childlike existence is then captured and brought into adulthood when I create a second life as these “characters” are re-imagined and printed and painted on wood.  Finally, if their Creator is inspired enough by their previous existences, they make it into the spirit-world through film and animation. It is here they are finally allowed to move and have everlasting life. I am interested in taking these collages to a “larger than life” place by physically reproducing them on a large scale, and animating and projecting them. In the past, similar collage works have only been shown in small frames with a magnifying glass. Now the work will be accessible from anywhere in the room.”
-Rob Reger, artist

*SPECIAL GUEST: Winston Smith collaboration (1-3 pieces)

“I invited Winston Smith to collaborate on a few collages with me. [The] collages he created for the Dead Kennedys shaped how I created collages from an early age. Over the years, Winston has become a good friend, and continues to inspire me through his own work. I invited him to join with me to “play” God, and give new life to imagery we find worthy of the cause.”

Punk Surrealist Collage Artist Winston Smith first became famous for the logo and artwork he created for punk legends Dead Kennedys, and is more widely known for his Green Day album cover and his published work for magazines such as The New Yorker,  Playboy, and Spin. Winston has designed over 60 album covers and most recently collaborated with recording artist Ben Harper for Harper’s Relentless 7 album “White Lies for Dark Times” (Virgin). Winston works on custom commissions and special projects from his North Beach Studio.  To view more of his artwork please visit: WinstonSmith.com.

James Dirschberger is an independent animation and filmmaker who runs Eighty Four Films, a Los Angeles based production company. His goal is to create original films and animations through collaborative efforts with other emerging artists and filmmakers. To date James has produced over 75 films including the animated web series The Forest City Rockers, The Seafarers and Hot Garbage. His first feature film “Honest Man: The Life of R.Budd Dwyer” was release 2010. For more information, please visit EightyFourFilms.com

Biography

Born: Anaheim, CA, 1969
BFA, Printmaking, University of California Santa Cruz 1993
MFA, Printmaking, San Francisco Art Institute 1995
President of Cosmic Debris Etc., Inc.
Creator/Creative Director of Emily the Strange
Lives and works in Berkeley, CA

Solo Exhibitions

2011
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Born Again (Again)
La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Hollywood, CA, Encyclopedia of Hallucinations

2010
Switcheroo Gallery, Pasadena, CA, Facing Strange
Ooma, San Francisco, CA, Recent Paintings

2009
Varnish Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Change of Strange

2008
Accident Gallery, Eureka, CA, Live? Strange!

2007
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Strange Beasts
Sistyr Moon, Hong Kong, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Jackal HQ, London, England, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Sydney, Australia, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Melbourne, Australia, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Brisbane, Australia, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show

2006
Colette, Paris, France, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
WWA Gallery, Culver City, CA, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Comic Con, San Diego, CA, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Neurotitan Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Galleria The Arts New Italica, Milano, Italy, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
OSLO, Mekaniske Verksted, Oslo, Norway, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show
Shock, Gothenburg, Sweden, 13^th Anniversary Emily Art Show

2003
Emily/Tygun Store, Tokyo, Japan, Emily vs. Tygun
Matt Gonzalez Office, San Francisco City Hall, Recent Paintings

2002
The Hideout, Tokyo, Japan, Strange Art For Strange People

2000
Rite Spot, San Francisco, CA, World Premiere

1999
Rite Spot, San Francisco, CA, Short Stories
Rite Spot, San Francisco, CA, Recent Paintings

1998
Carmichael Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Humes

1997
Gallery Alafi, Albany, CA, Walls with Art

1996
Diego Rivera Gallery (SFAI), San Francisco, CA, Metamorphosis
- Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA, MFA Show

1995
Vesuvios, San Francisco, CA, City Scapes

1994
Center for Psychological Studies, Albany, CA, Worlds Apart

1993
Porter College, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA, BFA Show

1992
Café Stevenson, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA, Things I’ve Seen, Places I’ve Been

Group Exhibitions

2011
Gallery 27 (Brooks Institute affiliate), Santa Barbara, CA, One Night Stand

2010
Creative Growth, Oakland, CA, Strangerous
Gallery Extraña, Berkeley, CA, Art of Emily the Strange
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Excellent Condition
Gallery Extraña, Berkeley, CA, Show & Tell – My Summer Fantasy

2009
Varnish Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco , CA, Project Wrecking Ball
Smokey’s Tangle Gallery, Oakland, CA, Beatlenuts

2008
Harold Golen Gallery, Miami, FL, Subjective Reality
Fabric 8, SF, CA, Landmark Show
ArtHouse, McCallen, Texas, Before My Rushing Heart
Gallery Extraña, Berkeley, CA, Defiant Optimism
WWA Gallery, Culver City, CA, Where the Wild Art Is
Harold Golen Gallery, Miami, FL, Kaiju Monster Invasion: Miami

2007
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 20×20
Artistic License Benefit Show, Pasadena, CA

2006
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 20×20
Gallery LeLe, Toys Save Children Benefit Show

2005
Rite Spot, San Francisco, CA, Strange Art for Strange People

1999
Mission Badlands/Balazo Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Balazo Group Show

1998
Mission Badlands/Balazo Gallery, San Francisco, CA, American Pie
Tomo Gallery, Arcata, CA, Land’s End
Artists Television Access (ATA), San Francisco, CA, Highwired

1997
Six Rivers Brewing Co., McKinleyville, CA, Figure 4

Two man show w/ graffiti legends, RISK & COOZ

The first major collaborative exhibition by Kelly Graval and Nathan Ota, aka RISK and COOZ, reunites these artists whose friendship began before they would respectfully become graffiti legends in the streets and revered artists in galleries and museums across the globe.

Risk and Nathan Ota collaborated together over 25 years ago when they were classmates in high school. After high school, they went their separate ways but reconnected once again through their mutual friends in the artist community. Two friends with similar beginnings eventually going into two different paths coming back together again with their newfound skills and maturity doing it again!

In a career spanning 28 years, RISK has impacted the evolution of graffiti as an art form worldwide. Risk is one of the most prolific graffiti artists to date. Los Angeles based, RISK gained major notoriety for his unique style and pushed the limits of graffiti further than any writer in L.A. had before: He was one of the first writers to paint freight trains, freeways, buses, and he pioneered writing on “heavens,” or freeway overpasses. At the peak of his career he took graffiti from the streets and into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later parlayed the name into the first authentic line of graffiti-inspired clothing which led to the birth of the street wear genre.

Risk focuses on the traditional aesthetics of letter formation. He combines this with his unique deconstruction and color layering to achieve a visual texture of color and surroundings. Risk majored in Fine arts at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Ca. 1992. Risk is currently working on an installation for the Museum Of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles.

For years, Nathan Ota has been pursuing new worlds, both dark and fantastic, to explore in his paintings. Ota has used his stand-ins – a blind bird, a drunk monkey, a one-eyed robot lost in the woods – to travel through dreamlands that hold fantasies and tragedies, even landing him in the unlikeliest destination – the world inside the artist’s own studio.

Nathan majored in Illustration and received his Bachelors degree at Art Center College of Art and Design, Pasadena Ca. 1993. Ota currently teaches at Otis College of Art and Design and Santa Monica City College.

“That Was Then, This Is Now” is Risk’s and Nathan’s first full body of work together after collaborating on a mural last year for Hurley.

What has been your creative inspiration for this show at 111 Minna?

Well it’s a combination of what we have both been working on throughout our careers. We have combined the elements of Nathans work with elements of my work. Our thoughts, dreams, views and reflections are in a perfect synchronization. I feel these are the most successful collaborations we have done to date. I think it goes back to knowing each other so well, we know how to adapt and what works well together. You can’t explain this sort of thing. You will see all of our iconic traits juxtaposed to create some real nice pieces. All of which utilize our techniques and thought processes from past and present…Hence the title of the show… ”That Was Then This Is Now.” It is a nice survey of where we’ve come from and where we are…

Tell us about you and Cooz, you have had a lifetime of collaborations. What do you find inspiring about his work & what new things can we expect in San Francisco?

Well first many people don’t know Nathan Ota, wrote Cooz, He was actually the other half of the original “aerosolic” type team in my writing career. Now when I say that I have to be very clear, Nathan wasn’t in Aerosolics or anything like that. I just mean he was my first dynamic duo type of graffiti rocking partner so to speak. He rocked the characters and I rocked the letters. We met at University high school very early in my writing career. I remember seeing these calendars in the halls, every month. They said happy Halloween or whatever holiday was that month and they had the month spelled out. Although they were done in brush paint, I could tell they had some graffiti influence. It turned out Nathan Ota did these calendars. We were in different art classes but soon enough our paths were crossing. He had Mrs. Nicholson and I had Mr. Citron. They were the two art teachers who shared an office between their adjoining art classrooms. Nate and I both got away with murder at Uni Hi. Our art teachers bailed us out of trouble time and time again. Mr. Citron had my back and Mrs. Nicholson his. As I would go chill in Mr. Citrons office convincing him to give me an off campus pass, or an excuse for missing a prior class the day before, or even later that day so I could go surf. He would chill and smoke cigarettes and talk about art and critique other students artwork. Then one day in the office that very few students probably ever saw the inside of, Nathan and I crossed paths. I think the teachers had us do a calendar or something together, I don’t really remember. I do remember however talking Graff… Later I asked Nathan to join WCA and I brought him to pan pacific, to meet the crew. It was really crazy, Because Rival (RIP) whom was also named Nathan knew Nathan from Junior High school. Everyone clicked and he was down. Because Cooz and I were the only WC members at Uni Hi at the time, we rolled together a lot. We went painting every chance we got and we did these little productions. I would rock the letters and he would rock the characters. His characters were way advanced at the time. Mostly because everything was so natural. He could just bust anything anywhere. He was also proficient with the airbrush so he used a few traditional airbrush techniques that were really cool back then. My favorite thing was his Girls, I was a horny high school kid so I always wanted a chick on my pieces. He was probably just as horny because he specialized in these girl characters. Nathan and I both won national scholastic art awards and received scholarships. We went to different schools and drifted apart.

I got way more serious about my Graff and Nate got way more serious about illustration. Nate took a more traditional route, but in true Cooz fashion stayed at the top of his game. He went on to be a fine art professor at Otis Parsons Art institute. He later told me he had heard some of his students at Otis Parsons talk about me and had been loosely following me, but had not told any of them he was an old writer. One day he had come across some students doing some sort of Graffiti project at school and couldn’t resist the itch to catch a throw up. After that, he dropped some science on his students about old school graffiti. He got my Web site info from them and hit me up. After catching up I told him I was painting a wall downtown and invited him to stop by. It was great seeing Nathan, a few days later he came by my studio to check out some of my work and show me what he has been working on as well. After playing with some new paints and showing him all the new techniques, caps, and colors etc. He dug in his bag of tricks and showed me a few things he had learned as well. After about 10 minutes we decided to do a few collaborations. We have been working together ever since. It has really been very refreshing! we have both opened our eyes to some exciting new techniques, style and perspectives.

What have you found the hardest to cope with as the Graff community has changed since you got started?

Definitely the City Officials, the negative spin and fake propaganda used to lobby against graffiti artists is definitely hard to swallow. They do not differentiate between gang writing, tagging, or graffiti art…. They lump everything together, it’s like anything done with spray paint is bad. It’s really crazy that they get away with that. You would think the press is smarter than that.

What do you find is the most striking difference between Los Angeles and San Francisco?

I don’t know it’s really cool up there, because it’s like a big city but still has a West Coast vibe. People are more open and receptive to the art. But compared to Los Angeles and our city officials, I feel like that everywhere I go now.

Has anything unexpected come out of your participation in Micah’s exhibit? New collaborations in progress?

I’m working on a lot of cool stuff. Lately the most exciting project is collaboration with the Dennis Hopper estate. I’m doing a show where I will be embellishing some of his original images. We are doing some cool stuff, but I can’t really get into it because were still formulating. I’m also doing a huge mural in conjunction with Heal the Bay. Its pretty cool, were going to rattle a few city feathers on that one….

If you could have included 5 additional artists in the “Art in the Streets” exhibit, who would you have liked to seen there?

Haze, Mare, Seen, (a tribute section to many graffiti artists who have passed away) and a wild card so to speak someone like Dennis Hopper or the Los angels Fine Art Squad, they’re not Graff artists but they have the same mentality and parallel worlds.

What do you think about Brooklyn Art Museum backing out of hosting the show?

Well it was beyond they’re control due to budget issues. Its unfortunate but they economy is suffering and its very understandable…I can tell you it’s not due to some whacko chick in a pink dress though. I heard she was trying to claim she was the reason…desperate, very desperate…

In some interviews you said that your parents weren’t supportive of you pursuing the arts, and in others you have mentioned your daughters and their own drawings. How do you support them in their own art, and what kind of art are they pursuing?

My daughters are very young, so they’re art is very explorative. They are constantly trying new things. Sometimes I say hey lets go paint, and they say no dad I want to draw with my crayons, but real big like your paintings, so I set up a huge panel and they go to town. Today she wanted to finger paint. Its always different but the thing I find interesting is how serious they take it. My five year old is very good, She draws everything and it’s all easily decipherable. She also likes to create sculptures with totalitarian objects. Her favorite thing is car parts she gravitates towards hold hot rod parts. Its really crazy because I was drawn to that as well, one of the earliest memories of drawings I remember drawing was a dragster. I’m really careful not to push them. They are exposed to a lot of art and crazy uncles! We go to Museums and just have fun with it. It’s amazing what they pick up.

Along those lines, does graffiti and street art have a role in the future of art education for children?

Yes, because it is now well over a quarter of a century old with aerosol paint. Graff without aerosol goes back to Cavemen. It has too much history to be ignored any longer. It has endured the test of time, proven it not to be a fad. Now it’s more mainstreams, which makes it more accessible. With all the recent activity, especially the MOCA show, Graffiti art has made its place in the history books.

Lets get back to you and graf: If you could get up in one place without a chance of catching legal heat, where would you pick and why?

The Hollywood sign, but the whole sign, I want to change it to RISKYWOOD. …My uncles band changed it to RAFFEY SOD back in the late eighties and I’ve always wanted to do it, I planned it out and a few times, always one step behind the new security at that time…. We used to go party on the sign when we were younger, we caught tags and shit like that but I wanted to do the whole sign. Kind of funny, when SEEN did that we never really thought about that, we thought it was a waste and you wouldn’t be able to see it, then after he did that we kicked ourselves in the ass, we couldn’t believe all those times we were up there and we never did that! We never thought about that placement, we were too stoned or trying to get laid or something out of dazed and confused… He killed it with that one!

If you could only paint in black, white, and one additional color, what color would that be?

That’s a hard one any color can work with black and white! I’d say red …or purple…

Finally, any advice to the young ones getting started these days?

Do what you do, and be you.

Steve Johnson was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, a beautiful yet formidable desert landscape; his childhood memories consist mostly of being extremely hot and playing with the lawn hose to cool off. Johnson moved to San Francisco in 1996 where he lived for almost ten years. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in printmaking and painting in 2003 and received an M.F.A. in painting and drawing from Arizona State University in 2008. Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Drawing at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

New works by: Jhina Alvarado, Sergio Navarro-Duran, Rockford Orvin, Tim Schafer
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Jhina Alvarado

Jhina Alvarado is a Mexican- Korean artist who expresses herself using oil and encaustic wax.  She is a self-taught artist and holds a masters’ degree in math education and a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies. Jhina, a native Californian, has lived in San Francisco since 1994 where she paints full-time while also teaching pre-calculus and advanced algebra at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

In my series, titled “Forgotten Memories”, I use oil paints to depict the untold stories from long forgotten photographs. I paint these images on wood panels using a considerable amount of white space with the images cropped out of their environment, creating a sense of unbalance and emphasizing the need to focus on the individual’s memory, rather than the whole picture. White areas from the images blend with the negative spaces of the panel to create tension and abstraction of each delineated line. Since many memories are shared, the identity of the person within each memory is inconsequential. The eyes are blocked out so that the viewer can take part of each memory as if it were their own. The painting is then covered in encaustic wax to add an antique photo look and dream-like feel to each piece. Because many memories are unclear and somewhat “fuzzy”, the wax also obscures the images as if the viewer, themselves, were trying to recall a past event, yet could not remember all of the details.

I started this series because it made me sad to see so many old photographs sold in thrift stores and flea markets or thrown away, as if the memories no longer mattered, the events recorded no longer important. This series is my attempt to resurrect these memories in a contemporary way.

Sergio Navarro-Duran

Sergio Navarro-Duran is a Colombian-born Graphic Artist based in San Francisco, California, a city that has been greatly inspiring for his latest work. Since his early days of design school he discovered his affinity and interest in “manual” illustration (pre-digital era) and the extent of applications this field had to offer. However, ink, -or the reign of carving shadows- seems to be an early and recurrent creativity channel in the artist’s journeys through his psyche. In most of his hand strokes there is an undeniable appeal for the human subject.

“American Indigenous culture has been a major drive for my current artistic channel. A view away from the classical European academic art, my work embraces the “art” that was being done long before 1492. An art that wasn’t art in the first place, since it wasn’t being done for the sole vain purpose of embellishment, but instead for the purpose of self-identity through an image. This is the first of all languages. The powerful mixture of balanced graphical order and symmetry in both buildings and objects of all sorts, as well as imagery, is in itself a remarkable achievement. It must have been incredible to live in a time where being an artist was an actual respected social position… no universities, no trends. Unadulterated from-the-ground-up thought. Graphic standards that came from instinct, not a class room or a movement, the openness of such spirit are the essence I celebrate in my work.”

Rockford Orvin

Life is bold. It moves forward without permission or consideration of the person involved; and like a sudden gust of wind, it sweeps you off your feet for better or worse. And, true to character, Life is full of contradictions. My art carries a similar attitude. Each piece has a mind of its own, speaking good or bad to whomever it encounters. On canvas, I grab the moments of Life that I believe embrace beauty, simplicity, and truth.

This Black & White show reveals that simplistic beauty of Life. The high contrast, sharp line, and photorealistic depiction creates a view that is raw and direct. Some subjects are posed, some are spontaneous, but all the images render the idea that life can be seen for just what it is. Sometimes, color can be blinding.

Tim sChafer

This body of work is a continuation of an ongoing series of graphite drawings that isolates it’s subject matter by removing all elements of background or foreground in order focus on the direct relationship between the subject and the space around it.  I primarily use images from photographs found online and occasionally from photographs I take myself, either way, the original image has something I deem note worthy. By removing all the excess information from the photograph and recreating the subject within a vacant space a certain amount of importance is bestowed upon the subject. Through the use of the image’s negative space, the seriousness of the subject is paired with a questioning of it’s relevance.

Tim L sChafer lives and works in California.

Last Gasp is one of the largest and oldest publishers and purveyors of underground books and comics in the world, celebrating its 41^st year in business.

Over the years they have published, and in some cases brought to light, some of the most respected and talented artists working today, including such luminaries as R. Crumb, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Mark Ryden, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Frank Kozik, Todd Schorr, Winston Smith, Spain, and Robert Williams to name but a few.

As well as publishing, Last Gasp is a distributor of all sorts of weird ‘n’ wonderful subversive literature, graphic novels, tattoo and art books – supplying them to bookstores on six continents.

Last Gasp was founded in 1970 by Ron Turner. Last Gasp’s first publication, Slow Death Funnies #1 came out on the first Earth Day, April 15, 1970. Subsequent comics included the all-women’s comic It Ain’t Me Babe, and Skull Comics.

Ron Turner’s enthusiasm for underground comics, and in particular their autobiographical aspect, has been the driving force behind many groundbreaking publications.  Last Gasp published Justin Green’s highly acclaimed confessional Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary in 1972, a book that became an inspiration to many artists now working in the autobiographical style. “Art Spiegelman, who won the only Pulitzer Prize for cartooning, has said he would never have started to do the autobiographical story of his family (in the graphic novel Maus) unless Justin had done it first. And Robert Crumb said the same thing,” said Turner.

Today, Last Gasp publishes 12-20 new titles per year, focusing on ‘lowbrow’ and ‘pop surrealist’ artists, as well as graphic novels and pop culture titles. In addition to publishing, Last Gasp distributes for large and small publishers worldwide, providing a steady countercultural stream of books and other printed matter that finds its way to customers on six continents.

Last Gasp books have been glowingly reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Juxtapoz magazine, Guardian, Hi-Fructose magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Austin Chronicle, American Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times.

Named “Best Local Publisher” in 2009 and 2010 by the readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.  Last Gasp’s offices are located in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Featuring the work of Kelly Nicolaisen, including her photographic collaborations featuring the artists, Mars One, Erin Eisenhower, Skinner, Nate Van Dyke, Kelly Allen, NoMe Edonna, Merkley, Henry Lewis, Charmaine Olivia, Adam 5100, David Choong Lee, Romanowski, John Wentz and Micah LeBrun. Also incorporating the large and dynamic work of guest photographer, Robert Vo.

The photographs of Kelly Nicolaisen speak of her penchant for precise composition and extraordinary sense of color. On a higher plain than traditional photography, the painterly qualities present in her work, balanced by an apparent confidence within her creative process, are just a few reasons why she was chosen to be the sole photographer to conduct collaborations with fourteen artists, widely known as painters, but moreover for their consistent progression and iconic styles throughout the Bay Area, nation and internationally.

What is not to be missed in this exhibition are the stunning results from these artists who have seamlessly created yet, more beautiful imagery in a medium unfamiliar to all and largely unrecognized. The end result on display gives birth to an unbelievable comprehensive body of work which projects the brilliant conceptual techniques of the participating artists, illuminated by the striking simplicity of light.

Throughout this past winter and over the course of two months, the fore mentioned artists collaborated with Kelly Nicolaisen to create uniquely different images using many styles of light techniques, contrasted by some iconic and some more mysterious, outdoor, Bay Area locations.

Kelly Nicolaisen | large images

“Light painting is a photographic technique in which long exposures are made usually at night or in a dark setting, by moving a hand-held light source.”

Kelly Nicolaisen | light paintings w/ collaborating artists

Also on display at the MOMENT exhibition will be the vibrant color and stunning texture of Robert Vo’s photographs which are balanced with an urban understanding and anchored by their impressive scale.

Robert Vo

An interesting mix of contemporary new works by Ian Robert Mullen, William Edwards, and Mike Kimball. February 3rd – March 6th, 2011

	IAN ROBERT MULLEN was born into a rich family history of master tradesmen that have claimed the city of Philadelphia home for eleven generations. After striking out to attend the painting program at Boston University he found himself right back where he started, working with wood. Curious and inventive by nature, Ian still continues to explore the world around him through his woodworking, oil painting, sculpture, and anything else he can get his hands on.  “Whether it be with wood, plaster, or oil, I derive much of my inspiration from nature. An avid outdoorsman, I am always looking for new elements to implement into my next piece.” – Ian Robert Mullen
	WILLIAM EDWARD’s work is an exploration of the alchemy of ceramic materials. Glazes create textured fields of color often reminiscent of nature. The natural phenomenon of the glaze creates a chaotic surface of patterns. Through the inherent transmutation of chemicals the uncontrollable and unexpected occurs; instability creates a game of chance. Like the toss of a dice, a moment in time is captured. As a mark outgrows its bounds set by a brush, drips crawl and overtake a surface like oil slicks spreading over the ocean. Within the kiln, each glazed work comes alive, seeming to have an innate sense of purpose. Then in an instant, all is frozen. What is left is a window of chaotic patterns of uncertainty, irregularity and imperfection, a result of a vast shifting set of unique circumstances.  Courtesy of Toomey Tourell Fine Art
	MIKE KIMBALL is an artist in love with the city. He is best known for his paintings and prints of urban landscapes that seem to inhabit the worlds of both representation and abstraction simultaneously. The subjects of his artwork have been the urban and industrial environments of San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and Osaka. “Whenever I look at the city, I end up seeing it in terms of patterns and textures and layered geometry. Its all in plain sight if you think to look for it.” says Kimball.  His artwork focuses on the underlying geometric abstraction of the architecture and design found in the urban landscape, as well as the curious effect that time and chaos has on that geometric order as it moves towards disorder and entropy.

Our massive year end group show, celebrating 111 of our very talented friends, family members and artist favorites. Each artist will have 1 single contributing piece to the show, collectively making it an eclectic, interesting and fun group show.

DECEMBER 2, 2010 – JANUARY 30, 2011
111 proudly presents (in no particular order)

Kelly Tunstall, Jesse Pollock, Robert Bowen, Bill Dunlap, Jeremy Fish, Alex Pardee, Chris Brennan, Mike Giant, Nate Van Dyke, Audrey Erickson, Micah LeBraun, Bo Heimlich, Tim Schafer, Mike Davis, Matt Furie, Pacolli, Marco Zamora, Jay Howell, Ruthie Swanson, Dave Mabry, Brian Gilbert, Mildred, Junko Mizuno, Jacob McGraw, John Wentz, Deth P. Sun, Jake Watling, Martin Ontiveros, Justin Lovato, Andrew McClintock, Ross Pope, Erin McCarty, Brett Amory, Mario Wagner, Ryan De La Hoz, Jason Jagel, Kinsey, Corey A, Seth Armstrong, Stacey Rozich, Jason Adams, Michael Beinhorn, Ferris Plock, Mia Christopher, Mike Bertino, Aiyana Udesen, Alex Chiu, David Cook, Ryan Coffey, Sean Brimer, Yoni Matayaou, Mike Steffan, Kelly Nicolaisen, Jesse Gidcumb, Isabel Samaras, Hayden Menzies, Russ Pope, Kyle Field, Jeremy Tinder, Arlo Jamrog, John Casey, Ernest Doty, Frank Carter, Rob Reger, Ben Tour, Tracy Timmins, Brian, Dave Correia, Connor Williumsen, Brad K Alder, Andreas Trolf, Rob Williamson, Skinner ,Cody Cochrane,Heather Gabel, Gabe Castellanos, Michael Slack, Brooke Candy, Pakayla Biehn, Mark Mulrony, Annie Galvin, Adam Avilla, Johnny Bonnell, Adam 5100, Matt Crookshank, Taylor Wessling, Darryl Peirce, Charmaine Olivia, Emilly Scannell, Todd Noble Holloway, Jesse Balmer, Gina Contreras, Seth Neefus, Jennybird, David Torch, Josh Yule, Zack Schlemmer, Scott Greenwalt, Parskid, Greg Speck, Ben Johston, David Fallis, Sergio Navarro-Duran, Ian Mullen, GeorgeWebber, Mark Todd, Jason Yim, Jason Cruz, Winston Smith, Jessica Trippe, Rogelio Martinez, Dennis McNulty, Michael Steffen, Leslie Winchester, Sergio Navarro-Duran, Llewellyn Bryan Dawson, Dennis McNulty, Bram de Martelaere.

Saeki works with the terminology of the four-color printing process: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK).  For example, he indicates a woman’s skin tone should be reproduced with 10% magenta, while her nipples should be 60% magenta.  Most of the men in Saeki’s artwork have a skin tone that is 30% magenta, 20% cyan, and 50% yellow.

He calls this method chinto printing – the picture is complete only after it has been printed.  It is a modern version of the ukiyo-e, a genre of Japanese woodcut prints or paintings produced between the 17th and 20th centuries.  Ukiyo-e were works of collaboration between the eshi (artist) and the surishi (printer).  Saeki is paying homage to this style, and considers himself an eshi.

The music world has crossed over to the fine art world, for what promises to be an amazing, first-time exclusive group exhibit at 111 Minna Gallery. “Scream With Me” will be showing original works by an impressive variety of musicians mixed in with internationally known tattoo artists from around the world.OCTOBER 7-31st, 2010

Music and tattoo culture seem to always form an alliance; they practically go hand in hand. Taking her love for music, tattoos and artwork, curator Angela Holmes has mashed them all together to assemble a fantastic line-up of musicians she admires and some of her favorite tattoo artists in the industry.

“Scream With Me” features work by:
Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio), Joby J Ford (The Bronx), Jason Cruz (Strung Out), Chad Van Gaalen, Frank Carter (Gallows), Conrad Keeley (…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead), Jacob Bannon (Converge), Tim Fite, Dallas Wehrle (Constantines), John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), Tim Presley (White Fence/Darker My Love), Hayden Menzies, David Cook (Marching Teeth), Ross Farrar (Ceremony) Kyle Field (Little Wings), Dan Smith (Dear & Departed) and Michael Beinhorn
+ Uncle Allan (Copenhagen, Denmark), Henry Lewis (San Francisco, CA), Chad Koeplinger (New York, NY), Lizzie Renaud (Toronto, Canada), Todd Noble Holloway (Salisbury, MD), and Bart Bingham (New York, NY)

http://www.sfweekly.com/events/scream-with-me-2168229/

http://tattoosdayuk.wordpress.com/

http://onkelallan.blogspot.com/2010/09/scream-for-me-san-francisco.html

http://tattoosnob.com/2010/09/29/scream-with-me/#disqus_thread

http://www.antilabelblog.com/?p=4163

http://www.pluginmusic.com/news/article/conrad-keelys-artwork-to-be-featured-at-scream-with-me

http://www.explodinginsound.com/2010/09/trail-of-deads-conrad-keely-featured-in.html

http://www.chartattack.com/news/2010/aug/20/i-read-the-news-today-for-aug-20-2010

http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2010/8/Music-Notes-Late-Edition-Aug-19-2010

An exhibition showcasing new works by group of Californian tattoo artists including Shawn Barber, Mike Davis, Mike Giant, Ryan Scott Shaffer, Juan Puente, Regino Gonzales, Daniel Albrigo, Henry Lewis, Don Edward Hardy and Edu Cerro.  ’Everyday’ is an attempt to shine a different light on a group of artists who have been involved in the tattoo practice and part of the shop culture. A variety of other media, not simply tattoo designs, will be on display to capture another side of the tattoo culture, the everyday lives of these artists, which can be viewed as a unique subculture in itself. Viewers will gain a different insight to the artistic commitment, nature and practice through this unique and candid exhibition.

The exhibition was curated by Andres Guerrero (owner and director of the Guerrero Gallery, in San Francisco) with assistance from 111 Minna Gallery Curator Jay Howell and Gabe Scott.

A group show of uniquely diverse, unusually creative and exceptionally inspiring artists from California, Seattle, Toronto, Nevada, and New York. We are proud to host these Hot Freaks for the summer, to display their new works and creative adventures.

Hot [hot] adjective, hot·ter, hot·test, adverb, verb, hot·ted, hot·ting, noun
Freaks [freeks] noun Any abnormal phenomenon or product or unusual objects; anomaly; aberration.

Some info about our Hot Freaks:

JOSEPH ALOI
Joseph Ari Aloi, a.k.a. JK5, lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where he relentlessly develops his visual, textual, and iconographic languages through a diverse range of media. JK5 is a highly respected custom tattoo artist and has been so for the last 12 years.

JESSE BALMER
Jesse was born in San Juan Capistrano, California in 1987. He has been drawing since before he can remember, which was really only much-less-than-the-blink-of-an-eye ago on the geologic time scale. He now resides in San Francisco, California where his dignity remains intact for now.

OLIVER HIBERT
Oliver Hibert is an American fine artist/illustrator/designer born in Seattle, Washington in 1983. From the age of 16, Hibert’s iconic psych-like style of art and design has caught the attention of numerous museums, galleries, big-wig companies and retail outlets around the globe. Hibert’s vivid and colorific artworks can be recognized on many mediums and media such as paintings, sculptures, shoes, skateboards, magazines, books, clothing, and much more. Currently, Oliver Hibert works and resides in Arizona on his desert farm of cacti and albino peacocks.

JUSTIN LOVATO
Rad dude, and killer artist from Sacramento, California.

LANGO NATOR

SETH SCRIVER
Seth Scriver, born and raised in Toronto, attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and received an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts. He is currently living and working in Toronto. Most of Scriver’s art making is based on personal experience and stories told to him. His visual aesthetics push toward a type of fantasy world created through a stream of consciousness drawing style. The drawings present a believable view of a chaotic world in which unknown entities play out small dramas.

FRANCESCO DEIANA ARNOLD

CHRIS BRENNAN
Chris Brennan is a photographer, artist, designer, DJ, and engineer based out of San Francisco, CA.

With a focus on candid event & party photography, fine art, and editorial – Brennan is also right at home collaborating with stylists and makeup artists in the studio or on location. An insatiable appetite for travel has driven Chris to more than twelve countries and throughout most of the continental United States looking for the perfect shot.

DARYLL PEIRCE
Focused on exploring the connectivity within humanity and its claims of control over social systems, habitat, nature, and future, Peirce’s artwork pendulates between the satiric and esoteric, optimistic and pessimistic, scientific and spiritual, bold and poetic. Grotesquely exaggerated human forms, arterial-botanic city organisms, and flowering interconnected urban clusters currently inhabit his psyche and spew into his work. On a more intimate level, his influences instinctively stem from past and current environs, travel, exploration, skateboarding, surfing, dreaming, philosophy, and interacting with all forms of the human animal with a focused lens on the social outcast.

111 Minna Gallery  111 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA.
July 1st – July 31st, 2010 | Space: Entire venue | Open to the Public

Better Weather is in full-swing at 111 Minna Gallery for the month of July, which is why we are please to invite you to our first exhibit of the summer!  An array of colourfully bright and stunning pieces will be displayed, which will feel like we invited the sun into shine as well. Better Weather can be thanked for by the 4 talented, unique artists contributing to this month’s show:CHRISSY ANGLIKER
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, her earliest ambitions were to grow to to be a stunt-woman…and to make art.  From a very young age she experimented with stone, clay, and found objects among other materials.  Chrissy has developed a profound understanding of three-dimensional design, relationships between objects, and creating character through form. During her studies at Pratt Institute, Chrissy won many national and international design awards. She was selected for numerous juried shows, including ICFF.

Chrissy has been cultivating her own work in fine art and design, which continues to incorporate her political, spiritual and humanitarian perspective. Her work has been published in magazines and books world wide. Today, she lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

ERIN MCCARTY
My work embraces bold color, texture, and pattern to illustrate the radiant beauty of environments and creatures both real and imagined. Emotive, celebratory, and personal, my work reflects the honest enthusiasm I have for my subject matter. Above anything else, I communicate the excitement, grandeur, and terror of human life and the unknown. The marriage of seemingly opposing forces has always been of great interest to me (the earthly & celestial, adoration & violence, loneliness & communion), and much of my work explores relating themes of duality. Humans, plants, and animals existing as a single entity is another important ongoing narrative within my work.

BILL DUNLAP
Education: I can’t read or write.  I was raised by skunks and wolves.
Work Experience:  Oh, puleeze!

JESSICA DELORME
Jessica Delorme is a Vancouver based artist, with a combined education in both art production and curation.  She is inspired by the thriving city hugged by an ocean and mountains.

http://www.Warholian.com | Event link

111 Minna Gallery presents: “Las Calles Electricas,” new works by Uriel Marin, Rene Almanza and Daniel Berman; working as part of the Oaxacan art collective Artecocodrilo.  Artecocodrilo’s space in Oaxaca, Mexico opened its doors in 2005 and has evolved into a dynamic hub for artists in that region to collaborate with each other and reach out to the larger community, both locally and globally.  We are please to welcome and host this unique collective of contemporary art, cutting edge illustrations, fluid sketches, street art, and graffiti to San Francisco to show their current work.

June 3rd – June 26th, 2010 | Opening Reception: Thursday, June 3rd, 2010  5pm-late.  21+111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA.  94110
416-974-1719

SAN FRANCISCO–With more than 200,000 apps bursting the seams of Apple’s App Store, how can developers get their projects to stand out?

That’s a common sentiment among those creating apps, and among those looking for quality content for their iPhones and iPads. But to Seth Socolow, himself a developer and businessman, it was the question that inspired what has become one of the hottest tickets on the Bay Area technology scene.

On Tuesday night, Socolow and Dale Larson, his partner in a consulting firm called SF App Studio, hosted the sixth iteration of their app showcase, the SF AppShow. And before a packed house of more than 200 people–their biggest crowd so far–at the famous 111 Minna Gallery here, the two gave a series of app developers the chance to get up on stage and take six minutes to explain their projects.

Read the entire article here:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20005984-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

View this gallery

May 6th – 29th, 2010
New Works by: Rob Reger, Mario Wagner, Chris Sullivan, Jason Vivona, Mildred, Will Laren, Tim Shaffer, Vladimir Kato, David Cook, Bo Heimlich, Cody Cochrane, and Graham Robinson ( Beaston ) , Audrey Erickson, Jake Watling, Andreas Trolf, Jim Dirschberger and more…

More

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1940&Itemid=90

http://www.hifructose.com/the-blog/592-excellent-condition-at-111-minna.html

Legendary underground publisher Last Gasp turns 40 this year and to celebrate, they are throwing a party and art show at 111 Minna Gallery.

The Last Gasp 40th Anniversary Art Show assembles a top-drawer lineup of artists – the haut monde of lowbrow.  Over the past four decades, Last Gasp has published hundreds of artists in the underground comix and kustom kulture, to pop surrealism and street art movements.

Opening night photos

Artists in the show include:
Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup Glenn Barr, Robert Crumb, Richard Corben, Guy Colwell, Ron English, Tony Fitzpatrick, Christopher Felver, Camille Rose Garcia, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Rick Griffin, Ed Hardy, Frank Kozik, Joe Ledbetter, Carol Lay, Adrian Lee, Michael Manning, Chris Mars, Scott Musgrove, Junko Mizuno, Liz McGrath, Laurenn McCubbin, Mitch O’Connell, Annie Owens, The Pizz, Mark Ryden, Michael Rosen, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Dori Seda, Winston Smith, Eric White, Robert Williams, Attaboy, Aye Jay, and many more to be announced.

Writers, including San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane DiPrima will do a reading.  Design radicals GAMA-GO will produce a limited edition tee shirt for the event.

Last Gasp founder and publisher Ron Turner is available for interviews. Book covers, interior art, and other images available upon request.

Free and open to the public | (415) 974-1719
www.111minnagallery.com | Contact: Jay Howell  jay.howell@gmail.com
21 + over

About Last Gasp
Last Gasp is one of the largest and oldest publishers and purveyors of underground books & comics in the world, as well as being a distributor of all sorts of weird ‘n’ wonderful subversive literature, graphic novels, tattoo and art books.

Last Gasp was founded in 1970 by Ron Turner. Last Gasp’s first publication, Slow Death Funnies #1 came out on the first “Earth Day,” April 15, 1970. Subsequent comics included the all-women’s comic It Ain’t Me Babe, and Skull Comics. Over the years they have published, and in some cases brought to light, some of the most respected and talented artists working today, including such luminaries as R. Crumb, Mark Ryden, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Frank Kozik, Todd Schorr, Winston Smith, Spain Rodriguez, and Robert Williams to name but a few.

Ron Turner’s enthusiasm for underground comics, and in particular their autobiographical aspect, has been the driving force behind many groundbreaking publications.  Last Gasp published Justin Green’s highly acclaimed confessional Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary in 1972, a book that became an inspiration to many artists now working in the autobiographical style. “Art Spiegelman, who won the only Pulitzer Prize for cartooning, has said he would never have started to do the autobiographical story of his family (in the graphic novel Maus) unless Justin had done it first. And Robert Crumb said the same thing,” said Turner.

Today, Last Gasp publishes 12-20 new titles per year, focusing on Lowbrow and Pop Surrealist artists, as well as graphic novels. The company has 18 full and part-time employees and is based in San Francisco. In addition to publishing, Last Gasp distributes for large and small publishers worldwide, providing a steady counter-cultural stream of books and other printed matter that spreads over six continents.

Last Gasp books have been glowingly reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Juxtapoz magazine, The Guardian (UK), Hi-Fructose magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Austin Chronicle, American Book Review, and The Los Angeles Times.

Co-publishing partners include La Luz de Jesus / Billy Shire Fine Arts, Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, San Jose Museum of Art, Grand Central Art Center, Smokemuse, JaPress, Moulinsart, Presspop Gallery, Ignition Publishing, NewSkool/Analog, Laguna Art Museum, and many more.

The readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian named Last Gasp the Best Local Publisher in 2009.

First publications:
Slow Death, 1970 (comic); Breather’s Guide to Invisible Air Pollution (book) 1970.

Last Thursday night, 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco celebrated the opening of their latest group show: “Excellent Condition”. Featuring an eclectic mix of young artists, “Excellent Condition” seems to be more be a commentary on the actual nature of the underground art scene than it is a collector’s wet dream, though in this specific case it is a little bit of both… Some of the stellar excerpts from this current lineup include Jason Vivona (pictured above), Stella Im Hultberg, and Cody Cochrane. Mildred and David Cook both had strong showings as well, check out all the pictures below.

Read the whole story at Hi-Fructose

111 Minna Gallery is proud to present “Fort Big Mountain”, an exhibition  showcasing new works by Oakland, CA painters Christopher Russell and Seth Armstrong. The exhibition will run from March 4-27, 2010. The exhibition has been curated by for the 111 Minna Gallery by Curator Gabe Scott with assistance from 111 Minna Gallery Curator Jay Howell.

ARTISTIC HIGHLIGHTS
Through his paintings, Christopher Russell explores his personal perceptions and connections with the natural world by ‘painting outside from within’. Russell’s images of nature communicate his reverence for nature, a ‘reverence tempered by notions of disconnection and disillusionment’. His landscapes are based both on his physical experiences as well as an alternate narrative based on fantasy and imagination. The fantasy is incorporated as an exaggeration of a real experience, allowing Russell to invent a new landscape that is based on the idea or experience of a place rather than sit in front of it in order to capture its essence. Christopher was raised in Boulder, CO, attended the California College of the Arts and is based in Oakland, CA.

Seth Armstrong, another former CCA student displays a compulsion to juxtapose hyper-realistic re-creations of his surroundings with various fantastical segments of his imagination. The resulting narratives contain elements of drama, mystery and humor that “accentuate the theatrical and fictitious characteristics believed to be apparent in everyday life”. He feels that “the actions of the subjects and the circumstances of their environments are often vague, only hinting at the events that are inherently taking place”.  Seth was raised in Los Angeles and currently lives and works in Oakland, CA.

SF Weekly Webby Awards // 2010 from On The Side on Vimeo.

111 Minna Gallery are proud to present WONDERLAND – the very anticipated group show, curated by award winning, multi-talented Irene Hernandez-Feiks; founder of Chillin Productions.  Throughout the past 11 years, Irene has provided a platform for thousands of emerging Bay Area artists with Chillin Productions, and watched them flourish into their careers.  Wonderland is a particularly significant project for Irene, as she began her art career at 111 Minna Gallery, in 1998.  Since then she has dreamed of curating a show here, and we at 111 Minna are proud and excited about this incredibly dynamic show she has put together.Wonderland features 60 of Irene’s all-time favorite artists, each have greatly influenced and contributed to the local art community.  This very special exhibition showcases a wide variety of exciting and diverse visual artistic talents, and true Bay Area art icons.

Aaron Johnson
Alex Garcia Ferrá
Amandalynn
Andrzej Michael Karwacki
Angela Scrivani
Ben Collison
Brian Barneclo
Brooke Farrington
Chris Stokes
Christie Newman
Cinthia Dennis
Conor Burns
Daniel J. Valadez
David Rozelle
DEEPSI{X}
Erin Schroeder
Faith Allen
Ferris Plock
Fidel Lirio
Freda Banks
“elle”
Gianluca Franzese
GINNE
Hilary Williams
Ian Ross
Jaiv1
Jason Michael Aumann
Jeff Neugebauer
Jeffrey Nemenzo
Jenny Wehrt
Jeremy Mann
Jocelyn Meggait
John Patrick Campbell
Jonah Burlingame
Kelly Tunstall
Kimi Recor
Krescent Carasso
Kukula
Lady Millard
Lee Harvey Roswell
Manny Fabregas
Marcus Herrera
MARIAFATIMA URBI
Mary Syring
Merkley???
Misha Vladimirskiy
Natalia Gomez
Paul Trapani
“Ptah Amen”
Rebecca Peters
Robert Garcia
Romanowski
Samanta Tello
Slava Likhatchev
Spencer Hansen
Steve Javiel
Telopa
Ursula Xanthe Young
Yuri Psinakis
Yvette Buigues

Jhina Alvarado is a Mexican- Korean artist who expresses herself using oil and encaustic wax.  She is a self-taught artist and holds a masters’ degree in math education and a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies. Jhina, a native Californian, has lived in San Francisco since 1994 where she paints full-time while also teaching pre-calculus and advanced algebra at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

Artist Statement
In my series, titled “Forgotten Memories”, I use oil paints to depict the untold stories from long forgotten photographs. I paint these images on wood panels using a considerable amount of white space with the images cropped out of their environment, creating a sense of unbalance and emphasizing the need to focus on the individual’s memory, rather than the whole picture. White areas from the images blend with the negative spaces of the panel to create tension and abstraction of each delineated line. Since many memories are shared, the identity of the person within each memory is inconsequential. The eyes are blocked out so that the viewer can take part of each memory as if it were their own. The painting is then covered in encaustic wax to add an antique photo look and dream-like feel to each piece. Because many memories are unclear and somewhat “fuzzy”, the wax also obscures the images as if the viewer, themselves, were trying to recall a past event, yet could not remember all of the details.

I started this series because it made me sad to see so many old photographs sold in thrift stores and flea markets or thrown away, as if the memories no longer mattered, the events recorded no longer important. This series is my attempt to resurrect these memories in a contemporary way. Since many memories are shared, the identity of the person within each memory becomes inconsequential. The eyes are blocked out so that the viewer can take part of each memory as if it were their own. The painting is then covered in encaustic wax to add an antique photo look and dream-like feel to each piece. Because many memories are unclear and somewhat “fuzzy”, the wax also obscures the images as if the viewer, themselves, were trying to recall a past event, yet could not remember all of the details.

Sergio Navarro-Duran is a Colombian-born Graphic Artist based in San Francisco, California, a city that has been greatly inspiring for his latest work. Since his early days of design school he discovered his affinity and interest in “manual” illustration (pre-digital era) and the extent of applications this field had to offer. However, ink, -or the reign of carving shadows- seems to be an early and recurrent creativity channel in the artist’s journeys through his psyche. In most of his hand strokes there is an undeniable appeal for the human subject.

“American Indigenous culture has been a major drive for my current artistic channel. A view away from the classical European academic art, my work embraces the “art” that was being done long before 1492. An art that wasn’t art in the first place, since it wasn’t being done for the sole vain purpose of embellishment, but instead for the purpose of self-identity through an image. This is the first of all languages. The powerful mixture of balanced graphical order and symmetry in both buildings and objects of all sorts, as well as imagery, is in itself a remarkable achievement. It must have been incredible to live in a time where being an artist was an actual respected social position… no universities, no trends. Unadulterated from-the-ground-up thought. Graphic standards that came from instinct, not a class room or a movement, the openness of such spirit are the essence I celebrate in my work.”

My last solo show was Feb. of 2008; this next opening is pretty much my first endeavor since then. In May of 2008, I left on a year long travel through Central America, Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe. I decided to put down my brush during the entirety of the year and, instead, use a camera as my tool of creative expression. The idea was to inject myself with as many outside influences, experiences, and cultures as possible, over the course of the year. Let it all sink in and begin processing once I crawled back into my studio. What has transpired has been a difficult transition back into painting where I have ultimately found myself exploring several different avenues of development all at once or on top of one another. I’m beginning to see the influence of my travel encounters lacing itself through my current work.

Taking so much time away from painting has created a bombardment of ideas for me, that while processing, has given birth to this show, Resurface. Resurface, for me, is basically picking up a brush again, putting back out for the public, and reinventing techniques which I learned over a decade ago. Resurface offers a variety of  ‘surfaces’ as well. The show consists of a series of intense portraiture of Cambodian refugees, much looser multimedia paintings, which have brought me into an open consciousness form of painting that I have been trying to accomplish for years. There will be work on glass, fine line drawing, charcoals, color studies and in addition, I will be debuting my photography. Basically, the pieces of Resurface have opened up a series of work that have grown beyond the borders of 111 Minna Gallery. Resurface is more than a body of work, but a new style of creating that will go beyond this opening. This show is an opportunity to view the beginning of my next journey.

111 Minna Gallery is proud to host NeighborhoodSF, a group show featuring some of San Francisco’s most exciting and prolific artists, co-curated by Ryan Malley of the ArtPrint.net and Martin Olive of sQuint. NeighborhoodSF is a collection of San Francisco’s finest artists who are each given the task of representing this City’s many unique neighborhoods, showing at 111 Minna Gallery from September 3rd through the 26th, 2009.

San Francisco is without a doubt, one of the most diverse cities in the world. Its neighborhoods are each legendary in their own way and it’s residents are iconic in their varied personalities.

NeighborhoodSF brings a visual life to the people, places and things that create our environment. With over 40 original paintings, illustrations and installations, the artists involved in NeighborhoodSF have created a body of work that is a worthy and relevant representation of of this great City.

To say the show is star-studded would be an understatement… With the likes of Mike Giant, Jeremy Fish, Sylvia Ji, MARS-1, Coro [Justin Kaufman], Nate Van Dyke and Adam 5100 just to name a few, this showcase of local, homegrown talent is going to be one for the history books.

Tattooed women combined with beautiful Black Sharpie line work are just some of the techniques that make up the signature style and imagery of Mike Giant [GIANT ONE]. Mike applies them adeptly to illustrate the best parts of what is dark and beautiful about the Mission. His original illustration will be accompanied by limited edition prints available throughout the show dates.

Jeremy Fish made the move from the Sunset to North Beach and never looked back. Whole-heartedly embracing the neighborhood that hugs him back. His medium of choice, painting on a large multi-layered wood cut that brings together all the best parts of San Francisco’s “Little Italy.” Jeremy sought to give something back to the neighborhood that has treated him so well, so he will also be showcasing limited edition silkscreen prints of a unique North Beach piece which will sell for an unprecedented low price of $40! Proceeds will go the homeless outreach organization; North Beach Citizens.

Coro has spent the last few years calling the Tenderloin home and he wouldn’t have it any other way. His dark vision of one of San Francisco’s most haunting neighborhoods will bring chills down your spine and have you begging for more like a TL junkie on Sunday morning.

Illustrations and an installation from Matt Furie will bring to life the psychedelic nostalgia of the Haight-Ashbury District. It’s definitely a fitting locale for his kaleidoscopic monsters and animals.

With all this San Francisco based talent; Adam 5100, Adam Flores, Akira and Helen, Brett Amory, Brian Barneclo, Collin Hill, Coro [Justin Kaufman], David Chong Lee, David Imlay, Eric Bailey, Ferris Plock, Jay Howell, Jeremy Fish, Lee Harvey Roswell, MARS-1, Micah Lebrun, Mike Giant, Nate Van Dyke, Romanowski, Ryan Malley, Sylvia Ji and Wesley Burt, NeighborhoodSF promises to be an amazing and inspiring showcase that truly represents the continuing story of this most wonderful of cities… San Francisco.

Limited edition prints of work by Mike Giant, Jeremy Fish, Sylvia Ji, Coro, and Brett Amory will be made available opening night and for the duration of the show.

Local band City Light and DJ’s Nick Andre and E da Boss will be performing throughout the evening.

The inhabitants of San Francisco make this city the great place that it is, so please come share great space with us.

111 Minna Gallery is delighted to present Ferris Plock+Kelly Tunstall’s SEA OF LOVE, a new body of collaborative works, from August 6 – 29 2009.

The latest large-scale collaborative exhibition by San Francisco-based artists Ferris Plock and Kelly Tunstall, SEA OF LOVE is an entirely new body of work that explores relationships between sailors and mermaids, stories of lost love and misguided navigation, the diversity of creatures inhabiting the oceans and their individual roles as different vessels of possibility.

Plock and Tunstall share a studio space in San Francisco’s Alamo Square and their collaborative work for this exhibit exudes a playful, colorful and whimsical tone, with a fluid intermingling of each artist’s point of view.

Working in acrylic, collage, spray paint, pencil, pen and ink, gold leaf and some secret sauce, the experimental, yet classically grounded works live somewhat comfortably in a space between graphic expression, stylized representation, surrealism, and sketch. The simplicity of the messages are enhanced by the underlying vitality and complex layering within the work.

In her studied portraits, Tunstall renders stylized, leggy female figures and their pets, prey, powers, and dreams. Their physical forms and accompanying exteriors represent and mirror internal thought processes ad turmoil. For instance, frequent themes such as mermaids, twins, or extra limbs concede a desire, a reliance, an adaptation, or more simply, an aspiration to something greater than being a painting. Tunstall has gone on to exhibit internationally and nationally. Tunstall’s has been exhibiting regularly at 111 Minna since 2003.

In contrast, Plock’s work centers on the inner animalistic tendencies and reactions reflected by humans (transfigured into monsters, in some cases) in the context of modern life. Disgruntled animals trying to capture clowns, animals teaching their young how to escape their predicament and even animals that don’t always socialize coming together to aid each other feature prominently in this new exhibit. Born in New Jersey, Plock has been showing his work for over eight years.

On July 2nd, Hamburger Eyes presents EXODUS at 111 Minna Gallery. This exhibition will showcase black and white photography from regular contributors of Hamburger Eyes Photo Magazine. Photographs will range in size from large murals of 8 feet x 10 feet, to the traditional standard of 8 inches by 10 inches.

The shows title, “EXODUS” evokes not only the feelings of mass migration, but of transmogrification. Hamburger Eyes Photo Magazine, subtitled “The continuing story of Life on Earth”, has dedicated their pages to the study of the human condition. And, in this exhibit they intend to display their visions of transcendence from past, present, and future-kind. It is a mission of containing time by setting it free, thus shall begin the EXODUS.

This event will also celebrate the release of Hamburger Eyes Issue 013. Hamburger Eyes Photo Magazine is based in San Francisco. It is off-set printed in black and white on glossy stock, perfect bound with a cardstock cover, holding 150 pages at a run of 3000 copies. Hamburger Eyes is carried in shops, stores, libraries, galleries, and museums across the entire planet.

A new installation of epic proportions from Sacramento, CA artist Skinner | June 4- June 27th, 2009

Watch this: http://vimeo.com/4976900
Artwork & Music by Skinner TheArtofSkinner.com
Animation by Jim Dirschberger of EightyFourFilms.com

111 Minna Gallery is proud to present “Worship Thee Kindly The Dark Hand That Guides Me”, an exhibition showcasing new and recent works from Skinner. This full bore installation of sculpture, paintings and mixed media work will mark Skinner’s first major solo effort and will be available for enhanced 3-D viewing on the night of the opening reception.

Like some fantastical LSD nightmare, the art of skinner is a full bore visual assault that maintains a vicious stranglehold on one’s senses. Rivers of blood cut valleys out of crystal mountains that cradle the battleground of the war for evermore. From the ashes and dust rises one warrior, a very strange warrior, on a mission to destroy preconceptions of visual art and paradigm all the while maintaining a very very dark sense of humor.

Sacramento, CA resident Skinner has carefully crafted a balanced triad of impressive mural work, overwhelmingly intense wall to wall installations and a prolific commercial career. A product of 80′s pop culture, early skateboarding scenes, a broken home, dungeons and dragons and a lot of heavy metal, Skinner’s mind is one full of meyhem driven by a calculated chaos.

Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat, 12pm-5pm, Saturday, 1pm-5pm and viewing by appointment. 111 Minna Gallery is located at the corner of Minna and 2nd Street in downtown San Francisco. The Gallery offers a full bar and welcomes ages 21 and over.

Curator Contact
Gabe Scott
415.974.1719
scott.gabe@gmail.com

Steve Johnson was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, a beautiful yet formidable desert landscape; his childhood memories consist mostly of being extremely hot and playing with the lawn hose to cool off. Johnson moved to San Francisco in 1996 where he lived for almost ten years. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in printmaking and painting in 2003 and received an M.F.A. in painting and drawing from Arizona State University in 2008. Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Drawing at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.