Santa Monica

Miss Van “Wild at Heart” At Copro Gallery (Santa Monica, CA)

Miss Van

Miss Van. Studio Photograph by © Stefan Kocev

 

MISS VAN
“Wild at Heart”

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 11, 2012  8pm-11:30pm
On View: August 11 – September 1, 2012

Copro Gallery – Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave, Unit T5
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Tel: 310.829.2156
www.copronason.com

As part of its commitment to support art initiatives from around the world, Citizens of Humanity is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Miss Van’s Los Angeles exhibition “Wild at Heart” at Copro Gallery on Saturday, August 11, 2012.

Internationally known for her poupées, the French word for dolls, Miss Van’s dreamlike narratives are filled with spontaneity and lightness. Yet they also reveal a darker side that has evolved from her experience as an acclaimed graffiti artist.

Miss Van’s new series of paintings and drawings on paper and wood continues to combine her seductive and delicate muses with animals, adding a bestial element to her work. However, she introduces masks to her imagery, creating a trifecta of complexity, ambiguity and mystery.

Choosing to focus on details while isolating different body parts, such as eyes and mouth, Miss Van adds, “The masks allow me to show more feelings, other sides of a same character, hiding the face, partly or totally and embracing the animal strength, personality and attitude. I am illustrating the chemistry between the feminine delicacy and the bestial instinct, natural and raw and we all have this duality inside.”

To celebrate the opening of “Wild at Heart,” Citizens of Humanity will debut a new t-shirt collaboration with Miss Van, which will be given as a complimentary gift to guests at the reception. She will also be featured in the premiere issue of a new collectible print publication by Citizens of Humanity launching this August. Miss Van notes, “Thanks to Citizens of Humanity for its support, this show will definitely come out more complete and powerful than before.”

The opening reception for “Wild at Heart,” takes place Saturday, August 11 at Copro Gallery from 8pm-11:30pm, and is open to the public. The exhibition will be on view through September 1, 2012.

Miss Van
Miss Van started wall painting in the streets at the age of 18, initiating the feminine movement in street art. Her sultry female characters began to pop up on city center walls in the mid 1990s and they instantly possessed a timeless quality, as if women had always painted such graffiti in the streets. The more she moved into gallery work and could work with the nuances of more fragile media than the streets would allow, her characters grew more sensitive, subtle, and delicately rendered. She is now exhibiting all around the world from New York to Los Angeles, Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, etc.), and Asia. She has shown in art centers and museums such as the city gallery of Schwaz in Austria (curator: Karin Perrnegger), the Baltic Art Center in the UK and the Von der Heydt Museum, Kunsthalle in Wuppertal, Germany. Miss Van was featured in MoCA’s 2011 exhibition “Art in the Streets,” and she has shown with some of the greatest artists such as Os Gemeos, Mike Giant, Banksy, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Ryan McGinness, Takashi Murakami, Ed Templeton, and many others. For more information about the artist, please visit www.missvan.com.

 

 

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Street Art:Downtown LA, Culver City, West Hollywood, Echo Park, and Venice

In select neighborhoods of Los Angeles, certain street artists keep it local. You might see them in one neighborhood but not another, as the term “all-city” is not too important. Here’s a selection of pieces from the Arts District, Culver City, West Hollywood, Echo Park and Venice.

brooklyn-street-art-ben-aine-jaime-rojo-Los-angeles-venice-art-district-culver-city-west-hollywood-04-11-web-23Ben Eine in Venice (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR in Venice (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR in Venice (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Proving that it isn’t just for bankers, here’s Bankrupt Slut in Culver City (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bankrupt Slut in Culver City (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Longtime Los Angeles Street Artist Becca in Echo Park (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Becca in the Art District in Downtown LA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Classic piece from Blek Le Rat in Echo Park (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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I’ve got an idea! Let’s do a cat stencil in Downtown LA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cfer does Kim Kardashian in Downtown LA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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These Curly stickers showed up very quickly in LA this week. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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D*Face in Sunset Blvd (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Invader, a visitor sticker from MOCA, and a Beatlesque statement about graffiti artist Revok in Little Tokyo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A feeding fest from Kim West in The Art District LA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JH in The Art District LA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Word to Mother in Culver City (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pornography and Taxidermy in Sunset Blvd (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This piece near the museum in Little Tokyo was well placed for a lot of traffic and there were even a few people posing with it. Love More War Less  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Picasso’s famous anti-war “Guernica” is reinterpreted here by Street Artist Ron English in The Art District (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shepard Fairey lurking behind the fence on Sunset Blvd (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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An Obey sticker in Little Tokyo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shepard Fairey, Uti, and Charm in Little Tokyo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A sticker crush in Little Tokyo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Robert Berman Gallery C2 Present: “REVOLUTIONS: THE ALBUM COVER ART OF SHEPARD FAIREY” (Santa Monica, CA)

Shepard Fairey
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REVOLUTIONS: THE ALBUM COVER ART OF SHEPARD FAIREY

OPENING RECEPTION:

MARCH 12TH, 2011, 8-11PM

EXHIBITION DATES:

3/12 – 4/23/11

ROBERT BERMAN GALLERY C2

2525 MICHIGAN AVE

SANTA MONICA, CA 90404

OBEY GIANT ART X SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS X ROBERT BERMAN GALLERY ARE PROUD TO PRESENT REVOLUTIONS, A PROJECT FEATURING THE ALBUM COVER ART OF SHEPARD FAIREY. ON EXHIBITION FROM MARCH 12TH THRU APRIL 23RD AT ROBERT BERMAN’S C2 GALLERY, WILL BE OVER 80 PIECES OF PUNK, ROCK, NEW WAVE, JAZZ, AND HIP-HOP INSPIRED ARTWORK BASED ON THE 12″ RECORD COVER FORMAT. TO MARK THIS OCCASION, TWO SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION ALBUM COVER PRINT BOX SETS WILL BE RELEASED FOR THE EXHIBITION. PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE OPENING CELEBRATION ON SATURDAY, MARCH 12TH, 8-11PM.

“LONG BEFORE I KNEW ABOUT ART GALLERIES OR EVEN STREET ART, I WAS EXCITED ABOUT ALBUM COVER ART, IF ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS THE VISUAL COUNTERPART TO THE MUSIC ON THE RECORDS I LOVED. ALBUM COVERS CONJURED A EUPHORIC ASSOCIATION WITH THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE. MOST OF MY EARLIEST HOME-MADE TEE SHIRTS WERE STENCILS BASED ON PUNK ALBUM COVERS. I’VE HAD SOME VERY MOVING ENCOUNTERS WITH ART IN MY LIFE, ESPECIALLY IN THE STREET, BUT ALMOST NOTHING CAN COMPARE WITH THE FIRST TIME I HEARD THE BOOTS MARCHING AND FIRST CHORD OF THE SEX PISTOLS’ HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN, OR THE AIR RAID SIRENS LEADING INTO “TOO BLACK, TOO STRONG” ON THE INTRO TO PUBLIC ENEMY’S IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK, OR THE OPENING GUITAR SCREAM OF BLACK FLAG’SRISE ABOVE. THOSE SONGS DID, AND STILL DO, MAKE MY ARM HAIRS STAND UP. MUSIC IS VISCERAL AND ACCESSIBLE, BUT ALSO HAS THE ADDITIONAL POWERFUL LAYERS OF THE LYRICS, WITH THEIR CONTENT AND POLITICS, AND THE STYLE, POLITICS, AND PERSONALITIES OF THE MUSICIANS THEMSELVES. NO MATTER HOW MUCH I LOVE ART, OR TRY TO CONVINCE MYSELF OF ITS RELEVANCE IN SOCIETY, THE FACT REMAINS THAT MUSIC IS A LOT COOLER AND WAY MORE ABLE TO REACH PEOPLE’S HEARTS AND MINDS’ BUT I’M A POPULIST AND I LOOK AT THIS WAY: I MAY NOT PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, BUT I’M GONNA ROCK IT HARD AS NAILS ANYWAY. WITH MY ART I TRY TO CAPTURE THE SAME ENERGY AND SPIRIT THAT MAKES MUSIC SO POWERFUL AND DEMOCRATIC. REVOLUTIONS IS A CELEBRATION OF ALL THE GREAT MUSIC AND ACCOMPANYING ART THAT HAS INSPIRED ME OVER THE YEARS.”

– SHEPARD

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