San Francisco

941 Geary Gallery Presents: “Young and Free” Contemporary Australian Street Artists (San Francisco, CA)

September 4, 2011 , , , , , ,

young and free

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“I like renegades – there’s something so attractive about their natural instinct to defy convention.” Anon.

Some call Australia the ‘lucky country’, but we’ve always made our own fate. From a rebellious pas we’ve forged an identity steeped in cunning ingenuity, creative discontent and unorthodox flair. We’ve staged rebellions over rum, gained notoriety and won Nobels. We invented cask wine and Wi-Fi and we’ve won countless world titles. There may not be a lot of us, but we’ve always packed a punch.

So it is no surprise that with nothing more than a can of paint and a glint in their eye Australians are taking the street art scene by storm. It’s time for the rest of the world to sit up and take notice.

Young & Free will be the most significant exhibition by Australian street artists ever seen in the United States. The show will feature fresh work by thirteen of Australia’s finest urban art guerrillas – from the already internationally acclaimed to the burgeoning up-and-comers.

This tribe of artists comes from a variety of backgrounds: brilliant new work by notorious 80’strain painters through to the sublime subtlety of a modern day Rembrandt armed with a spray can. Young & Free is a reflection of Australia’s thriving street culture with a strong grounding in the past and a firm focus on the future. These artists are modern day bushrangers, patrolling the lanes from Melbourne to Manhattan.

This show features a mix of direct sprays, stencils and paste-ups, representing the rich and varied groundings from which these artists have grown. No matter their age, medium or style, the Young & Free artists all share one thing in common: they want to give the urban landscape a fresh coat of paint.

There are many similarities between Australia and San Francisco. Both have famous bridges, internationally established street art cultures and, of course, trams. What is different is our beginnings. Australia’s criminal foundations have seeped into our national persona – Aussies are born with a spirit of rebellion. As the opening lines from our national anthem proclaim, ‘Australians all let us rejoice, for we are Young & Free.’

The cans have been capped, the wheat paste stirred, and the stencils packed: this is the most important Australian street art exhibition ever, mate.

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Spoke Art Gallery Presents New Works by: Handiedan, Craww, Charmaine Olivia and Tatiana Suarez (San Francisco, CA)

August 29, 2011 , , , , ,

Spoke Art
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Spoke Art Gallery

September Group Exhibition

Featuring: Handiedan, Charmaine Olivia, Craww and Tatiana Suarez

Opening night September 1, 2011 6pm – 10pm

show on view through September 22, 2011

Spoke Art is pleased to present our September Group Show featuring four artists from around the world.  While there is a similar subject matter, each artist has their own individual aesthetic, form of medium and exploration of technique for representing the female figure in a substantially different way. We are excited to announce that all four artists will be in attendance.

Handiedan’s layered and intricate collages are influenced by old pin-up girl posters and movie images.  She collects found items in the streets, old buildings, flea markets, and during her travels which she then later alters to create new works.  In her artwork you can find Chinese post papers, cook book pages, old stamps, fabric, rusty nails, dried flowers, currency, and old movie posters. Charmaine Olivia’s arresting oil paintings capture sensual tattooed women.  Whether they are wearing a fox mask, a feathery headdress, or there is a ship emerging from a tangle of black hair, it is hard to pull your eyes away from these beauties.  In a recent interview she says, “As most of my paintings are some sort of reflection of me, this is me living vicariously through them.” Craww uses graphite and acrylic paints to fabricate seductively dark and fantastical women who come to him in his day-dreams.  He enjoys seeing his creations evolve into something unexpected as he paints.  He describes his work as “stream of consciousness doodlings and paintings.  Steeped in ambiguity, often melancholic and usually featuring big hands and crows.”  Tatiana Suarez is a multifaceted artist who primarily uses oils although you can also find her on the streets painting murals with a graffiti can.  Her fascination with faces and emotional facial expression inspires her to create unique and vivid portraits.  Touching on symbols and mythology from her Brazilian and El Salvadorian background, her trademark wide-eyed girls conjure other-worldly fantasy.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Handiedan, also known as Hanneke Treffers, was born in 1981 in a small town in the Netherlands.  Recently, her work has been shown at: Phone Booth Gallery (Long Beach, CA), Mondo Bizzarro Gallery (Rome, Italy), and a solo show at Unit 44 (Newcastle, UK). She now lives and works in Amsterdam.

Charmaine Olivia is a self taught artist originally from San Diego, CA.  Some of her clients and projects include: Urban Outfitters, Lady Gaga, Volcom Stone, Element, Nylon Magazine, Eyes on Walls, and Society 6. Recently she has had shows in San Francisco at Project One Gallery, Public Works, 111 Minna, Vessel (Oakland) , and C.A.V.E Gallery (Venice, CA). She is currently living in San Francisco.

Craww  Recently he has shown with London Miles Gallery, Phone Booth Gallery (Long Beach, CA) and had a successful solo show entitled Crooked Comfort at C.A.V.E. in Venice, CA. Craww currently resides in Sheffield, England.

Tatiana Suarez was born in 1983 and is a graduate of the University of Miami’s graphic design program.  Her work has been seen at Primary Flight, Art Basel (Miami, FL), Art Whino Gallery (MD) and our own Quentin vs. Coen show (NYC). After living in Miami, she has recently migrated to Brooklyn, NY where she is a full time artist.

http://spoke–art.com/

Spoke Art Gallery

816 Sutter St.

San Francisco, CA 94109

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Fifty24SF Gallery Presents: LUSH “Lush Sells His Soul in San Francisco” (San Francisco, CA) Images NSFW

August 4, 2011 , , , , ,

LUSH
brooklyn-street-art-lush-fifty24sf-gallery-1brooklyn-street-art-lush-fifty24sf-gallery-2Upper Playground & FIFTY24SF Gallery Presents:
Lush Sells His Soul in San Francisco
FIFTY24SF Gallery presents “Lush Sells His Soul in San Francisco” a solo exhibition and installation by Melbourne, Australia’s LUSH opening August 5th at 7pm.

LUSH is a graffiti writer who likes porn, kittens, and making people angry. His work features male and female genitalia juxtaposed with comedic messages and comic book illustrative style. He sometimes makes people, especially other members of the graffiti community, upset with his pornography graffiti, tongue-in-cheek videos, and unfiltered twitter and interview statements. When he is at his most theatrical, LUSH makes artwork inspired by other graffiti writers, created in an absurdist style demanding a call and response. Some see the work as equally offensive, equally humorous. His recent photo shoots require naked female models/strippers/porn stars to interact with his graffiti. In a recent conversation, LUSH has called Larry David an idol. Is he serious? Who the fuck does this guy LUSH think he is?

Known as both a controversial talent and grand shit talker, LUSH comes to FIFTY24SF Gallery as a much-talked about artist who has invigorated the Flickr and Twitter community over the past 24 months with the spread of his graffiti. For his first solo show in San Francisco, LUSH explores the idea that gallery shows should be events more than a place to see art. Example: If you like women naked in front of your graffiti, bring the nudity to the gallery. LUSH and team have created a real-life installation peep show, featuring models from San Francisco’s iconic nude revue, the Lusty Lady. The exhibition will also feature a new series of works on canvas. Mostly, LUSH plans on keeping up on some contemporary shit-talk.

LUSH asks that you remember to bring your $1 bills to the show.

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Fifty24SF Gallery Presents: “See you in Croatan” – A San & Escif road show. (San Francisco, CA)

June 21, 2011 , , , , ,

Fifty24SF
brooklyn-street-art-San-Escif-FIFTY24SF- GalleryFIFTY24SF Gallery in Association with Upper Playground presents:
“See you in Croatan” – A San & Escif road show.

“We were taught in elementary school that the first settlements in North America failed; the colonists disappeared, leaving behind them only the cryptic message “Gone to Croatan”. The very first colony in the New World chose to renounce its contract with the Empire and go over to the Wild Men. They dropped out. They became ‘Indians,’ ‘went native,’ opted for chaos over the appalling miseries of serfing for the plutocrats and intellectuals of London” – TAZ, Hakim Bey

SAN FRANCISCO, CA [6.21.11] — FIFTY24SF Gallery presents “See you in Croatan” a road show by San & Escif opening on June 30th, 2011.

“See you in Croatan” is an experimental research project which will cross the lives and experiences of two friends, Spanish artists San and Escif, in a random road trip across the West Coast of the United States. Their mission is to work as far away as possible from doctrines, imperialisms and linear reasoning, searching for beauty in errors and fortuitous tools, working with intuition and hazard; trying to light relations, transitions and processes; working with research as the way itself; understanding chaos as an ideal space for creation.

brooklyn-street-art-San-Escif-FIFTY24SF- GalleryEscif & San (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

From Escif:
I’ve spent a few days thinking about the project, and about the way we are approaching it. The idea of generating a third language seems like it’s not working very well, at least not in a practical way. Certainly it is a path that should become stronger during the journey, but so far it has seemed to be more of an impediment than the correct path. We already knew that teamwork is very complex, but I think it is a lot harder when the roles on the team are not well established. Because then the fight between the two egos grow to see who is the one directing the movie (I´m thinking out loud) and its something that gets more complex when the two directors (you and I) have such different ways of working.

From San:
I completely understand what you say. I think we have to be practical, although we both like to navigate riskier terrain than we normally would on our own. Team work is hard, and even more so when obsessive perfectionists like us work together, each with our own story, but it is what it is. When I made the two drawings that I sent you, I always thought that what I was doing was twisting my work a little bit to get closer to a new “skin”, not so much trying to invent a third language. I think that´s exactly where the focus of the expo should be, in making an effort to get out of our safe zone and dig into something a little less personal, but using our powers, of course…

FIFTY24SF Gallery Contact Information:
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Sunday from 12-6 P.M. and by appointment
Address: 218 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94117

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Chor Boogie Curates “Art Official Truth” At Art One Gallery (San Francisco, CA)

June 9, 2011 , , , ,

Chor Boogie

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THE ART OFFICIAL TRUTH…

Curated by Chor Boogie

June 17th – August 6th 2011

Chor Boogie brings to Project One Gallery an exclusive summer exhibition: The ArtOFFICIAL Truth. Originality speaks volumes, and art always speaks the truth. These two combined create a massive force, which allows artists to express themselves fully, without borders, judgment or fear.

The ArtOFFICIAL Truth features an array of artists, spanning from across the continent. This exhibit will be show new works and sculptures by:

DECOY

PABLO CRISTI

KELLY ALLEN

SHARKTOOF

ROBERT BURDEN

AARON NAGEL

CRASH

VULCAN

APEX

HOW & NOSM

SARATOGA SAKE

JOHN KOLEZAR

BAST & KAREN LIGHT

JEFFEREY PENA

ASHLEY ZELENSKIE

SARAH FISHER

ALFREDO “LIBRE” GUITIERREZ

DOGADI

LAURA WEYL

ROBYN TWOMEY

AKIRA BEARD

JET MARTINEZ

YIYING LU

CHASE TAFOYA

LUCID DAWN

KELLY ORDING

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Jetsonorama : To Dogpatch With Love

April 11, 2011 , , ,

“It was fascinating during the installation to observe neighbors who have seen one another for years stopping to hang out, talk and meet one another.  So it’s cool to think that after the images are down, the friendships will continue.” ~Jetsonorama

Street Artist Jetsonorama likes to take pictures of people and create large scale portraits of them to wheatpaste in their own community with the goal of fostering connectedness among neighbors.

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Pat rises in the Dogpatch section of San Francisco by Street Artist Jetsonorama. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Using a friends’ building in San Francisco for a backdrop, he worked last week to put up portraits of two people and a neighborhood dog, BB.  The Dogpatch section of San Francisco is the only part of the city left standing after the 1906 earthquake and the fires that followed it. Officially deigned a historic district in 2003, the nine square block section was initially an immigrant neighborhood with hand-built workers’ cottages, factories, and warehouses, many still standing.

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Neighbors Pat and Imogene, by Jetsonorama. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama gives us some background on the project here:

“Bruno Mauro of Ampersand International Arts in Dogpatch knew I’ve been exploring the idea of using art to build community through my wheat pasting project on the Navajo nation.  He was kind enough to literally offer me his home (after consulting with his wife, Surma), to pursue the idea of community building using his home as a canvas.

In exploring this idea here, Bruno suggested I meet Patricia Parker and her mother, who have lived in Dogpatch in their current house for 50 years or so.  Both Patricia and her mom attended Irving M. Scott school, which was built in the 1890s and is the oldest standing public school in San Francisco.  Together, these two people are dogpatch history, and they know it.

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BB in the Dogpatch with love. Jetsonorama. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Imogen Doumani lives across the street from the gallery and from Pat.  She represents the youthful vibe coming into the neighborhood.  BB the beagle is representing those who give the area it’s name.

The piece is composed of regular bond paper from Fedex/Kinko’s adhered to the wall with wheat paste I made.  It’s susceptible to the elements and will go away with time.  My hope is that the conversations and community-building started with this project will continue long after the piece is down.”

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BB with friends. Jetsonorama. (photo © Jetsonorama)

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Long time resident Pat smiling at her neighbors. Jetsonorama. (photo © Jetsonorama)

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Wheatpasted Photography “One Year Before the Oil Spill”

April 7, 2011 , , , , ,

Photographer Michael M. Koehler Talks About Shrimpers on a Brooklyn Street

The devastation produced by the BP oil disaster continues to affect the animals and people who live on the southern coast of the US and during an overcast day yesterday in Brooklyn a black and white memory of life as it was before the spill appeared on the street. Over top of a pretty battered Shepard Fairey installation from spring of last year a photograph by Michael M Koehler called “One Year Before the Oil Spill” was installed. The piece is from a series he did about life for people impacted by the polluted environment entitled Along Bayou Road.

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Michael M Koehler “A Year Before the Oil Spill” (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

Talking to a passerby, Mr. Koehler explained that after the largest oil spill in US history, citizens who live along the gulf coast are afraid to eat the shrimp caught in the Gulf of Mexico. In the image he captures the vibrancy of sea life, culture, and commerce with gulls flying over while the nets of “shrimpers” harvest the waters to support their families and the local economy. These days, Mr. Koehler says that stores and restaurants are importing shrimp because nobody wants to buy the local production.

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Michael M Koehler “A Year Before the Oil Spill” (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

The north Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg was once a bustling port town in the 1800s and Koehler chose this spot for his piece because he feels it has a certain kinship with the seafacing communities down south. In fact if you had been on these same streets in say, 1827, you would have seen daily industry related to cargo ships, shipbuilding (the Brooklyn Navy Yard is just next door to the West), sugar refineries, iron works, and brewing. With this wheat pasted series, Koehler draws attention to the plight of a life and industry imperiled.

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Michael M Koehler “A Year Before the Oil Spill” (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

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Michael M Koehler “A Year Before the Oil Spill” (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

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Michael M Koehler “A Year Before the Oil Spill” Detail (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

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Michael M Koehler “A Year Before the Oil Spill” (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

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Michael M Koehler. A shrimper portrait from his Along Bayou Road series.  (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

Now it’s time to put on an old vinyl 45 and listen to Jerry Jackson singing about “Shrimp Boats” and get a 1950s taste of a celebrated part of culture and cuisine.

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