If you love James Franco (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t right now?) you should high tail it over to the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. The Oscar host, Academy Award nominee, soap opera star, author, painter, male model, film director, performance artist, and Tweeting mastermind has managed to squeeze one additional bullet point onto his resume: an art exhibit titled “Unfinished.”
I’ve never attended an art show and walked out with homework but this was the case at LA Art Lab’s “Language”. After perusing Typeface (Barbara Kosoff), a piece that puts a spin on the language of typography, I meandered over to a piece titled Field Trip (Jill Vacarra). The caption instructed me to pick up an assignment and take it home with me. I couldn’t commit to just one and therefore grabbed three:
Every piece of plastic that has ever been stamped, “Made in China”, or by any other country for that matter, still exists. Yes, some small portion has been burnt, but that just released toxic gas to the atmosphere. The rest sits in land fills, in your neighborhood park, or swims with the fishes in one of many swirling pools of plastic debris the size of Texas in our oceans. Tonight, two So-Cal boys named Tanner Hoss and Clay Wendel are out to change that.
Their “Oceanic Awareness Collaboration” has brought together 70+ artists from around the world, including my lovely boss lady Barbie Brady and this photographer’s favorite “photo stylist”/artist Renee Lawter, for an art show and silent auction this past weekend in Pamona, CA. I had a chance to chat up the founders for a quick minute over the roar of the show and the following is what they had to say…
This month, Twin Peaks is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Conceived and created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, the haunting TV series ran its fleeting course in the early nineties, suffering tremendous interferences at the hands of ratings-hungry studio execs. Despite its untimely conclusion, Twin Peaks received critical acclaim and spawned a devoted cult following. The plot unfolded around the shocking murder of a prom queen in a fictional Washington town, and the arrival of Seattle FBI agent, Dale Cooper, sent to solve the mystery. The eccentricities and shady undercurrents of small-town life are the heart of the show, though. Coffee, pie, doughnuts, trees and owls – daily staples of Twin Peaks life – became the show’s iconic motifs, and were prominently featured in the artwork of In the Trees – an art event commemorating the series.
Multiplayer, the inaugural art show at Gallery 1988 in Venice, took poster submissions from some 30 artists inspired by the video games of now and yore. Aided by curators OMG Posters! 1988 turned their new home base into a gamers Louvre. The talent within spanned from seasoned artists like Eric Tan, a PIXAR collaborator and Mike Mitchell, who designed the “I’m with Coco” poster, to freelancers Adam Hanson and Markku Metso.
Giant Robot’s physical space in Santa Monica GR2 hosted “Post It Show 6” recently in conjunction with artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson at the helm as curators and I forgot to tell you about it… I did. I had even gone down there and shot nice images of some of the almost 2,000 pieces you could pick up starting at only $20.
While most people consider natural disasters to be dangerous and devastating, Lori Nix regards them as her personal muses. Growing up in rural Kansas, Lori’s childhood was filled with its share of tornados, snowstorms, floods, droughts, and insect infestations. She is also fascinated, or maybe a bit obsessed, as she’ll admit, by the idea of the apocalypse. These forms of nontraditional sources of inspiration have transpired into photographic masterpieces in Lori’s collections like “Accidental Kansas” and “The City.”
The most interesting aspect of Lori’s work is how she goes about creating it. Before she whips out her camera, she spends months constructing incredibly detailed dioramas. Once everything is in place, she’ll photograph her scenes, blow them up, and alas her picture perfect vision of a decaying landscape is born.
Lori took a break from dreaming of destruction and creating ruin in order to give ChinaShop a glimpse into her creative process, tell us about her newest series “The City,” and discuss her kinship with Mother Nature.
This past Saturday Alhambra’s decidedly happening Gallery Nucleus hosted an opening party for their Poster Peepshow exhibition, which features lots of luscious pin up art from the past and present. Cheesecake and erotic artist Olivia De Berardinis, whose work has been prominently featured in the pages of Playboy, signed copies of her books for a seemingly never-ending line of fans, and Suicide Girls Sash and Milloux modeled for a packed live figure drawing session. Original Catwoman Julie Newmar, L.A. glamour gal Lenora Claire, and Runaways producer Kim Fowley were also in attendance.
Conjoined – a superdimensional art show curated by supreme monster painter, Chet Zar, is currently up at Copro Nason gallery, and it is not to be missed.
Conjoined is a collection of work from the cream of the pop surrealism and lowbrow crops, alongside rare work by renowned special effects creators, some of whom have never exhibited in a gallery setting before.
Oceanic Awareness Collaboration and Andi Campognone Projects are proud to present the 1st annual Art for Awareness Benefit. A one night event Saturday, February 26, 2011 from 6 – 11pm, featuring art work by 50 artists from around the country and as far away as the UK and Indonesia.