art in riverside? who knew?

After a rambunctious show last night (see below) we packed up Bonano's Scion and took a field trip to Riverside, home of Nate Frizzell and Jeff Soto. Not for no reason, but we went to see "The Big Sad" at the Riverside Art Museum with Barry McGee and Clare Rojas.




When we got there, the RAM was closed, so we went across the street to one of my collegiate haunts - the Riverside Brewing Company. Not important to the story here, but they renamed it "Raxx" - probably one of the lease appetizing restaurant names I've heard.

Yoskay and Nate enjoyed the Hefeweizen all the same...



Two sampler platters later...



Once inside we were able to check out some of Barry's typical geometrics. Here is Scott telling people he is Mr. McGee.





You really have to love Riverside...with the only museum in the world that served root beer floats from a keg.



A little more art.



Come back later for some behind the scene studio shots from Yoskay Yamamoto and Edwin Ushiro. I picked both guys up on the way to RAM and made them show me work in progress as both gentlemen have solo shows coming up at the gallery.

opening reception

Last night we were lucky enough to have some really great guys in the show. Ken Garduno and Tom Haubrick really killed it with some fantastic black and white (and a little color) artwork.

Here are Ken and Tom, two talented and handsome young men.



The show was fun, and even though we were technically supposed to close at 10p, it was kind of hard to kick anyone out as people were still diggin the work...so we just kept it going until close to midnight.





I just posted all the show photos to our flickr account, and you can see all of the artwork still available here.

This afternoon we are cruising to the Riverside Art Museum to check out the Barry McGee/Clare Rojas opening. Come meet us out there!

color free

The "color blind" show featuring Ken Garduno and Tom Haubrick is this Saturday, but we have posted the preview online already! So those of you reading the blog get a sneak peek.

Here is one I find really haunting yet strangely seductive from Nate Frizzell:



It has been in my studio the last couple of days, so everytime I look up there she is. Nate also has some process pics on his blog (link is to the right) Kind of cool to see the painting taking shape.

Join us Saturday evening, for what I think will be a fun evening.

flick this

Friday afternoon we had a new webstore called Shopflick in to shoot some footage about the gallery and our artists. A really nice crew brought a whole bunch of equipment in...my only question was why we didn't have catering, wardrobe and makeup people?

Yoskay and Scott were a little nervous to get in front of the camera





I am not entirely sure Yosk understood what they were asking him, as he kept asking us for answers. In the end I think he pulled it off marvelously, and got to hype up his upcoming solo show in May. The exec producer was even ready to buy a piece Yoskay brought in to preview for us...





We finished the day with more filming at the studio where Nate demonstrated his typing skills.

All in all it was a very nice and lazy Friday afternoon. I will make sure to post the interviews when they are all complete...

the city

Back in LA today to shoot a video for Shopflick, but spent yesterday in my home town of San Francisco.

Had a chance to visit some of my favorite old haunts including grabbing some dim sum at the one and only Yank Sing. If you like dim sum, don't eat here, because you will not be able to eat anyone else's ever again. YS is just too good...and happens to be owned by my friend Vera.

I did stop by Gallery 1988 to visit the always nice Katie. I had intended on bringing her some dim sum, but I ate it all on the drive over...sorry Katie. She has a very impressive body of work from Kathie Olivas, and a big show from Stella Hultberg coming up. Go check it out.



Fecal Face Gallery is supposed to have a show this weekend that Tessar is in. I tried to drop by, but they were on lockdown. Apparently they have some relatively odd hours.



I also stopped by GRSF and was a little underwhelmed by their current show. I did however like this painting of Lo Pan from one of my favorite cult flicks "Big Trouble in Little China." I totally flaked on getting the artists name - sorry dude, my bad.





Back in LA now...and getting ready to watch some March Madness....

sketchy

Visiting San Frandisco today, but thought I could squeeze a quick post in. Resident artist Nate Frizell just shot a pair of great videos with Sketch Theater.

These are pretty fun to watch, and he is in good company in the Theater along with the likes of Shawn Barber, Luke Chueh, Travis Louie and more...

weekend artiness

A little bit of a late post, but we had a pretty fun filled Saturday night of art cruising. Started off at the new Cerasoli Gallery to check out a great show from a Canadian (eh?) artist Theresa Sapergia. If I had some coin and a lot of wall space, I would be all over her work.



Pretty easy to see why...and I actually am pretty sure my fiance would dig it too. Nothing beats scale.





Theresa and gallery owner Freddi Cerasoli...

From Cerasoli we cruised over to Taylor de Cordoba to see another great show from Claire Oswalt. If you have time, go see this show, at a very nicely run gallery I might add (they stole Jeana Sohn from me, but I still like them)




From TdC to GR2 and their group show themed on the Chinese calendar Year of the Rat. Pretty tough to follow 2 great shows, but there were a few slick pieces in the GR show...including an always awesome Deth P. Sun. That guys paintings always seem to put a smile on my face.



...even when its just a sketch.



Enough artiness, as an ode to Mikey S. - we cover food. Hurry Curry of Tokyo, a Sawtelle institution, where one member of our party was creeping out our waitress. She insisted she wouldn't come outside to serve us because of the "cold" but I am pretty sure it was the creepy stares she was getting.





...and no it was not this stare...

mmm...tasty

We are still weeks away from our April show,"familiar friends," but artwork is coming in nice and early. We are really happy to get some strong female painters in here to balance all the testosterone from the last few months.

The upcoming "color blind" show will be even more masculinity, but April will fix that with imports Lisa Alisa, Erika Yamashiro and Cherri Wood. Erika got us her paintings early, and while you can come check them out, they were all purchased quick! Though she is rumored to be sending us a new one or two...

Oh, and I almost forgot! There will be one more artist we are sneaking into LA for the show, but I have a feeling when people get a whiff of this young lady's work it might not be around for long either...

yoskay vs. the internet

Gallery resident Yoskay Yamamoto is adding to his electronic repertoire with a fresh new blog. Currently only available on myspace, Mr. Yamamoto has been coerced into a blogspot by his nefarious roommates and co-conspirators Msrs. Lo and Frizzell...it is only a matter of time before even Scott Belcastro winds up on the internet as well.

Yoskay is gearing up for what is likely an impressive solo exhibition this May by selling just about everything he's got. Most recently he went international with his diptych "Gods of Thunder and Wind." So International...

dunk this

Not totally sure if everyone has heard about DGPH - the Argentine design duo. We had a little show with them last year, but the boys are blowing up - so you better get to know them quickly.

With several toys releasing at Comic-con this summer the guys are hard at work on a big Nike project. They recently painted the windows and walls at several Nike stores in Buenos Aires and are working on an installation at the new Nike Dunk Store.

We actually have a few small pieces of artwork from DGPH in our inventory, so take a look before they get all crazy on us!

See you guys this summer...

ladies night

So Saturday night we opened the "kaleidoscope" show and pretty quickly closed it down. Rebecca Urias and Dan-ah Kim sold out their work in quick order and all the artists had strong openings. Rebecca also put together a huge papercut window installation for us:





We will be posting all the show photos online later, but in the meantime you can check out the artwork here.

You can also take a look at 2 new prints releasing today from Rebecca on Paper Tiger. I don't think they will last long, so go check it out now!

kaleidoscope preview

wow, the show is looking great, and we have posted a preview if you want to check it out online: Jen Corace (above) just killed us with an army of uniformity...

...and Rebecca has been working on an insane window display for us - making her own "kaleidoscope" out of some of her images...





and who could forget the too too cute Allison Cole. Allison sent us a whole slew of the craziest paper cut pieces. I think I would have serious issues attempting to cut that small...



Either way, we hope you can join us on Saturday!

busy busy week

Almost too much going on down at the project:gallery this week.

First we have a killer show on Saturday. The work is in and I am having a hard time deciding on my favorite - not that I would tell you. Katy Horan has an amazing large piece - not even sure I have seen work from her that big. Dan-ah Kim totally blew me away, as her mixed media pieces are just beautiful. Rebecca Urias finally hooked up some frames that truly set her pieces off - but we knew her pieces would be great - as they always are. Allison Cole rocked some crazy paper cuts - you have to see these to believe! No sneak peeks yet, have to wait til Thursday preview.




Phew...number 2 - the boys are doing a live paint at Munky King Melrose Thursday night. Should be lots of fun, as there will be music and beverages. Sadly no original work for sale - but there will be some new prints. Here's an old pic of Yoskay painting with no sleeves. He prefers to use his appendages as a palette - so any time you can watch him paint its fun.

analog color interview

So our friend Jeremy Asher Lynch just shot an AMAZING piece on one of the gallery artists, Tessar Lo.

Jeremy's show "Analog Color" is one of the most professionally finished artist interviews we have seen yet, and we could not be happier. There are 2 parts to this mini-documentary interview - and definitely worth watching both.

For your viewing pleasure, we present - Analog Color: