they have museums in the OC?

Well apparently they do...as wifey and I attended the fantastic show that opened on Saturday at the Laguna Art Museum.

The show was a sort of celebration of low-brow art, and had work donated from some of the biggest names, to some newcomers.



Wifey checks out some large prints from Shepard Fairey...



One of my favorites - though I am not sure he is ever lumped into lowbrow - Gaijin Fujita...



Art star and KaiKai KiKi repped Seonna Hong...



Speaking of Shepard Fairey...he was on the turntables with none other than Tim Biskup.



This show was a who's who of faces and names in the Lowbrow scene. Artists in attendance included Biskup, Fairey, Seonna Hong, Jason Maloney, and tons more. Gallery owners from across the country were there as well...

Ryden's "Creatrix" below...he's ok...

the kids are alright

Another little update about what the kids are watching...

The summer looks to be really a busy time for both the gallery and for the team. Gearing up for a wedding, Mr. Ushiro's solo, a road trip show in vegas, comic-con, toy releases, and a slew of group shows.

Nate and Tessar just completed their 8-bit paintings. Nate Frizzell's "Conquering Kong" is just plain silly.



Visited Munky King yesterday for some comic con strategy sessions, and got a glimpse of Yoskay's "koibito" black on black proto.



More news soon...

jack long @ gr2

I already told you about Royal Elastics party in Santa Monica, but if you want to check something out on your way there go visit our friend Jack Long's show at GR2.



I stopped by gr2 to say hi to Jack as he was preparing the show. Looks like everything was well prepared...



We really dig Jack's work and our friends at Paper Tiger just did a print with him too. Wifey and I dropped off some Beard Papa cream puffs for Jack and GR guru Eric Nakamura.

royal elastics x mr. ushiro

Designer sneaker company Royal Elastics is launching a series of artist exhibitions at their Santa Monica flagship store.

The first in the lineup is our very own Edwin Ushiro. Royal on Main is hosting an event this Saturday that will tease us with a new piece for his upcoming solo show, plus a new limited edition print available only at Royal on Main.


So subtle...yet so haunting...



Details:

RoyalOnMain will be hosting a summer kickoff event Saturday June 21, 2008 at 7pm-11pm. The event is hosting singer-songwriter and guitarist Tom Brosseau. Along with an art installation and original artwork from famed artist Edwin Ushiro (Limited Edition prints available).

Taking place at:
ROYALONMAIN
2427 Main Street Santa Monica, CA 90405

RSVP at: rsvp@royalelastics.com

vancouver in a day

Post Seattle, and after a side trip to Bainbridge Island to visit my friend Blaine, I met up with some friends in Vancouver.

On a side note, there was not much about Vancouver that I would go back for, but the highlight was really the VAG...or Vancouver Art Gallery (really more museum)



VAG had a pretty interesting show called "Krazy" based on comics, manga, anime and video games. Kind of a bit much, but there was some good stuff.

VAG had one room setup as a mini theater and was screening anime all day. I popped in for the final 45 minutes of Akira - one of my favorites...



A huge Mr. sculpture, the Chiho Aoshima video installation that was from Blum and Poe, and tone more.



In a side stairwell I caught a little Barry McGee on the wall. Not sure if it was part of a previous museum visit, but it was well hidden, and I am sure some gallery director just let it remain on the wall...



Vancouver did not offer much else, but at least you could get deals on meat.

seattle for a day

Spent the last week away from my computer visiting Seattle and Vancouver with some friends. Had a great day in Seattle visiting a couple of galleries and friend and artist Blaine Fontana.

Made the first stop at BLVD gallery where Bigfoot was setting up a show:



Hiding from the camera, a shy Bigfoot and I chatted about shows, galleries and the corporate world. Most people don't know, but Bigfoot was one of the founding fathers of footwear company iPath.



Next door to BLVD is one of the stalwarts of the new contemporary movement: Roq la Rue Gallery. Gallery owner Kirsten Anderson and I grabbed a great lunch down the street and discussed the past and present of this movement...



Got a couple of my guys showing with her in the next year, so it was great to see her venue in action...though there might be some big changes coming soon...

She was setting up a show as well, and was preparing for her 10 year anniversary. Very very impressive career.

One huge piece in gallery was from Robert Burden's recent show. Awesome.



More Seattle info in a bit...

sleep warm

Two quick posts here...

At the Scion event discussed below, Tessar Lo was dropping the first issue in a series of zines he has planned titled "Sleep Warm"

It is a beautifully done zine, with illustrations and writings from Tessar. Keep an eye out for it, as it is in a pretty small run. I might have an issue or two in the gallery, but you have to come in and ask really nicely - or buy one of his remaining pieces...

from the weekend...scion and runways...

Late update from Saturday night shenanigans. Went back to the taco stand from the other night and took Nate Frizzell and Molly. We noticed a large gathering of people in the street at the Indie Collective a sort of store/gallery hybrid.




They were doing a kind of model/runway show...it was a little weird and since we were standing in the street I really felt like we were about to get run over.



From there we went to go support our friends J.Shea and Tanner Goldbeck at their big Scion Gallery show:



Lots of fun, and got some great pics, but I don't want to make this post too long. The guys priced their work extremely fairly, and even after two recent purchases I had to suck it up and grab this ridiculously cool sculpture from Joe.



Thanks Joe! Try to make it down to see their show...

scott belcastro's got new work

During the recent Culver City Artwalk, our newest artist Scott Belcastro received an overwhelmingly positive feedback. He has been really hunkered down and working on a series of really moving paintings.

Scott has some new pieces on his blog - if you want to see them in person come down to the gallery. His work is so unbelievably soft and detailed, that they really are not done justice online. That said, I am not even posting a picture.

You will just have to come visit us.

VANS x Niagara

After some kickas tacos, we finally made it to the Vans party. It was a release event for their new shoe collaboration with 80's lowbrow pop artist Niagara.



From her 70's punk band "Destroy All Monsters" to her recent shows across the globe, Niagara is certainly bordering on icon status...and her Vans looked killer.



A good crowd, and a nice large body of new work from the artist to go with the shoes.



Ran into a bunch of friends too, including the missing in action Derek Albeck.



The best thing about the night was the coupon for a set of free Vans customs. I immediately went home and ordered up a pair of black on black slip ons, with green piping. 5-6 weeks and i'll be rocking some new kicks...thanks Vans!

kick ass tacos

On the way to a VANS vip event for old school lowbrow artist Niagara, I spotted something new in my Culver City neighborhood - Kickass Tacos.

Edwin was in the passenger seat and nearly got whiplash as I threw the car into a U turn.



What I had spotted was a giant hunk of meat on a roaster.



Apparently there is a little taco stand up thu-sat evenings outside of Xotic on Washington. The proprietors are super nice, even giving us a free taco. I highly recommend the pork tacos. They are kickass.

project:gallery invades santa monica

We spent the day in Santa Monica checking out the Royal Elastics flagship store. Got some things planned there including a block party, show and installation from Edwin Ushiro on June 21st. (details to follow - but put it on your calendar)



The store just opened a few months ago, but is looking pretty nice. We miss the MOCA Store, but this should do...



Nice kicks, but i am kind of a Vans guy.



Stay tuned as Mr. Ushiro mashes it up with Royal Elastics...

"pop-up"

I mentioned we were hosting a "pop-up" show during the Artwalk, but managed to get a few pictures back. Here is Team Nippon, consisting of Yuta Onoda and Yoskay Yamamoto preparing for Ninja Warrior...



Somehow Yoskay became the "pop-up" greeter...



Inside the show, we managed to convert a brick warehouse into a pretty nice space, with over 50 pieces on the walls of 3 large rooms. Steady flow of people all day...





Thanks to my team for working such a long day!

sold to the man in back

Sunday was the final show and auction for the previously discussed Scion installation tour.

We had the chance to bid on anything and everything from a Blek le Rat stencil (sold for $11k) to other more humbling pieces of art that sold for $100...

Here's me signing in to maybe buy something i cant afford.



Pretty quite day, not nearly as busy as it was a year ago.



Though Freddi C managed to make a splash. Here is hoping we see Edwin Ushiro in this tour next year.



Yoskay Yamamoto sold his for a final bid of $1850. Its really a pretty awesome little sculpture - but not nearly as cool as the giant 5' bust he sent to Scion at the beginning. They had a little accident and pretty much destroyed it, but he was able to make something a little more portable for them...



I ended up with a little something something, but was handily outbid for the pieces i wanted most...

artwalk 2.0

This Saturday was the Culver City Artwalk, which was as crowded as last year. We had a nice calm in the morning as we prepared for our annual morning brunch...



The Royal/T maids stopped by for a visit. They heard we had the best show in town, so wanted to feel like they were part of the team...if only for the day.



The day was almost too busy to take pictures, as we were running a "pop-up" show across the street and the gallery. With Kim running "pop-up" and wifey and I in the gallery we are going to have to wait until we get some pics back from friends.

It was insanely busy all day though, and we were not able to close up until almost 9p. If you were not able to make it the "insider trading" show, images will go online tomorrow, so keep checking back.

Afterwards wifey and I took the team to dinner in K-Town. A huge thanks to our artists for pulling together such great new pieces, and a bigger thanks to our interns who really worked hard the last two weeks on both our new quarterly newsletter and helping to hang the "pop-up" show.



Yoskay takes the best pictures...