Tonight, New York’s Joshua Liner Gallery introduces a new exhibition from The Barnstormers, a group of twenty-five improvisational artists that formed in 1999. The group’s body of work consists so far of such large-scale projects as time-lapse videos of the creation of murals and the disassembly/relocation/reassembly of a barn.

In this exhibition, the Barnstormers will present works by the group’s individual artists, all of whom have drawn acclaim in their own right and individual careers. As the unofficial founder of the Barnstormers (which rejects any form of organizational hierarchy), North Carolina native David Ellis is nonetheless the driving force who first drew this intrepid band of artists South. In his own practice, Ellis has received acclaim for freestylin’ installations inspired by popular music and DJ-ing, specifically the ways that image, sound, materials, and technology interconnect in contemporary culture.

To highlight the Barnstormers’ no-holds-barred sense of improvisation and internationalism, the exhibition will include Confessional Booth, a live, transatlantic project by Greater New York alum Ryan McGinness. While currently in Madrid executing his solo show Studio Franchise at La Casa Encendida, McGinness will host one-to-one conversations via Skype videoconferencing throughout the run of the Barnstormers show. Open to all visitors, the “confessionals” will be conducted during set hours from inside a draped cubicle, complementing the artist’s collaborative studio-cum-showroom project occurring simultaneously in the Spanish exhibition.

Visit Joshua Liner for more info on the group and its individual members.

The Barnstormers
Opening reception: 6-9 p.m.
Joshua Liner Gallery
548 West 28th Street 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001

(212) 244-7415

“The Waterhead Who was Raised in a Box,” an oft-discussed and questioned print from Robert Williams has just been released. Production on the incredibly ambitious 144 color serigraph began in 1992 and took a full two years to complete.  A testament to the craft of printmaking, the 30″ x 35″  print (ed. of 125) is  a product of the traditional techniques of hand-separating the colors and hand-pulling the paper — one color, one sheet at a time.  Printed by David Fick and produced by Ed Boswell and Jamie Beardsley, this may very well stand the test of time as one of the pinnacles of technical achievement for serigraph printing.  Giclee may be the defacto standard, but is certainly not the only game in town.

The print is available now through Jet Set Graffiti and Wal-art.  The prints will start s at $2000 / print and will increase $200 for every ten prints sold  up to the final price of $4400.

Allister Lee, an Ontario-based illustrator and graphic designer for assorted athletic apparel brands, developed a conscious obsession with collecting black markers while gathering them for use as the medium for his drawings. With an aesthetic appreciation for each marker, the Black is Beautiful project was born.

Black is Beautiful (BIB) celebrates black markers and black ink culture. The project presents both a dialogue and catalogue which describes his collection. This is the first time the project’s entire series of work will be showcased.

Curated by San Francisco’s Guerrero Gallery, the show will be presented by Stussy.

Allister Lee / Black is Beautiful
Opening reception: Saturday, March 13, 8-11 p.m.
Stussy
email@guerrerogallery.com
415.724.0771

Tonight, “In the Back of Real (Never Hide the Madness),” a new collection from Jaybo, opens at London’s StolenSpace Gallery, set to run until March 28. The exhibition will include an outdoor mural, new paintings, and two new prints.

While viewing some of Jaybo’s often erratic and chaotic paintings, brushstrokes and figure characterizations are vaguely suggestive of Francis Bacon, Asian art, or the world of Walt Disney. Jaybo himself characterizes these sorts of stylistic quotes as “visual reflexes,” designed to involve the observer by using their high level of familiarity with the elements interacting within the picture.

Visit StolenSpace for more info.

Jaybo / “In the Back of Real (Never Hide the Madness)”

Opening reception: Tonight, March 11, 6-9 p.m.
StolenSpace Gallery
91 Brick Lane
London
E1 6QL
0207 247 2684
www.StolenSpace.com

Starting March 13, POVevolving Gallery will present an exhibition of hand cut collages by Alexis Mackenzie. The exhibition, titled “Dreaming is Easy,” will be the artist’s second solo exhibition at POVevolving.

“The phrases in these collages are multi-tiered and double-sided; intended to reflect a sort of personal and societal inertia of mind and lifestyle, both in the sense of being frozen, and moving too fast in a direction to change course. I wanted them to be about states of mind and being, in terms of personal and global events; things that happen on a day-to-day basis and things that happen over the courses of our lives. They’re about the decisions we make, and the twists of fate we encounter. They are intended to reflect the multifaceted moments of joy and anxiety, nostalgia and anticipation, which are part of being alive. I wanted them to be open to interpretation as either uplifting, or melancholy. Disguising these messages as strangely grafted, twisted plantlife works for me in the sense that, the themes I’m addressing are composed of so many different elements; moments, feelings, and phases of life will shift, grow, die, be confusing, complicated, intangible, and difficult to put into words, along with our memories of them and the events connected to them. Creating the phrases as landscapes, or specimens of wildlife, was sort of like isolating an aspect of our internal environments. I see them essentially as simulacrum of things that sometimes have no real shape. ”

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On May 29th 2010 , the largest solo show yet from SEEN, “the godfather of graffiti,” opens at Paris’s Magda Danysz Gallery.

As a pioneer of the “Street Art” movement, an emblematic figure of the graffiti movement, SEEN becomes famous in the 70s in New York artistic scene; he participates in the emergence of the movement. From very young age, he is already seen as a prodigy. At the age of eleven, he tags his first trains. Later, he decides to revisit letters and hit “Hollywood” sign in Los Angeles. In 1981, he takes part in the exhibition “New York, New Wave” with Keith Haring or Andy Warhol. Considered an icon of the graffiti movement, SEEN marks a whole generation by the strength of his creations and the style he brought to this scene.

In this show, SEEN presents surprising, meaningful works. Somewhere, he inserts sheet steel as well as the symbol of the New York City Subway as to remind us, each time, his relationship with the street while also investigating abstraction as he puts it himself, “Graffiti is my life, always has been and will always be.”

SEEN
Magda Danysz Gallery
Opening: Saturday, May 29th, 2010  6-9 p.m.
78 Rue Amelot, Paris 11
+33 (0) 1 45 83 38 51

This month, contemporary art website thecreativelives.com adds a new documentary series to its informative offerings. A feature on  San Diego painter Kelsey Brookes, available now, will launch the series, while future presentations will explore the work of Mark Dean Veca, Megan Whitmarsh, Porous Walker, Barry McGee, and more.

Fecal Face Gallery introduces a new exhibition from Marco Zamora (above) and Derek Albeck on Thursday April 1st, 2010 (6-9 PM).

Zamora’s work stems from  his fascination with urban settings and bicycle culture which he documents and interprets.  “Usually I figure out what size of paintings I want to make. Build the panels. Then go out and shoot a ton of photos. I’m always observing and creeping out on my surroundings. After that I sort through what I have collected then get to work.”

Albeck comments on his work, “I make drawings from photographs of friends, family and surroundings. The drawings are somewhat autobiographical and serve as memory maps of shared stories and experiences. I’m working out my life through drawing, hopefully at the end it will be an awesome story.”

For more info, visit Fecal Face’s site. [Sources: FF Interviews with Zamora and Albeck].

Marco Zamora & Derek Albeck
Opening reception: Thursday, April 1, 2010 6-9 p.m.
Fecal Face Dot Gallery
66 Gough St. @Market
San Francisco, CA 94102
gallery@fecalface.com
415.255.6479

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Bowery Boys, an exhibition of new paintings by Rosson Crow, opens at New York’s Deitch Projects this Thursday, March 4th. Closing March 27th, this exhibition of large-scale oil paintings explores the history of “bad boys” in underground art and as an agent of culture in New York City.

Rosson has always shown a marked interest in masculine spaces; she has previously painted saloons, gun shops, oil derricks, rodeos, stock market floors, and many incidents in the arguably male-dominated tradition of modern art. Here she imaginatively explores the idea of the “bad boy” as fawned over by art audiences and celebrated in New York City history. How has a spirit of illegality and rebellious youth shaped the New York City cultural landscape? Gangs, graffiti, gays, drugs and illicit sex are part of the city’s spirit but also a big part of the art world today. How has New Yorkers’ love for this spirit shaped the history of art and exhibitions today? The cultural moment in underground New York when hip-hop met graffiti met the east village scene in the 80s led to an art explosion of interdisciplinary activity. Many of these paintings explore that moment and its legacy for artists working right now.

Visit Deitch Projects for more info.

Rosson Crow / Bowery Boys
Opening reception: Thursday, March 4, 6-9 p.m.
Deitch Projects
18 Wooster St.
New York, NY 10013
212.343.730

Opening Reception: April 3rd, 2010 from 7-11pm
Shows run through April 25th, 2010

White Walls Gallery founder and artist Andres Guerrero has been busy spreading his wings with his new independent project: Guerrero Gallery. The gallery will open on March 6th with the works of Richard Colman, Aaron Noble, AJ Fosik, Shepard Fairey, Bill McRight among others.

“Moving forward with the new space has been really exciting and a challenge at the same time. The plan is to expand off of what has been developed at White Walls, and there will be some familiar faces from there. But, at the same time much work has been made to expand the program and on elevating the representation of the work that will be shown.”—Andreas Guerrero (excerpt from Juxtapoz magazine’s feature interview with Guerrero on 1/31)

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White Walls is proud to present New Territory: new works by Henry Gunderson, Akira, Cheryl Molnar, Robert Burden, and Mark Warren Jacques. New Territory brings together five artists that are breaking ground through their visual interpretations of contemporary West Coast living.

These five young artists are forging a new aesthetic and conceptual approach to fine art. Whether a cut and dry rebuttal to American mass media or a whimsical look into outer space, this group is covering new territory through their visual interpretations of all they experience in a day. Through various mediums, subject matter, and even scale you will find five individual voices speaking in their own language. Unifying them is an imperative to communicate that which they see- or don’t see- in this West Coast existence.

For more information go here

White Walls
835 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA

Group Show Opening Saturday: April 3rd, 2010 from 7-11pm
Show Runs Through: April 25th, 2010

Next Saturday (03.06), Culver City’s Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery will celebrate both the close of its current show (featuring the work of Dave McKean) and its relocation to Hollywood’s La Luz de Jesus Gallery. Festivities will include a DJ set by Ground Control’s Andrew Holguin (aka DJ MP3sark) and a live performance by the legendary steampunk band Unextraordinary Gentlemen.

Check out work from Dave McKean’s show here.

Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery
5790 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
phone: 323-297-0600
fax: 323-297-0601
email: info@billyshirefinearts.com