This past Saturday, Merry Karnowsky presented the opening of Camille Rose Garcia’s ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ exhibition and book signing.  The show features a dizzying and dazzling array of Garcia’s illustrations created for a new edition of Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland published by Collins Design.  In addition to the illustrations used in the book, Garcia also presented original paintings based on Alice’s turn in Wonderland.

Seated in a grand chair, Garcia welcomed fans and signed copies of the book throughout the evening. The book mixes the classic story with her new eye-catching and unique visuals.  With the release of Tim Burton’s new film, book stores are stocked with numerous editions of the original story  — the new Collins Design volume offers an intriguing offering.

Running through March 27th, 2010,  Down the Rabbit Hole is a comprehensive look at Camile Rose Garcia’s expansive interpretation of Caroll’s classic, timeless tale.  While our gallery of opening night photos (after the jump) offers a good sampling of the art on display, it represents perhaps half of the full show. If you find yourself in Southern California, definitely take a visit to Wonderland (in Hollywood).

Merry Karnowsky Gallery
170 N. La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.933.4408

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Congrats to La Luz de Jesus‘ own JAW Cooper, who has three great paintings in the Kitsch ‘N Sync show, the same week that her art graces the cover of the LA Weekly! Cooper’s got a featured exhibition here in June, too, so be sure to sign up for her preview list on our constant contact sign up box. She’s been dropping hints about what we can expect, and I’m feverishly anticipating another faux-fur rug, because I know some hard-wood floors that need a stylish companion.

We expected a great turn-out on Friday, but we could never have expected over 2000 people!

The folks from SinoTequila were working overtime to blend enough margaritas for the ravenous crowd, and several artists had complete sellouts of multiple pieces. Brandon Steen, Frijol Boy, Jasmine Worth, Tennessee Loveless and Walt Hall all sold three or more paintings each, and many of our newbies experienced the very first gallery sales of their artwork. That list is far too extensive to list, but you can check out what’s sold and what’s available by clicking on the Current Exhibition link.

The following evening, we said goodbye to Billy Shire Fine Arts.

The live, musical performance by Unextraordinary Gentlemen was off the chain, and we were able to give away some mementos from the past five years’ exhibitions. The aesthetic that was established at BSFA will be incorporated into the new La Luz de Jesus, which will soon have a second enclosed space behind the current main gallery. Take a look at the upcoming shows and you’ll see what I mean.

Next month, Scott Hove will be taking over the new, second gallery space at La Luz de Jesus with his installation of surreal, anthropomorphized cakes. The exhibition, called Iced Out has already received coverage from Hi-Fructose, Boing Boing, Planet Oddity and The Food Network. Ace of Cakes -eat your heart out, as the centerpiece of this show is a gigantic cake chandelier that will hang suspended from the center of the ceiling in gallery II. We’ll be coordinating some other special events around this opening on April 2nd, which will likely involve some edible sweets to accompany visual ones, so check back for updates.

Dennis’ work is 3D relief sculpted paintings in acrylic on canvas and paper. He was just covered by the New York Times for his part in the museum hosted New York Historical Society Grateful Dead Exhibition, coinciding with the release of his book, Startling Art: Revealing the Art of Dennis Larkins, which he’ll be signing at La Luz de Jesus on Saturday, April 3rd from 6-9PM as part of the west coast release tour. Max Grundy’s paranoid propaganda paintings of enamel on metal are a hellacious futurama meets constructivism. Larkins & Grundy are La Luz veterans, and their work will juxtapose nicely with Scott Hove. Each will have prints, too. You’ve never seen anything quite like this, I promise you!

When I was growing up in Lynn, Mass, the only link I had to the vibrant, angsty Los Angeles Punk scene was the photography of Ruby Ray in the seminal fanzine Search & Destroy. Her images of those bands (from The Dils to The Germs to X) were a window into a secret world that would became the soundtrack to my teenaged rebellion -about a decade later!

As I drifted from punk to post-punk and modern primitive industrial music, I came to realize that Ruby had beaten me to the finish line there, as well. When I moved here in 1991 and first stepped foot into the Melrose location of Soap Plant, I was greeted by a row of RE/Search publications, completely oblivious to the fact that Ruby Ray had co-founded the magazine that supplied the content for most of those books a little over a decade earlier.

That Ruby Ray has been influential to the counter-culture is indisputable, but the extent of her influence is criminally underrated. In the almost 25 years that La Luz de Jesus has been in existence, there have been about a handful of photography exhibitions. It’s not a medium that we dabble in lightly, so when we actually do decide to host a photography show, you can bet your bippy that that it’s going to be extraordinary. Convulsive Beauty: First Wave Punk Photography is that type of show, and Ruby Ray will be attending her opening reception, Friday, February 19th from 8-11 PM. To further cultivate the proper D.I.Y. spirit, we’ve got Drive-By Press in the back-lot doing custom woodblock printing on T-Shirts while their favorite mobile DJ goes full ninja on the wheels of steel.

Not enough for you? We’ve got a gourmet catering truck out front and two beverage sponsors! Sino Tequila and Nakhon Beer are providing a shot and a beer for select patrons of legal drinking age, too.

Still not enough? Ok…

On Saturday, we’ll be hosting Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh to read and sign his book I Slept With Joey Ramone, which is a compelling, behind-the-scenes biography of the punk rock life of the Ramones as told by someone who lived it. Mickey will be bringing along Rock n Roll High School alumni Alan Arkush and PJ Soles, as well as punk rock musician and disc jockey Howie Pyro. The event runs from 6-9 PM, so you can cruise in on your way out to the clubs!

PUNK IS NOT DEAD!

We’ve still got the Danni Shinya Luo, Kim Scott, Miran Kim and Transmission Atelier exhibitions hanging in the front gallery of La Luz de Jesus, so if you haven’t seen them yet, you’ve now got a great second reason to do so.

And lastly, if you missed the Dave McKean opening reception last Saturday, you missed an incredible discussion about the significance of art and humanity between Howard Hallis, Brendan McCarthy, Dave McKean, Grant Morrison, and Danni Shinya Luo as Century Guild curator Thomas Negovan, Gail Potocki, Kent Williams and I eavesdropped. It was magical! While you can’t see exactly that this weekend, you can see the video installation that Dave McKean assembled for his exhibit and the Century Guild poster collection that inspired his paintings. There are still one or two ink drawings available for purchase, too.

So from Punk to Steampunk, we’ve got all your bases covered. Check back here next week for the Everything But the Kitsch N Sync group show ACCEPTED list, and details about the Billy Shire Fine Arts closing party.

Camille Garcia Rose in collaboration with Collins Design has been working on an illustrated version of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland‘. This new edition of Lewis Carroll′s cult classic, will be published  in sync with the release of  Tim Burton’s 2010 cinematic adaptation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Los Angeles born, Camille Garcia Rose is known for her macabre thin line drawings that have a dark yet Disneyesque sensibility, assuring an interesting twist to this widely known tale.

Check out the video to get a sneak peek of Camille’s illustrated take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You can order online here.

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Mark Ryden will sign copies of his newest release “The Tree Show” (2009), a hardcover collection of recent works.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair
Pacific Design Center
(taking place on the 2nd floor of the Pacific Design Center, the blue building, at the ARTBOOK booth, H10)

Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue
West Hollywood, California 90069

Saturday, January 30, 2010
from 1 – 3 pm

This Saturday, Joshua Liner Gallery opens a group exhibition featuring works by artists Damon Soule, David Choong Lee, MARS-1, Nome Edonna, Oliver Vernon, Robert Hardgrave, and Tomokazu Matsuyama. The exhibition coincides with the release of Further, a new book that brings together the seven artists and their varied takes on contemporary abstraction, mysticism, futurism, and surrealism.

“Further” is the third in a series of books the artists have published over the past few years – releasing a new volume every two years or so. Expect to see book launches/shows in SF and LA later this year.

“Further”
Saturday January 9th, 7-9p
Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W. 28th St. 3rd Fl.
New York, NY

Gifted LA photographer Estevan Oriol will be signing his new book “LA Woman” at Suru on Melrose tonight, Friday December 11th from 7 to 9 PM @ SURU on Melrose.  The volume provides a portrayal of women in LA from varied walks of life. Glamour, grit and everything in between.

SURU
7662 Melrose
Los Angeles, CA
323.655.0770

I recently got a package from Colorada-based designer, illustrator, and Paper Cut Zine creator John Fellows, which contained his latest Paper Cut Summer 2009.  It’s filled with some nice linocut designs of surferes, characters, and even some photographs of some skateboards he did for Hessenmod Skateboards.

Check out some excerpts from Paper Cut, which is a collection of recent linocuts & photographs by John, and get your own.

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LA artist Mike Stilkey gets featured on The New Yorker Online blog.  Article and interview from www.fecalface.com posted by Jenna Krajeski.   Here’s an excerpt:

Books are sacred objects which we are all free to worship in different ways. The L.A.-based artist Mike Stilkey, for example, paints all over them. His work on stacked spines and covers reworks books into a beautiful, albeit unreadable, library. I asked him a few questions:

What’s the ratio of books-for-painting to books-for-reading in your
house?

That’s a good question. I have collected many books over the years, and combined with my wife’s library. We have a pretty impressive selection of reading material. I would estimate that at this point in time, I have gotten my hands on about five hundred discarded books—these are what I use to paint on. Occasionally this number will be in the thousands, depending on the size and scope of whatever installation I’m creating. Our personal library consists of well over a thousand books and varies from art books to classics to Bukowski novels.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/11/mike-stilkeys-library.html#ixzz0XELiYYNV

on this glorious sunday, novemeber 1st, i will be part of CANZINE, Canada’s Largest Zine Fair and Festival of Alternative Culture. i will be at the gladstone hotel on queen west and gladstone, from 1-7 pm with a cool guy and gal by the name of nimit malavia and martha chan.

please come by and check out the zines i will have:

all in all, 24- 5.5 x 8.5″ pages of fun in the sun- with a mylar cover and original drawing on the inside cover.

sleep warm series, 1-4, also 24 pages of 4.25 x 5.5″ of the little nuances of my creative living, guaranteed to make you sleep warm at night. there will be a special price for these, so come and see. i have a bit more of the 4th issue since i just made it, but very few of issues 1-3 left. make sure you get one- each of these have an original drawing for a cover and a little love note on the back.

and last but not least, why so serious? a 5.5 x 8.5″ 12-page, collaborative effort, (kind of a conversation) between erika danusasmita and i.

there will also be some other nice surprises, so come by and check it out. i’m excited and you should be too!

~

also- if you haven’t been to the store in a while- i recently updated with a few things- shrek it out /

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Book City Jackets, makers of fine kraft paper book covers, is proud to announce the release today of the second set in its Artists Edition series. The Artists Edition series consists of limited-edition runs of original work by artists with diverse backgrounds and was initiated with the goal of converting books into new works of art that can be displayed on a bookshelf, coffee table or whereever else art-loving (or privacy-seeking) readers go.  Available through its website and from fine retailers on October 20th, Artists Edition No. 2 features original drawings by Nishat Akhtar, Cheeming Boey and Michael Hsiung.

Brooklyn-based Book City Jackets was founded in 2008 with the mission to make every book beautiful through the production of unique book covers printed on recycled kraft paper.

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LA painter Joe Ledbetter has crossed the Atlantic for the start of his 5-country Amalgamation Tour of Europe.  Stop #1 is this Saturday (10.10) at London Miles in Notting Hill.  Be sure to follow Joe’s blog on Dailydujour for pics and info from the tour.

London Miles Gallery
212 Kensington Park Road
Notting Hill, W11 1NR
London, UK
(44) 020.7727.4447

I recently got 9 discount codes (25% off) for a promotion for any of the 2 Moleskin bookcovers at www.engraveyourbook.com. Not only do the leather covers look fantastic engraved, they’re reusable and will only get better with age. We offer leather covers for both the pocket and large Moleskine® notebooks.

Please email me @ michaelchsiung@gmail.com.

For the Merman moleskin click here. For the Mermaidens, click here.