“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.

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!

Tim Biskup created the visual identity as well as a limited-edition print (above) for Twentywonder, “a one night World’s Fair’ which takes places Saturday, March 6th (6 – Midnight) in Culver City. The event celebrates 21st century creativity as well as serving to raise money to assist those with down-syndrome which is also known as Trisomy 21.  The Biskup Print is available with the $500 (donation) tickets.  There are several other ticket packages available as well.

Twentywonder
Veterans Memorial Building
Culver City, CA

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Show & Tell Gallery just released a new limited edition print from Canadian street artist Dan Bergeron (aka fauxreel).  The image is taken from Dan’s “Faces Of The City” series, titled “Junction Joe”, it is a capture of a street installation put up on the late Serge Gainsbourg’s house on the rue de Verneuil in Paris.  This series is a ongoing look at frailty of urban architecture and human existence, so far variations of this series has appeared in Paris and Toronto, and Dan will be hitting London in the next couple of months.

This print is available in 2 sizes.

Chromogenic Print
Limited Edition Of 15
Signed & Numbered
24″ x 16″
$180

Chromogenic Print
Limited Edition Of 3
Signed & Numbered
48″ x 32″
$1200

Check it out here

Paper Tiger’s print shop just launched a new website and released several new prints at the same time. New prints are now available from Nate Frizzell, Morgan Slade, Nathan Ota, Bob Dob and Karen Hsiao. Plus news that an apparel line is coming soon along with additional artist products. For starters all purchases from now until March 15th get a free postcard set and apparently some other surprises – at least from what PT tells us.

Order directly at www.papertigerstore.com

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Miss Bugs will soon release a print of their Carry Your Sins piece which blends religious, patriotic and cultural elements for a powerful image. Put another way — Captin America bearing a Cross, let the fireworks begin.   The duo is employing a multi-step process for the print  which features a 4 color stencil over a 2 color silk screen with hand applied gold leaf accents on Japanese paper.

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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.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ExlyC2OmC1E/S3TbknfzrEI/AAAAAAAAAtY/_S1GnzyNjhw/s1600-h/Wisdom+of+the+Ancients.jpg

Click on the link to see it big.

I know a good deal when I spot one and when I ran across this piece, “Wisdom of the Ancients” tryptic by Jeff McMillan, I had to pull the trigger. I’ve seen the original and I can’t believe all this talent is crammed so lovingly into a small space.  Yes, so what, I’m on holiday visiting my parents for Chinese New Year and yes, I am stuck here in Katy, TX and no, I’m not shopping my way to happiness…or am I?  True: I was checking in on my Society6 studio to see if my artist peeps had posted art for sale and yes I do love Jeff McMillan’s work cos he’s um, AWESOME.  But the print that is less than $50 + reasonable shipping is 40 inches by 17 inches!  THAT IS A RIDICULOUS DEAL!  The giclee comes unsigned and unnumbered but Jeff is such a great guy, I bet when you art star stalk him, he would oblige you with a signature and maybe treat you to a Mountain Dew.

http://www.society6.com/studio/anniesalist/Wisdom_of_the_Ancients_Tryptic

Click on that link to buy it!

Jeff’s bottle is third from the left.

One of the perks of this job is getting to work with truly amazing people all of the time. But occasionally, I get to collaborate with people who have had a direct impact on my life. Such is the case with Dave McKean.

Dave McKean is what we used to refer to as a “hyphenate.” He’s a multi-talented illustrator-photographer-comic-book-artist-graphic-designer-filmmaker-musician, who just happens to excel at each one of his specialties.

As an artist, Dave McKean changed the look of comic books when his illustrated-photo-assemblage works began gracing the covers of Neil Gaiman’s reboot of the Sandman character at DC Comics. He next tackled an incredibly ambitious Batman tale that focused not on the caped crusader, but instead on the mental institution that housed the more macabre among his rogues’ gallery. That story written by Grant Morrison was Arkham Asylum, and it quickly became (and remains) one of the best selling graphic novels of all time. His comic book works have won numerous well deserved accolades and awards, but he’s also won a World Fantasy Award for “Best Artist,” three Spectrum Awards in the categories of “Advertising”, “Book”, and “Comic,” A British Science Fiction Award in “Short Fiction” (shared with Neil Gaiman), and his film directorial debut, MirrorMask premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. His concept designs shaped the look and feel of two entries in the Harry Potter film series, and if your CD collection veers on the darker side of pop, metal, and avant-garde, odds are you’ve got a few Dave McKean images there, too. Did I mention that he’s an accomplished jazz musician and discerning foodie?

So it would be an understatement to say that I’m feverishly proud to welcome Dave McKean this weekend at two incredible events:

On Friday, February 12th, from 6-9 PM, Dave is signing comics, books, DVDs, CD’s and limited edition art prints at La Luz de Jesus Gallery (inside the Soap Plant / Wacko complex at 4633 Hollywood Blvd., LA, CA 90027). For every item that purchase at the signing, Dave will sign one item that you bring from home. NO EXCEPTIONS! So don’t bring your entire collection of Sandman comics for him to autograph unless you plan on buying 75 items at the signing. He’s a wonderful guy and he’ll be happy to speak with you and answer questions -especially about his new body of work, which is debuting on Saturday night at Billy Shire Fine Arts.

New Works from Early Cinema is showing in conjunction with Nitrate & Kinogeists, an event sponsored by Chicago’s Century Guild and includes highlights from their inventory of historically significant and undeniably beautiful silent film posters, most of which have been lost and unseen by the public before now. In addition to large format paintings, Dave has included a series of ten smaller ink illustrations that are priced for fans. Believe me -you can totally afford these, so check out the preview on Thursday evening. Whether you’re a comic book fan or a patron of the fine arts, if you’ve been looking to add a McKean original to your collection, this is your opportunity to do so. There are also some limited edition prints for which this will be a Release Event.
Since the exhibition references and pays tribute to lost films from the silent era, there will be Video Installation with two screens playing footage of recently unearthed and restored films previously thought lost.
The artist’s reception is Saturday, February 13th, from 7-10 PM at Billy Shire Fine Arts, 5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. A full and complete preview will be available by Thursday evening. The paintings and posters are live on site now.

Gallery NOSCO in London has released an online print shop featuring Bom.K’s “La Limite” as the first editioned print by the artist.

Details of the print as follows:

75.6 x 60 cm, giclee and matt silkscreened varnish
on 330gsm Somerset art paper.
Edition of 25, signed, dated and stamped.
Price £175 with free shipping worldwide.

Online store also features works from:
Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Dran, Bom.K, Arno, Herakut, Brusk, Kareem Lotfy, Sal, Matthew Curry, Tom Hine, Anthony Lister, Nicolas Ruston and more to come…

For more prints go to their website.

We went over to check out I Am Animal (Friday January 15th) at Black Maria Gallery. This group show, guest curated by Aaron Smith, featured the works of some talented female artists whose “imagery that is beastly and beautiful, funny and ferocious,” including Sarah Williamson, Mashanda Scott, Nicole Adee Dreyfuss, Connie Wong, Grace Kim, Brianna Harden, Saejean Oh, Alisha Amirkhanian, Shannon Freshwater and Daniaelle Simonsen.  I’d highly recommend seeing this collection of female artists before the show ends.

January 15th through February 13, 2010

Black Maria Gallery
3137 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039

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Dave Kinsey. Capital Punishment. Six-Color Screen Print. 18" x 24".

BLK/MRKT will release the limited-edition ‘Capital Punishment’ screen print by Dave Kinsey on Thursday, January 14th sometime between 10 and 11 AM PST from their online shop. The striking image features overlapping iconic images of the United States which coupled with the title seem to be a comment on troubled times. The first BLK/MRKT release of 2010, this numbered print measures 18” x 24” and features six colors.

Audrey Kawasaki is releasing two new prints on her shop on January 23rd between 3pm to 4pm Pacific Time.  You can choose between the two prints and there is a one limit print per person.  There is the option of framed or unframed.  This is a great opportunity to get your hands on limited edition prints from Audrey Kawasaki.

Here are the details of the prints:

Hyakki Yakou, giclee print on 100% cotton archival fine art paper
size: 22″x13″ on a 23″x14″sheet

Yuuwaku, giclee print on 100% cotton archival fine art paper
size: 15″x19.5″on a 16″x20.5″sheet

Go to her website and check it out!

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