It is going to be a busy art weekend in LA, so here is a quick guide to navigate the places to spend your time:

Friday 12/12

‘Gifted’ and Evan B Harris @ Cerasoli:LeBasse
8530-b Washington Blvd
Culver City, 90232
7-10pm

thinkspace
“Mostly Memory”
4210 Santa Monica Blvd
7-11pm

Saturday 12/13

GR2
“Post-It Show 3”
2062 Sawtelle Blvd 6-10pm

Morgan Slade @ BSFA
5790 Washington Blvd
7-10pm

The Date Farmers @ New Image Art
7908 Santa Monica Blvd
7-11pm

ISM: Book Launch @ Cerasoli:LeBasse
8530-b Washington Blvd
Culver City, 90232
7-10pm

That should keep you busy. Have a good weekend.

Platinum Plus aka Yoskay Yamamoto released his Koibito at Munky King last night. Even in a down economy, the fans lined up around the corner to pick up the two colorways that just came out. The “smoke” black was awesome – and if you were lucky enough to grab one of the customs it came with a hand screened bandana and a small gocco print.

The limited “smoke” and the prints all sold out quickly, but I think there might be a few of the general release koibito at Munky King – or you can start lining up now for February’s White and Silver release being run through the gallery and Paper Tiger.

Just returned from Art Basel and Miami, so naturally like a crazy man we have not one – but three – shows booked on Friday. We have a great solo show in Gallery I, with Evan B Harris and a killer lineup of work in our annual ‘Gifted’ group show. This year everything is 12″ x 12″ so nice and portable.

I will leave you with a teaser of Eric Fortune’s piece for the show…stay tuned though as we should have the preview out on Thursday. You can always visit the site for more info.

I should get around to posting some more Basel pics – just need a day or two. Edwin Ushiro created a beautiful piece that we sadly did not get to bring with us…its featured at the head of the page.

The Aqua Hotel kicked off its preview last night with a nice party hosted by Campari. The courtyard of the Hotel filled up quickly and I sadly was too busy chatting to take many pictures.

As the Preview came to an  end, we headed off to the Deitch projects party at the Raleigh Hotel.

Luckily for us, we were in time to see the performance – and I do mean performance – from The Gossip. Band front woman, Beth Ditto, gave a stellar performance to hipsters including style machine, Rachel Zoe and iconic Fab Five Freddy.

Click through for more pics from the evening…

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I probably should have take more pictures, but I wanted to share some setup shots of our room at the Aqua Hotel Fair here in Miami.

Our 2 big crates were waiting for us upon arrival…and presto….a fully hung show of work, plus a portfolio of new work on paper from a group of our artists including Yoskay Yamamoto, Tessar Lo, Melissa Haslam, Scott Belcastro, Jennifer Davis and more…

Arrived this morning via the red-eye into Miami. We spent the day unloading and hanging our show at Aqua Art Fair, and am going to take a quick snooze before heading to a few preview shows. Great lineup tonight with Aqua Wynwood, Pulse, Red Dot and the A-Ron the Don’s O.H.W.O.W exhibit and opening party.

Tomorrow night we get the actual Basel opening and some live music on the beach. Last year it was Iggy Pop. This year? not sure yet…

Stay tuned, ill have some updates later tonight AND hopefully a preview of our own show.

The gallery has been rapidly building crates and preparing our shiny inventory books for our first Art Fair at the invite only Aqua Art Fair. We are taking new work from our represented artists, including new pieces from Yoskay Yamamoto, Nate Frizzell, Melissa Haslam, Tessar Lo, Edwin Ushiro, Blaine Fontana, Alexandros Vasmoulakis and more…

AQUA Hotel   /   RM 106   /   December 4-7, 2008
1530 Collins Ave. Miami Beach, FL 33139.

If you plan on joining us in Miami and need VIP passes or invitations please email us at:

contact@cerasoli-lebasse.com.

We hope to see you in South Beach!

So after a great show with Nate Frizzell and Scott Belcastro, we are now gearing up for our first art fair at the Aqua Hotel in Miami. The fair is one of several high profile satellite fairs based around the Art Basel Miami. I am getting very nervous and excited about the upcoming fair, as we went last year but just as party-goers.

This year we are shipping tons of new work for out booth and will hopefully be introducing some new collectors to work by some of our repped artists.

We have some huge new pieces by Alexandros Vasmoulakis as well as new work from Melissa Haslam, Yoskay Yamamoto and even new pieces from Blaine Fontana. If you happen to be in Miami, I hope you can join us. If you are going to be in town and want to come, shoot me an email as we have a few more VIP passes to the fair.

Cerasoli:LeBasse @ the Aqua Hotel Miami: Room 106

Preview:
Wednesday evening, Dec. 3, 7-10pm *

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Public Hours:
Dec. 4: 11am – 8pm
Dec. 5: 11am – 8pm
Dec. 6: 11am – 8pm
Dec. 7: 11am – 4pm

DD attended the opening “Put on a Happy Face” at the still new Cerasoli:LeBasse gallery. With a solo show by Nate Frizzell, a two man show with Scott Belcastro and Jill Simonsen and an appearance by J.Shea in the project room it was at once a full house of art, but restrained enough with no overcrowding of work.

A fairly large gallery space, the 3 individual rooms were hung with ample space between paintings so we could actually see each work in its own right. After attending so many shows recently that are hung salon style, this was a nice change of pace.

Belcastro’s large pieces were striking in their ethereal quality and contrasted against Simonsen stark graphic designed urban landscapes. See if you can peek into the office to view the HUGE Belcatro painting behind the desk.

Frizzell has clearly grown as an artist since hhis last show at the old Project Gallery, and you could see maturity even within the body of work presented.

The whole show is available online if you cannot make it in, but it is a show worth seeing in person.

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I just posted the preview for this weekends show. New work from Scott Belcastro and Nate Frizzell, as well as Jill Simonsen. Enjoy…

And when the sky opened up, we had seen what we were looking for all along. Scott Belcastro.

Unlike many young contemporary painters, Scott Belcastro’s work eschews figurative elements or at least overt ones.  His recent forest work does involve his signature deer, but the focal point of these paintings is the forest and the expansive sky.  There’s a depth to these natural elements that invites the viewer to stare and absorb the imagery.  It’s not so much a quest to leave with some intended meaning, but rather an opportunity for silent reflection.

He will exhibit his newest work @ Cerasoli : LeBasse along with Jill Simonsen in Gallery 1 on Saturday, November 8th.

Cerasoli : LeBasse
8530-B Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

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Saturday was a blur. The Inaugural opening was a big success, almost too much so. It got so crowded even one of the photographers couldn’t get room for pics. I guess thats a good thing, though I certainly encourage you to come back and see the show with some personal space. Ryuichi Ogino’s large pieces are real statement pieces of his “evolution of Superflat” but you just could not step far enough away to get the full view.

Melissa Haslam sold out in short order, and Deth P Sun rocked out some of his largest pieces ever. Its pretty interesting how as he paints bigger he really seems to add more detail. I guess you can get away with more when the paintings are small.

Anyways, thanks for those of you who joined us…and please visit if you missed it!

More images after the jump, but to discuss hop into the forum.

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Mari Inukai

Cerasoli : LeBasse hosted the opening of Blender, its first show since the merger, last night (10.11). The group show featured the work of Melissa Haslam, Vincent Hui, Mari Inukai (above), Ryuichi Ogino (Ogi), Deth P Sun, Jennifer Davis and Suzanne Sattler. Additionally, Ogi presented a mixed-media wall installatioin featuring drawings, and hand-made clay figures.

The show offered a good a variety of work on display.  Melissa Haslam’s paintings proved to be extremely popular – all her piece were red dotted.  Suazanne Sattler’s pencil drawings are quite detailed and reward up close viewing with unexpected and slightly gruesome details (an animal being deconstructed layer by layer as an example). Finally, fans of Deth P. Sun need to check out his newest work – it’s bigger and more rendered than ever before while still retaining the quirky quality he’s known for.

Blender was a nice beginning to what we hope  will be a long string of success at Cerasoli: LeBasse. Be sure to click through for more pics of opening night.

Cerasoli : LeBasse
8530-B Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

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