LeBasse Projects is excited to present, ‘Is Everybody Happy?,’ the first US solo exhibition from Greek artist Alexandros Vasmoulakis. In this anticipated solo project, Vasmoulakis brings his first major body of work to the US after becoming recognized across Europe for his work both on the streets and in galleries.

Vasmoulakis is mostly known by his work in the streets of Athens, Greece as he has painted on and embellished various buildings across the city and is expected to do the same here in Los Angeles. While recognized for his street work, Vasmoulakis’ paintings are beginning to reflect the maturity of his work as an artist.

His works’ main theme is the psychology of his figures – the struggle and the element of conflict dominates in the pairs of his figures as well as in each character separately. With the perceptive analysis of his characters Vasmoulakis achieves through his work he persuades us that he has penetrated into their mentality by holding a role of a competent and gifted anatomist and of an expressive soul searcher.

‘Is Everybody Happy’ will be Vasmoulakis’ first US solo exhibition.

Alexandros Vasmoulakis :: Is Everybody Happy?
LeBasse Projects
March 20th through April 17th
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 20th, 7-10pm

More Images + Info »

This Saturday DIY Gallery launches their brand new space in Echo Park with collaborations by Aaron Williams and Zach Taylor.  The new venue has an incredible out door space for sculpture and they will be hosting a ton of bands in the near future as well – so stay on their radar!

Details:

DIY Gallery. 1549 Sunset Blvd. LA 90026

Echo Park Inaugural Reception: Saturday, March 20 7pm

Be there or be square!

(left to right) Chris Peters, Last Rites Gallery Director Andrew Michael Ford & David R. Choquette

On Saturday, March 6th 2010, artists Chris Peters and David R. Choquette unveiled their first ever solo exhibitions at Last Rites Gallery in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.  Below is a link to the opening photos, along with links to all the new incredible paintings these two created for their new shows.  Enjoy!

Opening Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastritestattoo/sets/72157623509651519/

More Images + Info »

This March LeBasse Projects opens a solo show for Greek artist Alexandros Vasmoulakis but that’s not the only thing keeping us busy. The LBP artists are keeping busy worldwide…

Edwin Ushiro (pictured) opens his first NY solo show with Sloan Fine Art on the 24th. Nate Frizzell also has a solo show, his debut in the UK at Bo.Lee Gallery in Bath. From what I hear, both are already selling their shows on preview so better reach out to the galleries now. Eric Fortune just sold out his mini-show at the High Fructose curated exhibit as well…so better get on the list for his next show with us in October.

Join us in LA this Saturday for:

Alexandros Vasmoulakis.
‘Is Everybody Happy?’
LeBasse Projects
Saturday March 20th, 7-10pm

We went along to Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery to check out ‘The Shape of Things’ exhibition that explores the distinctive contribution artists make to influence or reflect national identity, the intercultural nature of British society and its connection with global cultures.

Alinah Azadeh’s exhibits started with her wrapping her mother’s rice cookers and other objects that belonged to her mother who died in the Asian Tsunami of 2004. There is a poem on the wrapping called, ‘Come, Come my Beloved’ by Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi. This poem was turned into a song by Iranian singer Bijan Bijani and the cassette recording was a gift to Alinah from her mother when she was a teenager. The poem is written in Farsi, in Romanised Farsi, and English – the three languages – tongues – spoken by Alinah, her Iranian mother and her British-born daughter.

More Images + Info »

Kinkead Contemporary and Heather Cantrell participated in VOLTANY, the Armory’s sister fair in New York this past week.  Cantrell installed another portrait studio at the fair which resembled a Rousseau jungle complete with mirrors, animal masks (which are handy if you’re shy like me – see above!) and live plants everywhere.  VOLTA served as the third installment in Cantrell’s project A Study in Portraiture which is curated by Caryn Coleman.

More Images + Info »

Hi dujourers. On April 2nd the first friday of the month GH will be hosting Balls Out. A full on giz into the eyeballs of the viewer with over 50 artists doing square panels. The theme- Go Balls Out. Put all your art love and juice into one piece of work. The line-up is… well, it’s flipping awesome. I’ll post that soon. First let’s start with the gold medal winner for getting in their first image via digi, Appropriately titled “Goo”.. Thanks Evah Fan. You are a winner and a champion.

More Images + Info »

Following in the footsteps of the early Dadaists and Fluxus sound experiments, artist M11X (aka Mikal Hameed) has exploded on the scene with a new, more contemporary form of sound art. Blending his musical history and technical skill as a craftsman and visual fine artist, designer Mikal Hameed and his alter ego artist M11X, calls on us to forget our individualized nature and relationship with our headphones and demands that we start to share our music as it was meant to be; unplugged from our ears and free.  M11X’s manifesto blends the iconic image of the boom box and alters the platform to which music is brought to the masses. Mikal’s personal relationship to the early 80s, boom boxes and sound in general, creates a strong foundation from which he explores through collaboration with many traditional fine art mediums.  This Friday Hameed will be bringing a recent tour of his artwork to a close at Kingdom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  The tour ran through galleries and art spaces in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Jersey City before making it’s final stop in Brooklyn, New York.  I sat down with Hameed to ask him a few questions about his artwork and what to expect from this upcoming event on Friday, March 12th in Brooklyn.

More Images + Info »

Q: Where do you get your inspiration from?
I get it from my dreams, any time day or night. It might bother me in some ways.

Q: Your color palette is crazy, how did it evolve?
According to my mother, my color was already crazy when I began to paint at an early age, but it was too strong and messed up. I think it was refined thanks to the study at an art university.

Q: Do your characters have personalities?
I think they have. However, they are harder for you to interpret than me. Some people might search for evil in my monsters, but it doesn’t exist.

More Images + Info »

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

On March 4th I’ll be in New York for the VOLTANY art fair, but here in Los Angeles is the opening of the first of 4 exhibitions for the newest batch of grads coming out of UCLA.  I hear Matthias Merkel Hess’ work is not to be missed. Other artists in the show include: Derek Curry, Abbey Dubin, Jennifer Gradecki, and Ian Pines.  Opening Reception is Thursday, March 4th from 5 – 8pm.

This past Saturday Yoshitaka Amano opened up his LA solo with us at LeBasse Projects and was also joined by LBP artist Yoskay Yamamoto who created a site specific installation for the occasion. Amano’s other show this month is a retrospective at MOCA Taipei so this was a great opportunity for us at the gallery.

Yoskay’s installation was also a huge hit as both his and Amano’s fans walked through the “rain” in the Project Room. Also debuting was Yoskay’s first fine art multiple sculptures which sold out quickly. More in this series will be showcased in June at Yamamoto’s solo exhibition.

The show runs through March 13th so make sure to stop by. More pics after the jump:

More Images + Info »

Giant Robot was one of the magazine’s that piqued my interest in art and gave a voice to many artists, designers and creative people. Right now, the magazine like many others needs some support. So go buy an issue, subscribe and donate.

More Images + Info »