Greg 'Craola' Simkins

Multi-Plane honors the golden age of animation with a high-profile group show opening on December 12th @ Corey Helford gallery in Culver City.  Each artist was provided a custom designed Multi-Plane set featuring a frame with two integrated transparent planes and an opaque background plane. The setup recalls the pioneering Multi-Plane efforts of animators such as Ub Iwerks, Max Fleischer, Bill Garrity, and Walt Disney who built scenes out of multiple ‘cell’ layers.

The impressive lineup includes  Jason Shawn Alexander, Van Arno, Ana Bagayan, Glenn Barr, Gary Baseman, Jeffrey Beauchamp, Tim Biskup, Buff Monster, Luke Chueh, COOP, D*Face*, Chloe Early*, Ron English, Natalia Fabia, Korin Faught, Sarah Folkman, Stella Im Hultberg, Krista Huot, Sylvia Ji, Eric Joyner, Dave Kinsey, KMNDZ, Joe Ledbetter, Henry Lewis, Tiffany Liu, Lola, Travis Louie, Michael Mararian, Dan May, Brandi Milne, Nouar, Nathan Ota, Joshua Petker, Anthony Pontius, Carlos Ramos, Joey Remmers, Todd Schorr, Kathy Staico Schorr, Greg Simkins (above), Amy Sol, Jeff Soto, Nathan Spoor, David Stoupakis, Tin, Tokidoki, Sage Vaughn, Kent Williams, Chet Zar.

Multi-Plane promises to be one of the standout group shows of ‘09.  Not to be missed.

Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310.287.2340

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Greg 'Craola' Simkins

Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins drew a large crowd for last night’s opening of his ‘The Pearl Thief’ solo @ Gallery 1988 Los Angeles.  Many sat or stood gazing at the  massive show titled centerpiece (96″ x 72″)  for minutes on end, absorbing the unfolding story (spread across time) and appreciating the work that went into this piece which took roughly 6 months to complete.

The show centers around the Pearl Thief, a diminutive, stealthy character who is not to be taken lightly.  He steals the dreams and thoughts of all manner of creatures – represented visually by spheres or ‘pearls’ often seen in a transparent capsule within their heads.  Minion or mastermind?  The answer lies in the detailed brushstrokes.  This latest work expands Simkins’ long-running narrative in perhaps the most focused chapter yet.

Gallery 1988 and Craola added a fun and innovative wrinkle to the opening with an interactive game.  Each painting had a number below it which corresponded with a letter position in the piece’s title.  The challenge was to unscramble the letters to reveal the location of a band of pearls.  While many groups worked furiously taking notes along the way, the talented and savvy crew from 42 Entertainment lead by Johnny ‘KMNDZ’ Rodriguez and Mike Borys solved the puzzle and claimed the rich booty — an original 5×5″ Craola painting.

The Pearl Thief runs through November 22nd  Consult the official preview page for artwork availability.

Gallery 1988
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
323.937.7088

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Kris Kuksi and Greg Simkins

This past Saturday evening, Hi-Fructose magazine presented their third annual group show, Overdose, at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica. Dailydujour had the pleasure of taking in the opening – here’s our belated show coverage including plenty of photos.  Offering a vivid and broad overview of low brow, pop surrealist, and new contemporary art the show featured some of the most exciting talents working today including Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins (above), KMNDZ, Chris Berens, Kris Kuksi (above),  Josh Keyes,  Yosuke Ueno, Naoto Hattori, Yoskay Yamamoto, Eric Fortune, Bob Dob, and more.

The evening also served as a release party/signing for the Hi-Fructose Collected Edition box set which includes 5 art prints.  Several artists were on-hand to sign for collectors including Brandi Milne, Greg Simkins, Joe Ledbetter, and photographer extradordinaire Brian McCarty.

Overdose runs through April 25th – if you can check it out in person, if not there’s always the complete online preview.