To close out the hugely successful group art show and 15 year celebration of Giant Robot magazine, JANM will be open for extended hours on Thursday, January 21 to host the Giant Robot Biennale. Curated by Giant Robot co-founder and co-editor Eric Nakamura, this expanded follow-up to the 2007 exhibition Giant Robot Biennale: 50 Issues will highlight artists associated with the magazine over the past 15 years.

Featured artists include David Choe, James Jean, Souther Salazar, Theo Ellsworth, kozyndan, Stella Lai, Jack Long, Albert Reyes, Rob Sato, Jeff Soto, Deth P. Sun, Le Merde, David Horvath, and Yukinori Dehara.

Admission will be free, and many of the participating artists and key members of the Giant Robot family will be in attendance as part of this special gathering. Expect refreshments, a musical guest, The Binges and DJ Puffs, and other surprises.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Closing Reception: Thursday, January 21, 5:00-9:00 p.m.

Art Basel Miami is almost upon us.  While most of the attention and press goes to the numerous art fairs, we’re big fans of  Primary Flight which is  billed as “The world’s largest site-specific street level mural installation”.  From our experience last year, the description seems spot-on – the world’s top street artists and writers hitting large expanses of wall throughout the Wynwood district of Miami.  Last year was great and we’re assuming ‘09 will match it.

In addition to bringing the best urban art to the streets of Miami, Primary Flight is also taking things indoor with Blue.Print.For.Space an exhibition of street art @ Artcenter/South Florida.  Opening on December 1st with a reception on the 2nd (8-10 PM), the show features work by Augor, Bask, Blackbooks, Chris Stain, Cruz, Jim & Tina Darling, D*Face, Dolla, El Mac, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Logan Hicks, The London Police, Meggs, Mike De Feo, Kenton Parker, Pisa 73, Push, Santiago Rubino, Retna, Reyes, Revok, She Kills Me, Jeff Soto, Stormie Mills, Tes One, Typoe, Augustina Woodgate and Zevs.  Definitely worth checking out if you’re doing Basel this year.

Artcenter/South Florida
924 Lincoln Road, Suite 205
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305.674.8278

Adapta Gallery will exhibit the work of eight British artists for their third curated project, Close Encounters, which opens on Thursday November 12th (6:30 – 8:30 PM) @ Time Out Gallery in Tokyo. The group show will feature an impressive lineup including Best Ever, Cyclops, D*Face, David Bray, Matt Small, Sickboy, Word to Mother and Vesna Parchet.   The opening night will also feature work by several noteworthy special guests including Usugrow, Jeff Soto, Shohei Takasaki, Yoshiki and Nagayama.  Adapta is understandably pumped about the opportunity to showcase standout urban art to a Japanese audience.  The exhibition is a continuation of  the Adapta UK web magazine’s work to brings the best of the UK to Japan.

Time Out Gallery
Liquidroom 2/F, 3-16-6, Higashi,
Shibuya-ku,Tokyo

More Images + Info »

For fifteen years, from its humble beginnings as a hand-made zine to today’s authority on Asian pop culture, Giant Robot has sought out, supported, and disseminated the work of promising, difference making artists.  Last Saturday’s (10.24.09) opening of the Giant Robot Biennale 2 at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo celebrated  the magazine’s longstanding love affair with new art. The exhibition features new work from  thirteen celebrated artists who rose to prominence with the magazine as well as a large group show of 50+ rising and established talents.

The opening drew a large crowd with queues forming at both the downstairs gallery for the group show and the upstairs gallery featuring the work of James Jean, David Choe (above), Jeff Soto, Souther Salazar, Jack Long and Stella Lai.   Both galleries are filled with inspiring pieces – it’s a cliche but there’s something here for even the most jaded art lover.

The lower gallery honors the diversity of the evolving art scene.  In addition to numerous paintings by a wide selection of artists, the group show highlights the art toy movement with a  sprawling and colorful display of hand-painted  Ledavhara figures named after their three prominent creators – David Horvath, Le Merde and Dehara.

The upper gallery offers a breathtaking look at many of today’s top talents in the new art movement that is often described with the blanket label of ‘pop surrealism’.  Among the work presented, the paintings of James Jean, Jeff Soto, and David Choe stand out as clear highlights.  While we’ve done our best to capture the work in a series of photographs, viewing the art  on your pc pales in comparison to the joy and sense of wonder that comes with experiencing it in person.

While  David Choe’s new futuristic femme fatale paintings are breathtaking, his installation of personal artifacts and art packing crates forming an urban art hideaway of sorts is a testament to his appeal – mixing eye catching and imagination provoking graffiti with a no apologies life ethos.

From actor George Takei’s ( Sulu on Star Trek)  glowing introduction of Giant Robot co-founder Eric Nakamura to a surprise musical performance by David Choe and James Jean, the opening of Giant Robot Biennale 2 proved to be a rousing and significant celebration of the publication’s first fifteen years. The milestone exhibition elevates the stature and awareness of this evolving art scene with the gold standard of an extended presence in a public museum.   Giant Robot Biennale 2 runs through January 24th, 2009. Not to be missed.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles California 90012
213.625.0414

More Images + Info »

Giant Robot will celebrate 15 years of covering Asian Culture with Biennale 2 opening on October 24th, 2009 at the Japanese American National Museum. The impressive featured lineup includes David Choe, James Jean, Souther Salazar, Theo Ellsworth, kozyndan, Stella Lai, Jack Long, Albert Reyes, Jeff Soto, Deth P. Sun, Le Merde, David Horvath and Yukinori Dehara.  A second hall will feature work from 50 additional artists. If you have any interest in Pop Surrealist / New Contemporary art, this show is not to be missed.

By way of preview, check out the James Jean teaser video below created and posted by GR Co-Founder Eric Nakamura.  It shows glimpses of Jean’s new Chinnamasta piece which will be featured in the show as well as another painting which we presume will also be part of Giant Robot Biennale 2.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles California 90012
213.625.0414

More Images + Info »

Yoskay Yamamoto on Vimeo

A new interview with Yoskay Yamamoto was just posted as part of Scion’s Installation Tour – currently in LA. You can bid on Yoskay’s painting, which is being auctioned off for charity along with all the other artists.  The auction is online at artnet .

There are some other great works from artists like Blek le Rat, Tessar Lo, Souther Salazar, Retna, Ron English, Kelsey Brookes and Jeff Soto. Make sure to attend the final show at the Scion Gallery through September 30th.

Nature's Wrath. Jeff Soto.

Jeff Soto will release two new giclees over at Potatostamp.com on Wednesday, June 24th.  Each is 1 to 1 – the same size as the original painting.  Limited to 50  signed and numbered pieces, the print of Nature’s Wrath from the original painting in the Inland Empire show @ Stolen Space is 14″x 14″ (image: 12″ x 12″) and will be available for $150 + $10 shipping (USA) or $20 for international shipping.

Limited to just 10 signed and numbered pieces, the Grasshoppers print from the original painting in the Turning in Circles exhibit at the Riverside Art Museum is 23″ x 27″ (image: 20″ x 24″) and has apparently sold out in an advanced sale for repeat buyers for $300 each.

More Images + Info »

Circleculture Gallery in Berlin opens a group show of self-portraits from a fantastic line-up of artists. Artists are an international group including D-Face, Charlie Isoe, Aaron Rose, Jeff Soto, Kill Pixie, JR and Judith Supine.

According to CC, “the idea of this exhibition is to approach the historical theme of self-portraits and to bring it into a contemporary art context. A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 1400s that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of self-portraiture… In this respect it will be an interesting and new experience to show the vision of the “self-portrait” by contemporary urban artists from all over the world.”

Opening reception: Friday June 5th, 7-10 pm
Circleculture Gallery
Gipsstrasse 11
Berlin Mitte / Germany

StolenSpace are proud to present Californian artist and icon of the current pop art scene, Jeff Soto, in his inaugural Uk solo exhibition ‘The Inland Empire’

This show will feature over twenty new paintings on wood panel. The opening will see the release of an exclusive limited edition hand pulled screen print and Soto will be signing copies of his newly published book ‘Storm Clouds’

‘The Inland Empire’ is a politically charged exhibition focusing on the theme of recession in the area in which the artist lives and how it reflects what is happening all over the world. Conceptually it is the next step of Soto’s hugely successful and critically acclaimed Museum exhibit at the Riverside Art Museum, “Turning In Circles” in December 2008. Being in Riverside, his home town for the last 24 years, he knew it had to relate somehow to this city that has moulded him and made me who he is.

More Images + Info »

StolenSpace London is going to present Californian artist and icon of the current pop art scene, Jeff Soto, in his inaugural UK solo exhibition titled ‘The Inland Empire’.

This show will feature over twenty new paintings on wood panel and paper, as well as large-scale outdoor installations. The opening will see the release of a limited edition hand pulled screen print and Soto will be signing copies of his newly published book ‘Storm Clouds’.

‘The Inland Empire’ is a politically charged exhibition focusing on the theme of recession in the area in which the artist lives and how it reflects what is happening all over the world. Conceptually it is the next step of Soto’s hugely successful and critically acclaimed museum exhibit at the Riverside Art Museum, “Turning In Circles” in December 2008. Being in Riverside, his home town for the last 24 years, he knew it had to relate somehow to this city that has molded him and made me who he is.

Jeff Soto
‘The Inland Empire’
14th May – 07th June 2009
StolenSpace, London

More Images + Info »

We went on a little field trip yesterday as I needed to take a break from construction and preparations for the gallery launch. Yoskay, Nate, Edwin, Tessar and I took a drive out to Riverside to visit the town mayor Jeff Soto.

Jeff was kind enough to show us his studio, give us a guided tour of his amazing show at the Riverside Art Museum and then spend a lazy afternoon at lunch with us. I must say that the scale and scope of his new paintings and installation were tremendous. Jeff clearly stepped out on a limb and pushed himself for the show. He told me that it represented nearly a year of painting.

There seems to be some confusion, but even though it is at the museum, the show is all for sale and there are a few great pieces left. Sales are being handled through Kinsey/Desforges so ask them for pricing and details.

The museum has extended the show a few more weeks, so I would recommend stopping in before its gone.

Saturday night Jeff Soto opens his museum show in Riverside. While is might be a bit of a drive – I have no doubt this will be a show worth going to.

Jeff Soto: Turning in Circles
December 2, 2008 – February 21, 2009
Reception: Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 6-9pm
Riverside Art Museum
3425 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside, CA 92501

If you do not make the opening, note that the show will be up through February 21st – so there is no excuse not to go.

More info on Jeff’s website:

Jeff Soto: Turning in Circles
December 2, 2008 – February 21, 2009
RECEPTIONS: Dec 13, 2008
Julia Morgan Society Reception 6 – 7pm
Public Reception 7 – 9pm

Nowadays, painting in southern California is all over the place, stylistically as well as geographically. But it has been adopted with particular verve by one still new, rapidly evolving genre. The manifold sources for this new genre, from graffiti to cartoons to psychedelia to car (and surf/skateboard) customizing and on and on, provide these self-styled, technically adept “lowbrow” or “newbrow” or “pop surrealist” painters with an immense variety of styles, subjects, attitudes, and rhetorics.

Riverside artist Jeff Soto has achieved an especially prominent place among the legions of “newbrow” painters. In his work of the past couple of years, Soto has reached a clarity of intent, as well as pitch of technique, that embodies a true vision – true, that is, to his grasp of reality, not just to the making of a richly faceted yet coherent image. Soto made his reputation on visually assured, pictorially ambitious paintings; now, he is challenging himself to produce visually challenging, even unstable imagery, imagery that reflects back at us something more than our need for entertaining stimulus.

More Images + Info »