Go See: Color Magazine’s “One Way or Another”

by Donny Miller

Exhibition Statement:
There have been countless exhibitions of the art inspired by skateboard culture. Decks and shoes adorned with the paint splatter from our favorite skaters from yesteryear. Showing that not only does skateboarding breed creativity, but with it astounding prowess. In recent years professional skaters such as Ed Templeton, Jason Lee, Mark Gonzales, Chris Pastras and Jason Adams have carved their own ways into the world of art with favorable reviews. Now and for the first time ever Color Magazine brings together the artists who make up the skateboarding world today, as we see it. Representing the wide spectrum of the industry, these artists come together for the pure love of a skate-trip.

Greg PNut Galinsky, Andrew Pommier, Michael Leon, Mark ‘Fos’ Foster, Todd Bratrud, Ben Horton, Donny Miller, Michael Sieben and Mat O’Brien will be traveling from around the country and the U.K. to three cities showing the wonderful and inspirational work they do. Others like Dennis McNett, Travis Millard, Geoff McFetridge, Andy Jenkins, Matt Irving, and Eric Anthony are contributing art for these one-night shows starting in Los Angeles at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery, then Escapist in Kansas City, MO ending at the No Comply Skate Shop in Austin, TX.

Friday, June 4 (6-11pm)
Escapist
405 Southwest Blvd.
Kansas City, Mo 64153
816 842 2504

Monday, June 7 (6-11pm)
No Comply
812 W. 12th St.
Austin, TX 78701
512 804 0472

by Travis Millard

The photos used in this post are by Micheal C. Hsiung and originally appear on Fecal Face.

posted by: Brent Carter

Artist Shout Out / Go See: Clare Rojas

Clare Rojas’ “wall quilt” for the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (MOCFA)

Exhibition Statement:

From May 14 – August 22, 2010 at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Folk Art the new exhibition Clare Rojas: We They, We They showcases the first solo exhibition of the Bay Area artist who identifies and inserts herself in the folk art continuum. MOCFA is proud to present new abstract work that has yet to be seen by the public.

Clare Rojas (b. 1976, Ohio, lives and works in San Francisco) is best known for her folk-inspired practice that challenges the stereotypical representations of the sexes through a naïf homespun aesthetic using flat areas of color that reveal her origins as a print-maker. Rojas uses a wide range of media, including painting, installation and video, most often depicting interactions between men and women in fabled and mysterious landscapes.

Although Clare Rojas’ work speaks to the DIY attitudes and community spirit of the Mission School – arguably the most definable art movement to emerge in the Bay Area in the late 20th century – the artist has distanced herself from the movement in creating a distinct and personal visual vocabulary. This is a seminal moment in Rojas’ career and we are thrilled to be bringing her work to the forefront.

This exhibition will mark a shift in Clare Rojas’ artistic focus from a preoccupation with the figure and gender politics to a broader range of formal association retaining the major proposition of her practice. Understood within the continuum of the history of folk art and in the context of a new urban folk tradition, Clare Rojas’ exhibition will focus on a large “wall quilt” configured by individual paintings on wood panels.

A large installation will be built throughout the entirety of the MOCFA gallery space – the walls of the gallery covered floor to ceiling by a patchwork of painted panels, some focused on particular figurative imagery, others assemblages of color and pattern, combining to recall a myriad of reference points from high art and popular culture – from West Coast modernism, to Latino folk art, Quaker art, Native American craft, outsider art, folklore and the tradition of storytelling and illustration.

Opening Night: Thursday May 13, 7-9pm

Peggy Honeywell performs, 7pm
On the night of her exhibition opening, Clare Rojas performs songs taken from her folk albums Green Mountain, Faint Humms and Honey for Dinner released under the name of her alter-ego Peggy Honeywell.

Artist Talk: Thursday May 20, 7pm. Clare Rojas in conversation with curator Natasha Boas.

detail photo of “wall quilt”

To see selected images from Rojas’ 2004 show at Deitch Projects click here

To see selected images from Rojas’ 2007 show at Gallery Paule Anglim click here

posted by: Harold Johns III

Go See: Brooklyn Museum Exhibition “American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection”

From the gallery:
May 7–August 1, 2010
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 4th Floor

To mark the new relationship between the Brooklyn Museum and the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum presents an exhibition of some of the most renowned objects from its costume collection. American High Style consists of approximately eighty-five dressed mannequins and a selection of hats, shoes, sketches, and other fashion-related material that will reintroduce the collection, long in storage, to the public. The exhibition is organized in groups representing the most important strengths of the collection. Works by the first generation of American women designers such as Bonnie Cashin, Elizabeth Hawes, and Claire McCardell are featured, as well as material created by Charles James, Norman Norell, Gilbert Adrian, and other important American designers. Also included are works by French designers who had an important influence on American women and fashion, such as Charles Frederick Worth, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jeanne Lanvin, Jeanne Paquin, Madeleine Vionnet, and Christian Dior. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will celebrate the arrival of the Brooklyn Museum costume collection at the Met with a related exhibition, American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, on view May 5–August 15, 2010.

posted by: Tricia Rock

Go See: Okay Mountiain – Group Solo Show

Exhibition Statement:

Okay Mountain presents a show of staff member’s individual works and a group of collaborative 7″x7″ drawings made by members of staff and friends.

Formed in 2006 and based in Austin, Okay Mountain is a collective consisting of 9 artists who live and work in Austin, Boston, Chicago, and Oakland. All exhibit as solo artists as well. Originating as an artist-run alternative gallery space, Okay Mountain evolved into an artist collective when its founding members began creating art together outside of the gallery environs. What began as collaborative drawing sessions during weekly staff meetings has since developed into a wide range of collaborative projects across a variety of media, including drawing, video, sound, performance, prints, zines, murals, and large-scale sculptural installations. Their shared artworks reveal the unique perspective provided by a group dynamic, give emphasis to drawing and the artist’s hand, and are always leavened by a sense of humor, whimsy, and larger-than-life Texan spirit. Playing on the conventions and absurdities of contemporary consumer culture and drawing upon pop graphics and styling, their works are scrappy, colorful, and maximal-just like the artists themselves.

Wonder Fair Art Gallery (new location)
803 1/2 Massachusetts Street
Lawrence, KS 66044

Opening Reception Saturday May 8, 6-10pm
On display through June 6, 2010

posted by: Brent Carter

Watch/Go See: Sonny Smith “100 Records”

Via KQED‘s Gallery Crawl:

In April 2010, Gallery Crawl interviewed Sonny Smith to uncover the intentions behind his 100 Records project, which began as a novel and evolved into an expansive music and art project with a staggering number of contributors including Chris Johanson, Esther Pearl Watson, Jo Jackson, William Wiley, Alika Cooper, Ed Ruscha, and Alice Shaw, to name a few.

Sonny Smith has recorded solo projects as well as albums with his band, Sonny and the Sunsets. During a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts, he dreamed up the idea to create a number of fictional bands and record songs for each of them. Smith invited visual artists to design covers for these fictional 45s. The resulting songs can be played on a homemade jukebox in the gallery and prints of a selection of covers, and original music by Sonny Smith are available as a limited edition set, 100 Records, Vol.1.

Sonny Smith: 100 Records is on view through May 14, 2010.

posted by: Harold Johns III