Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Artist Andrew Hem Makes Curatorial Debut with “Ill Squad!” Group Show

Andrew Hem (HF Vol. 21 cover artist) makes his curatorial debut tomorrow with "Ill Squad!", a group exhibition of his fellow artists at Giant Robot gallery. Throughout his career, Hem has shed a light on his favorite artists in another way, in his lush and colorful paintings. Among his subjects are those who inspire him creatively, which he portrays either at work in their studio or on some fantastical adventure. At his solo exhibition last year, "Dream but Don't Sleep" (covered here), Hem shared with us his ongoing enthusiasm for garnering a public interest in his friends' work. Nearly all of the artists in his "squad" stem from an illustration background, but together their works are eclectic and showcase a variety of media.


Jim Salvati

Andrew Hem (HF Vol. 21 cover artist) makes his curatorial debut tomorrow with “Ill Squad!”, a group exhibition of his fellow artists at Giant Robot gallery. Throughout his career, Hem has shed a light on his favorite artists in another way, in his lush and colorful paintings. Among his subjects are those who inspire him creatively, which he portrays either at work in their studio or on some fantastical adventure. At his solo exhibition last year, “Dream but Don’t Sleep” (covered here), Hem shared with us his ongoing enthusiasm for garnering a public interest in his friends’ work. Nearly all of the artists in his “squad” stem from an illustration background, but together their works are eclectic and showcase a variety of media; figurative works, landscape painting, graffiti and urban art are just a few examples. These include those featured here, such as David Olivera, Edwin Ushiro, Ekunadayo, Eric Fortune, Jim Salvati, Joanne Nam, Juan Travieso, Ken Garduno, Kim Cogan, Marc Trujillo, Marco Mazoni, Peter Chan, Sean Chao, and Wayne Johnson, to name a few. Take a look at our preview of the show below, courtesy of Giant Robot.


Wayne Johnson


Sean Chao


Peter Chan


Marco Mazzoni


Marc Trujillo


Kim Cogan


Ken Garduno


Juan Travieso


Joanne Nam


Ekundayo


Edwin Ushiro

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
A new exhibit opening today at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art aims to take a snap shot of the ever growing New Contemporary "school". It's class? Many will be familiar to Hi-Fructose readers: Andrew Hem (HF Vol. 21 cover artist), Curiot (Hf Vol. 29), Ekundayo (HF Vol. 9), Erik Jones (HF Vol. 27 cover artist), Kwon Kyungyup (HF Vol. 24), Natalia Fabia (HF Vol. 22), Scott Radke (Hf Vol. 6), Yoskay Yamamoto (HF Vol. 8), and Yosuke Ueno (HF Vol. 10), to name a few. The exhibition will also include an abstract installation by artist Brett Amory (HF Vol. 20). "Invisible College", which is co-curated by the museum's Josef Zimmerman and Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles, presents New Contemporary as a movement that is both traditionally inspired and non traditional. See more after the jump.
Chinese born, California based artist Vincent Xeus paints his portraits with a sensitive treatment of light and shading to an almost haunting effect. Though his work shares elements of 17th-century Dutch masters and contemporaries like Gerhard Richter, Odd Nerdrum, Francis Bacon, and Antonio López Garcia, Xeus has created an entirely new approach. Previously featured on our blog, he has said that his intent is to reveal that which is beneath what we think we see. This involves smudging the paint until the subject's face is hardly recognizable or appears blurry and more impressionistic. His latest body of work, "Hue is Full / A Thousand Faces", which opened Friday at Gallery 1261 in Colorado, takes his unconventional style to a new level where he wipes and scrapes away at his subjects.
American artist Jamie Adams paints the human form with the expertise of an European Old Master. His rendering of musculature and gradation of skin tone is exacting and hyperrealistic. However, there is something askew in the way the necks of his figures sometimes turn too far — as if snapped by an unknown force — and stomachs appear to bulge and contract to unnatural degrees. The distortions to which Adam subjects his characters, and their simultaneously alluring and repelling effects, are similar to the ways in which John Currin manipulates his female figures. The uncanny resemblance is likely no accident, as Adams and Currin are contemporaries of one another. Born within one year of each other, Adams and Currin are both BFA graduates of Carnegie Mellon University.
Los Angeles based multimedia artist Amir H. Fallah does not consider our looks to be the most important thing about us. He describes his art as "alternative portraits", portraits of a person that look beyond their physical characteristics. His 2014 exhibition "The Collected" established his definition of portraiture through a variety of methods from ornate paintings that play with color and geometrical patterns to found-object sculpture. With his current installation "The Caretaker" at Nerman Museum Of Contemporary Art in Kansas, Fallah continues this exploration in new paintings and sculpture.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List