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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Opening June 25th, Archimedes Gallery will be showing 25 new wood fired ceramic & cast bronze sculptures by Eva Funderburgh and 6 new paintings by Josh Keyes. Special events include, two different Josh Keyes limited edition print releases offered in-house only, starting at 10 am Saturday, June 25th along with Josh and Eva doing an artist demonstration from 2pm - 4pm followed by an artists' reception from 5pm - 8pm. See preview images of the show after the jump!
Legendary Kustomizer George Barris was a true original who lived life on his terms. Several folks will remember his one of a kind creations like the infamous Batmobile of the 1960s television series Batman, Munster Coffin Cars and Drag-Ula, not to mention scores of insane four wheels, and hovering vehicles-turned-hot rods into motoring artful master pieces. Grease monkey fabricators like Barris, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and Von Dutch inspired several generations of Lowbrow artists like Coop, Robert Williams, the Pizz and more. Plus, they made watching those stupid-fun television shows of our youth more outrageous than ever. "Rev In Peace", George Barris.
While the world celebrates the Olympics, which are taking place in re-purposed parts of London, sculptor Wilfred Wood (featured in Hi-Fructose Collected Edition vol.2) reflects on the anniversary of a less joyous event in London: last year's riots and, more specifically, their participants. Wood lives in Hackney (where the majority of the London riots happened), which is now host to many events for the Olympic games. See more after the jump.
We just had the last 12 Hi-Fructose Book Bundles packed up in flat rate boxes. If you haven't gotten the two books yet, here's a great way to get over 550 pages and 75 artists all in one place with priority shipping included!
Michael Salter's gigantic robots make from Styrofoam packaging materials were featured in the earliest issues of Hi-Fructose. His stark towering sculptures and mutated logo paintings are simple, attractive, but always poignant. Check out a few videos of Salter creating his sculptures at his museum exhibitions and more!
I keep looking at Korean painter Ho Ryon Lee's paintings waiting for them to move. Double exposures are often used in photography as a way to simulate movement and mood. But these paintings make me feel like a dirty old man and make my eye bounce from the edges to the center and back to the edges again. Does their perfectly painted beauty seem to initially hide their pervy upskirt tease factor? By the time your brain figures out the layered image/motion, you get trapped in a shame stare spiral for looking.
If only the world was as cool and compositionally interesting as depicted in the art works of Ragnar. It's exciting to see the normally pixel pushing artist, whom we featured many years back in Hi-Fructose vol.4, make one of a kind originals on canvas. His stunning mix of contrasting off-kilter color combinations paired with an impeccable design sensibility has made him a sought after artist for many years. Take a look at Ragnar's studio and a few pieces from his duo show with Scott Tolleson show at Stranger Factory here! - by atta
We first premiered artist Yoko d'Holbachie in print in 2007 as the cover feature of Hi-Fructose vol.6 with a stellar lineup including Jordan Crane, Audrey Kawasaki, Jonathan Viner, sculptor Ron Muek, Marion Peck, and more. A string of group and solo shows followed for the Japanese pop surrealist. Five years later, the artist will finally visit the U.S. in person for her latest solo exhibit :My Strange Goddess" at AFA Gallery in NYC. D'Holbachie's candy colored monstrosities drip with saccharin from the shadows of some bug like cream-filled world. They're grotesque and alluring at the same time. See the work on April 29th and don't miss the opening for a rare appearance of the artist at the show! Check out previews of the show here!
This interesting topography style mapping of street art Barcelona looks like it could lead to many interesting Google-like statistic thermodynamic style results. Or perhaps, just a handy tool for law enforcement to crack down on unregulated creativity and/or vandalism. From Katrine, the curator: "While living in Barcelona, inspired by each corner that I turned, I began to carry my camera with me at all times." Read more after the jump.
We first covered Gary Taxali's work in Hi-Fructose Vol.4. Since then, the artist has been nominated for a Grammy, his work has made an appearance on Canadian currency, and he's released olde-timey toys and a new monograph entitled "I Love You, OK?." Taxali's mixed media style often incorporates found items from book stores, worn out book pages and endpapers, and he creates hand crafted layered pieces that look printed, stamped and annotated, while still letting the soul of the original aged canvas shine through. He has a new show at The Outsiders Gallery opening May 4th. See more images after the jump.
Multi-media artist Ted Vasin's blog looks to be evidence photos of a person on a hallucinatory bender; a mix of electronic equipment, newspaper/magazine clippings, wires, medical marijuana, dildos, and art supplies. While that's fun and all, it wouldn't be worth investigating or mentioning if the end result wasn't such a fantastic body of provoking art works.
Michael Page was last featured in Hi-Fructose vol.19. Images from his upcoming April 14th showing at White Walls in San Francisco appear to be electric. Bursts of glowing color seem to pulse at the viewer. Abstract bursts and realistic figures and backgrounds seem to collide with energy. We don't want to give too much away but here are a few previews of his new body of work! Page's Élan Vital will feature thirty paintings and six drawings, as well as an installation.
Melissa Cook does extremely realistic graphite drawings. But this particular series of plastic bag self portraits are extra frightening.
Says the artist: "The Vacuum series ascribes to the devices of melancholia in order to explore society’s fascination with violence, death and insanity. In this series I create a fictional, tortured persona in order to fulfill the stereotype of the tragic artist. Within my avatar, I am able to exaggerate the characteristics of the crazy, unstable, melancholic artist in order to question its glorification and validity.”
Photographer Carlie Armstrong took a trip to the studio of one of the lynch pin's of Portland's Art Community, the endearingly enduring Bwana Spoons. Bwana is known for creating eye-peeling cell vinyl paintings, resin cast sculptures, curating powerfully humorous shows with artists like Martin Ontiveros, Skrappers, J.Otto Seibold, and Tim Biskup. Spoons is a dynamic force in the art world and we're happy to show you an exclusive look at where so much of that black magic happens.
Renee French's drawings do a difficult thing; they are quiet and mysterious yet powerful at the same time. She creates wonderful graphic novels, many published by Seattle's Fantagraphics. But, I find that each panel/page can certainly stand on/tell a story all on it's own.Enjoy more of her drawings after the jump!
We last covered Eric Fortune's paintings in 2009 with Hi-Fructose Vol.13, and soon after with his piece for the Hi-Fructose Anniversary show. We thought it was high time to check on what he's been up to. Fortune's ethereal layered drip technique is painstaking, but the moody results are spectacular.Here's a few recent works from Fortune and we can't wait to show you previews form his upcoming show at Labasse Projects Gallery.
I've always loved road-side attractions and restaurant mascot characters. Especially fond when the characters,usually a burger-faced man or knife-wielding pig, voraciously devours itself. And don't get me started on my affection for lobster bibs.These very fiberglass effigies are pure American, and they dart our landscape like castles strewn around the English country-side.But nothing I've ever seen could prepare me for Tony Tasset's "Hot Dog Man." He's a urine-dripping pork bi-product monster. He is what you eat, just follow the mustard trail to this over-stuffed, shriveled testicle smile with the Robert Crumb-esque "Keep on Trucking" Stance."Tasset's other works, playing on emoticons as threat levels and garbage heaps, are equally fantastic, bold and humorous. Take a look at "Hot Dog Man" and a few other works after the jump.