Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Oil painter and Lowbrow pioneer Robert Williams continues to craft stirring reflections of culture. “Robert Williams: Slang Aesthetics" at LSU Museum of Art collects more than 30 paintings "as well as ephemera and drawings" by the artist. The museum partnered with Thinkspace Gallery on the show, which runs through June 17. Williams was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
Last Saturday marked a milestone for Copro Gallery in Los Angeles which has played host to the "BLAB!" show for ten years. We have covered the show throughout its run, originally created by the Blab World anthology creator and art director, Monte Beauchamp, known for his varied interests in art. Several of Blab World's contributors have appeared in the pages of Hi-Fructose as well, most recently Robert Williams (HF Vol. 36) and Daniel Clowes in our next issue. With this year's exhibit honoring the release of the next anthology comes a new crop of artists reflecting Blab's ever-growing taste.
Greg Escalante has been an important figure and catalyst of new contemporary art for the past twenty years. Through his work as Copro Gallery director, co-founder of Juxtapoz magazine, and avid art collector, he's helped catapult some of the scene's most well known artists to prominence. On Saturday night, he began a new venture with the grand opening of the Gregorio Escalante Gallery in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles. The gallery's first exhibition showcases some of the most notable and interesting pieces in Escalante's collection, aptly titled "The Collection."
The art world's heart has a hole in it today. "The Pizz" (a.k.a. El Pizzo a.k.a. Stephen Pizzurro), the self-described Lowbrow artist who evolved into a celebrated influence to a generation of artists, has left us. He was only 57. Born in 1958 and raised in a large Italian family in Orange County, California, The Pizz grew up creating art - he once said that he began drawing since he had a pen in his hand. He caught his first big break working on Rat Fink comics for his personal inspiration, cartoonist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, before going on to design cover art for punk label Sympathy for the Record Industry, and eventually entering the gallery world with fellow notable artists like Robert Williams.
Robert Williams signed books all day long for an endless line of fans on March 28 at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. His new book, SLANG Aesthetics!, serves as an exhibition guide to the comprehensive retrospective by the same name. The exhibit opened last February at the same venue where the signing took place. It's on view through April 19 in tandem with Juxtapoz Magazine’s anniversary group show, "20 Years Under the Influence of Juxtapoz." SLANG Aesthetics! covers Williams' expansive career as an artist, a founder of Juxtapoz, and arguably the godfather of low brow art and culture.