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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Travis Louie’s creatures carry Victorian and Edwardian vibes, rendered in the artist’s distinctive, fantastical style. A show at Creatura House, the new Seattle venue from Roq La Rue Gallery founder Kirsten Anderson, collects a new set of paintings and drawings from the artist. Louie was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here. He and artist Travis Lampe also recently created the art for the card throwing/tile game Vampires vs. Unicorns: Floor War, constructed by game designer Jim DuBois and Hi-Fructose co-founder Attaboy.
Artists Travis Lampe and Travis Louie created the art for the upcoming “card throwing/tile game” Vampires vs. Unicorns: Floor War. The Yumfactory game was constructed by game designer Jim DuBois and Hi-Fructose co-founder Attaboy, based on an original concept by DuBois.
Guillermo del Toro is known as one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today. As the director of some of this generation's most inventive horror and monster genre films, from Hellboy (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Pacific Rim (2013), and Crimson Peak (2015), it should come as no surprise that del Toro loves monsters- and he has a creepy art collection to match. His treasured collection has been a work in progress since he was a child in Guadalajara, Mexico, and given its significant impact on del Toro's work and process, is now being brought to the public, courtesy of LACMA.
As if the imminent shopping season weren't already scary enough, a new exhibition at the Stranger Factory in Albuquerque is spreading a little holiday cheer with a dash of nightmares. The gallery's annual "Winter Salon" exhibition, now in its fifth installment, has gathered the Circus Posterus collective around the Christmas tree to present a selection of smaller paintings and drawings, and several hand-painted figures that take us back to the Island of Misfit Toys. The exhibit has plenty toy-sized offerings by artists like Max Lehman, Keely Reichman, Chris Ryniak, Carisa Swenson, HF Vol. 32 cover artist Travis Louie, while Brandt Peters and Kathie Olivas have collaborated on several scary-cute pieces.
Yesterday, we brought you our highlights of UNTITLED art fair, SCOPE Miami Beach, Miami Project and Art on Paper. Today, we continue our coverage with one of the most popular fairs during the jam-packed Miami Art Week- PULSE Miami Beach. Despite the dreary Miami weather, PULSE was in high attendance and notable for its engaging and interactive installations in collaboration with Target that attracted art lovers of every age. Designed as a platform for new video and media art, "Target Too" combined items sold at Target with art- though some blasted it as a commercial "sell-out", we couldn't help but smile at some of the works on display like Daniel Rozin's Insta-worthy "Troll Mirror", a mirror made of hundreds of pink and green treasure trolls that reflected your silhouette as you moved around the piece. Take a look at more of our highlights from PULSE Miami Beach after the jump!
There was a resurgence of interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials in the 1970s after Swiss author Erich Von Daniken wrote "Chariots of The Gods." Travis Louie (HF Vol. 32 cover artist) grew up in that environment, and once thought of aliens as the ultimate immigrants. For his new body of work, "Watch the Skies", which debuts tonight at KP Projects/MKG in Los Angeles, Louie incorporates aliens into his cast of creature portraits. His monochromatic acrylic paintings have been likened to bizarre snapshots of monsters, to the effect of old-timey photographs from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Though Louie has a longtime fascination with atomic-age science fiction, his aliens represent more than just a fantasy.
Through a unique process of applying thin, translucent layers of monochromatic, acrylic paint to a panel over and over, Travis Louie (HF Vol. 32 cover artist) mimics the effect of 19th-century photography. Though filled with fantastical characters, his works have an effect of verisimilitude much like historical documents from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. For his latest solo show, "Archive of Lost Species," which opens at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle on May 7, Louie abandons the studio portrait format we've seen before. Instead, his latests works look like snapshots of strange monsters, sometimes observed in the wild and sometimes interacting with their human counterparts.
Merry Karnowsky set the mood of the holiday season with their year-end exhibition, "Praeteritum Nunc Futurum" on Saturday. Outside, the weather was crisp and colored lights lit the window, while inside the gallery offered a preview of shows to come. Although wide open in theme, works by artists Craola, Travis Louie, Nicola Verlato, Andrew Hem, Lezley Saar, Todd Carpenter, devNgosha, and more compliment eachother nicely. Take a look at our photos from opening night after the jump!
Praeteritum Nunc Futurum. Translation: Past, present, and future. Tomorrow night, Merry Karnowsky gallery closes out the year with past and new works from their roster, serving as a preview of 2015. References to time can also be found, as in the Victorian subjects in Lezley Saar's piece, or Nicola Verlato's sweeping scene starring Kimbra in an old Western gone wrong. Preview after the jump!
Throughout art history, artists have been giving us their interpretation of the world as only they can see it. "Parallel Universe" which opened at Merry Karnowsky gallery last Saturday, presented this idea to a select group of artists- Seonna Hong, Nathan Ota, Travis Louie, Caleb Brown, DevNgosha, Hell'o Monsters and Sashie Masakatsu. Are these the images of an alternate reality or just what the rest of us can't see? Quirky, outlandish, beautiful, surreal, imaginative and a little disturbing are all words that describe their combined definition of a 'parallel universe'.
This weekend, Merry Karnowsky will celebrate the opening of two exhibitions- Lezley Saar's solo exhibition "Monad", alongside group show, "Parallel Universe." It is a combination of artists who transport us into alternate realities with their art. For her previous exhibition at Merry Karnowsky, covered here, Lezley Saar touched upon divine aspects of womanhood in a 19th century inspired installation. This concept is apparent in her show "Monad", after the Divine first being or totality of all beings. More after the jump.
Our next print issue of Hi-Fructose New Contemporary Art Magazine (which arrives in July) features a beautiful cover and feature and a beautifully-printed special 16-page insert by Travis Louie, we chase clouds with the murals and art of Sainer and the ETAM CRU, discover the animal portraits of Susan Siegel, Andy Gilmore's hallucinatory graphics, Eric Wert's intense still-lives, Shawn Huckins's modern painted text messaging meets old masters mash-ups, painter Casey Weldon's bright and bold surreal works, Mark Gmehling's 3D distortions, and a major feature on the art of Sam Wolfe Connelly! Plus we journey into hell in with a new stereoscopic book review and take a look at Dima Drjuchin's Lil Goof and more! Pre-order a copy today! See more sneak peeks of the issue after the jump.