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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
The name Ed Hardy immediately evokes images of tattooed baseball tees with cartoon skulls and studded baseball hats worn by reality TV stars. But before artist Don Ed Hardy became one of the most polarizing brands in history, he was a young aspiring artist whose favorite past time was going down to the beach in Southern California and looking at classic cars. He eventually went on to study under legendary Japanese tattoo artist Horihide, an experience that had a profound influence on Hardy's signature, ornate style. Today, Hardy is retired from tattooing, instead focused on non-tattoo based art like printmaking, drawing, and painting. This also includes new porcelain works and tapestries in his upcoming exhibition curated by Varnish Fine Art gallery in San Francisco, "Visionary Subversive".
San Francisco's notoriously sky-high rents have made headlines in recent months, and the avant-garde mecca of yore is rapidly becoming a poster child for gentrification and income inequality. A testament to the city's rapid transformation and out-with-the-old mentality, Brian Goggin's site-specific installation "Defenestration" will be taken down from Hugo Hotel on June 3 to make way for the building's demolition this fall. Seventeen years of display time is much longer than the artist expected when he created the piece with the help of 100 volunteers in 1997. The installation became a beloved landmark for San Francisco residents and many donors, including Banksy, have contributed to preserve the work.