Art News

"New Blood Rising"

Curated by Les Barany

July 10th - August 9th

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10th, 7 - 10pm

Renowned for his eye for the dark and uncanny, Les Barany has brought together a group of both  notorious and unfamiliar artists that will showcase their intricate and unique styles this summer at Fuse Gallery. Works will include drawing, painting, digital art, sculpture and jewelry.

Participating Artists: J. U. Abrahamson, Patrick Byers, Vincent Castiglia, Chris Conte, Bill Hand, Eli Livingston, J. L. Robbins, Chris Savido, Kenneth Williams

Special Guest Artists:  Stephen Kasner, Viktor Koen, H.R. Giger, David Hochbaum, Andre Lassen, Bart Powers, Paul Rumsey and Brian Viveros

Among the works on display and for sale will be 12 original artworks from Les Barany’s CARNIVORA – The Dark Art of Automobiles, by New Blood Rising artists Patrick Byers, Vincent Castiglia, William B. Hand,  Eli Livingston, J.L. Robbins, Chris Savido, Kenneth Williams, Viktor Koen, Andre Lassen, Bart Powers, Paul Rumsey and Brian Viveros.

Advance copies of the book CARNIVORA will be available for sale.

Additional artworks from the CARNIVORA book by the following artists are available for sale through Fuse Gallery. Marshall Arisman, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Hanno von Bran, Bernardo Corman, Steve Ellis, Viktor Koen, Till Nowak, Peter Pontiac, Rick Proll, Sybille Ruppert, Christopher Savido, Hugo Schuhmacher, Brian Viveros, and Nick Weber.

The following contributing East Coast artists and writers to CARNIVORA – The Dark Art of Automobiles are expected to attend the opening on July 10th and be available for book signings: Mike Bellamy, Jennifer Blowdryer, Steven Blush, Neke Carson, Vincent Castiglia, Chris Conte, Benardo Corman, ChrisTopher Crowder, Jason D’Aquino, Mike Diana, Steve Ellis, Peter H. Gilmore, Daphne Graham, David Hochbaum (Goldmine Shithouse), John John Jesse, Jacaeber Kastor, Eli Livingston, Joseph B. Mauceri, Carlo McCormick, George Petros, Rick Proll, Rich Rethorn, Chris Savido, Norman Spinrad, Nick Weber, and Martin Wittfooth and more……

The New York premiere screening on the gallery monitor of the new DVD H.R. Giger’s Sanctuary

The DVD features an interview and a tour of the Giger Museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland, with the master of Biomechanics and creator of the Academy Award winning Alien. H.R. Giger’s Sanctuary was filmed in high definition video entirely on location at the H.R. Giger Museum and Bar in Switzerland. 19 minutes, plus 20 minutes of special features. Code-free. playable all over the world. 
Fuse Gallery, 93 2nd Avenue (between 5th and 6th Streets) NYC, NY 10003, Open Wednesday - Saturday, 3 - 8pm

H.R. Giger is one of 50 Artists featured in our second publication entitled Metamorphosis 2. 

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News from Ben Tolman:

Ben Tolman's 'An Allegory In Ink' will be on exhibit at Hillyer Art Space from July 11th until August 29th, 2008.

Opening Reception: July 11th, 6-8pm

Hillyer Art Space

9 Hillyer Ct, NW

Washington DC

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Amanda Sage and NoMe Edonna, will be showing new erotic works done in collaboration and solo. The collection of drawings and paintings has been created in both San Francisco and Vienna.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 3.July.2008 at 7pm and runs untill 8.8.2008.

Galerie 10
Getreidemarkt 10,
1010 Vienna
Austria

Tel: +43 1 587 5744
kunst@galerie10.at
www.galerie10.at

Opening Hours: Friday & Monday, 10am- 6pm
Or by arranged appointment.

Amanda Sage is one of 50 Artists featured in our second publication entitled Metamorphosis 2.

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'The Sleep of Reason'

Works by Laurie Lipton, inspired by Francisco de Goya

June 20th until July 13th

Opening June 20th, 7-11pm - Meet the artist

Open Thursday - Sunday, 1pm - 6pm

Strychnin Gallery, Boxhagener Str. 36 - 10245, Berlin

“Goya saw the horrors of conflict being enacted around him on the streets where he lived. I saw the recent war in Iraq in the comfort of my own bedroom contained in a neat, recently dusted TV set. Killing and humanities' atrocities have become removed and sanitized in the 21st century. Even the bloody bombing of Guernika can be made into art that fits on to a nice coffee mug. While I sip my coffee and eat my meals I can watch incredibly terrible things happening around the world on the news, complete with computer graphics and commercial interruptions. Is this not strange?”  - Laurie Lipton

'Love Bite' (right) by Laurie Lipton was inspired by Goya's painting 'Saturn devouring his Son'

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Cornelius Fraenkel 

Erweiterte Horizonte (Further Horizons)

4th - 31st May

Opening hours: Thu, Fri, Sat 5pm - 7pm

Galerie am Gierkeplatz
Schustehruss Str 17
10585 Berlin
Germany
Ph: +49 30 4701 3187
www.galerie-am-gierkeplatz.de

Cornelius Fraenkel is one of 50 Artists featured in our first publication entitled Metamorphosis.

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Press release from Scott G. Brooks:

"Under The Skin" - New paintings by Scott G. Brooks

May 10, 2008 - June 7, 2008

Opening Reception: May 10, 5-8pm

A preview of the show is now online at Long View Gallery.

"Under the Skin" is the largest exhibit of work by Scott G. Brooks to date.

These new paintings and drawings of his wide-eyed progeny are meticulously detailed, heightening the allure of their quirky narratives. Highlighted against a backdrop of social, sexual, and psychological themes, the details only reveal themselves after several viewings and close study–with new meanings developing at every glance.

The premiere of a short film exploring Brooks' creative process as he prepared for Under the Skin will be shown during the opening reception. This is the most recent film in Brandon Bloch's series showcasing Washington DC artists.

Long View Gallery, 1302 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

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‘Carnivora: The Dark Art of Automobiles’ from Barany Books

 Themed art books can be a tough sell: where do they fit on the bookshelf? When more than one artist is represented, it gets hard to determine the best way to market such an animal: exploit the better known names? play up the variety? promise a new and unexpected treatment of a certain aspect of art? provide a unique insight into the 'post-romodern' life that we all inhabit?

'Carnivora: The Dark Art of Automobiles' on the new imprint Barany Books (more on that in a moment), does a very fine job of covering all the bases. The layout and design are flawless, and decidedly clever; it will appeal to the aesthetics of the visually inclined, as well as to the gearheads out there (which, apparently, has a great deal of cross-pollination). The look of the book is impressive: the cover is eye-catching and has a list of all contributors printed on the back. The sheer scope of the book - stated purpose of which is to explore our societal obsessive love and loathing with the modern chariot on a variety of fronts - is incredible, featuring not just masters of the recent past, such as H.R. Giger and Robert Williams, but also an amazing list of other established - as well as up and coming - artists between pieces of prose ruminating on the way cars have impacted everyday life.

Some of those ways, as the title implies, are not for the faint of heart…

The book is a companion piece to the C-Pop Gallery exhibit in Detroit of the same name, now moving on to Los Angeles, to L'Imagerie Gallery. Les Barany (the editor, and Giger's agent for some time now) has done a fine job in bringing together over 100 different artists and writers (and their perspectives) and creating a coherent, cohesive whole. A wide swath of different styles and techniques are represented: a cursory flip through the tome reveals cartoon, literature, photo-montage, sculpture, mixed-media, acrylic and oil painting and digital imaging, to name just a few. While some pieces work better than others, there is more than enough material to satisfy even the most discerning palette, be it a preference for modern, edgy, surreal imagery, dark landscapes or bizarre machine/human juxtapositions. There is a smattering of eroticism, but only a few true nudes; the sexual elements (perhaps wisely) are left more to the imagination - in the guise of some very good written memoirs - rather than presented in purely graphic terms.

 
Exceptional written works abound, and will ultimately change from person to person (or, for some folk, moment to moment), but a few are worth pointing out. Notable remembrances are on display from William Levy (intense and poignant), William F. Nolan (historical and wide-ranging), Steven Cerio (concise and quirky; he also contributed an interesting illustration), Rick Manore (thought-provoking), Carlo McCormick (pensive and introspective) and Daphne Graham (grueling and sad). Harlan Ellison is also accounted for, with his excellent short classic Along the Scenic Route.

 
The imagery, though, is where this volume shines, and there is no disappointing; it delivers on the questions postulated in the first paragraph of this review, and then some. Standouts include, in random order: Gregory Brotherton, Marshall Arisman, Zdzislaw Beksinski (middle right), D. Hwang, H.R. Giger (below right), Jason D'Aquino, Coop, Andre Lassen, Tanino Liberatore, Stanley Mouse, Robert Williams, J.K.Potter, Winston Smith, J.U. Abrahamson, Tomi Ungerer, Vincent Castiglia, Demetrios Vakras, Hugo Schuhmacher and Chet Zar. Remember, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg, but a helpful mini-biography section in the back places the contributors in good context, as well as offering the casual reader insight into their personalities, via the inclusion of their personal vehicles (or lack thereof!).

Overall, Carnivora has tremendous impact: whether the interest is cars, modern life, sexuality, death, consumerism, anecdotes about personal experiences or just awesome art, it’s hard to put down, and impossible to go wrong.

Jason V Brock

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Press Release from Barnaby Whitfield:

31GRAND is pleased to announce Barnaby Whitfield’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.

Barnaby Whitfield, "Little Deaths, All The Same", March 20 - April 19, 2008, Reception: Thursday, March 20, 7-9pm, front gallery

In what he views as the final installment in a trilogy for 31GRAND; Whitfield’s Episode VI has the Ewoks drunk and randy with no sense of the impending tragedy, as water licks at their treetop climbing toes (except in Barnaby’s world the Ewoks are more likely to be Abraham Lincoln clones.) Narratives woven through the last two shows crash and burn, then intertwine again to take on new life in this boisterous suite of pastel paintings.  Barnaby Whitfield considers his works on paper, paintings, as defined in this beloved and oft cited quote from the Pastel Society Of America “Generally, the ground is toned paper - if the ground is covered completely with pastel, the work is considered a Pastel Painting; a Pastel Sketch shows much of the ground. When protected by fixative and glass, pastel is the most permanent of all media, for it never cracks, darkens or yellows.” However he requests you do not ask him to quote it at the artist’s reception.

From lovingly using his art dealer to anthropomorphize the ‘Bird Flu’ to finding fictional passion with Hernan Bas on a men seeking men website, we continue to get amusing and rather untrustworthy glimpses into Whitfield’s experience in the art world. And besides an over all theme the artist states as “sexualizing the environmental crisis within the context of American politics” we also see the end to Barnaby’s quest for his real parents (Whitfield was one of those children that always suspected they were adopted even though they knew quite well they were not), and a startling turn of events in his ongoing Clonie series (a character created when the momentarily impoverished artist decided to sell nudes on eBay inadvertently gaining the attention of 31GRAND and being welcomed into the fold). 

Never one to ignore a good bandwagon, this show is rife with imagery of Mother Nature’s rapidly declining health. It all comes to a questionably hopeful end in the piece “Wild! Woman! On The Water! (My Imaginary Friend She’s Just Pretend)” featuring Barnaby (in toddler form) and his Mother, Clonie, (along with Sarah Jessica Parker as Lil Orphan Annie) riding out the flooding from "Al Gore’s global warming" in search of dry land and greener pastures. 

Above Right, Barnaby Whitfield, Fit To Burst (Heather Stephens As The Bird Flu), 2007, Pastel On Paper, 28.5 x 36" 

31GRAND is pleased to announce a group exhibition curated by Barnaby Whitfield.

“Warm, Red, Salt And Wet” curated by Barnaby Whitfield

Artists: Zea Barker, Amelia Biewald, George Boorujy, Jennifer Coates, Amir H. Fallah, Debra Hampton, Erik Lindman, Michael Pope, Christian Sampson, Allison Schulnik, Jason Weatherspoon (below right, Jason Weatherspoon, Nefrotittyafrodite, 2003, ceramic, auto paint, 35 x 29 x 34")

March 20 - April 19, 2008, Reception: Thursday, March 20, 7-9pm, back gallery

What started off as a conceptualized "links" page from the artist’s website was elevated to what Whitfield states is an "exciting dialogue" amongst this group of artists (along with himself) that roam from watercolor to ceramic, from bleach on velvet to film and more. The show’s title, in the long standing tradition of numerous 31GRAND group exhibitions, is a song lyric. This time it is from The Hidden Camera’s "The Man That I Am With My Man"; a line that the agoraphobic synesthete Whitfield claims is not only sexual in nature but makes him "see an American flag every time I hear it."

31GRAND, 143 Ludlow St. New York, NY 10002, 212.228.0901, hours: Tues. - Sat. 12-7pm 

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Last Rites Gallery's very first show, entitled "Transgression" will be running from April the 5th to April the 28th, 2008. The Grand Opening Reception will be on April the 5th, 7pm - 11pm.

Artists include: John Abrahamson, Shawn Barber, Jon Beinart, Rachel Bess, Matthew Bone, Paul Booth, Patrick Byers, Vincent Castiglia, Colin Christian, Christopher Conte, Daniel Martin Diaz, HR Giger, Naoto Hattori, William B Hand, Fred Harper, Nikko Hurtado, Michael Hussar, John John Jesse, Stephen Kasner, Kevin Llewellen, Fabrice Lavollay, Laurie Lipton, Travis Louie, Jesse Pepper, Karl Persson, Dan Quintana, Celeste Rapone, JL Robbins, David Stoupakis, Heidi Taillerfer, Brian Viveros, Chet Zar. 

Last Rites Gallery owner, Paul Booth, and director Genevive Zacconi are both accomplished artists. Booth is widely considered to be a master of the art form of tattoo and is also known for his macabre oil paintings. Genevive Zacconi is best known for her oil paintings and her credits include roles as an illustrator, art director, graphic designer, and art instructor.

Last Rites Gallery 

New York City

April 5th - 28th, 2008

511 W 33rd St

3rd Fl

NYC

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