Hustler of Culture

LA - "Super Coma Fantasy" (08/04/07 - 08/25/07)

IAN FRANCIS: SUPER COMA FANTASY

August 4th – 25th, 2007

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, August 4th, 7-10pm

BLK/MRKT Gallery
6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
310 837 1989

BLK/MRKT Gallery is proud to present UK art phenom Ian Francis in his first solo exhibition in the United States. Francis’s work explores the chasm between the details of day-to-day life in the real world and the projected fantasies emanating from the world of sex, death, celebrity and imminent destruction concocted by the media. It’s about the trials and tribulations of vapid celebrities, the deluge of pornography and the embarrassing domination of news reports about such puerile frivolity in this time of war and global strife. For this exhibition, Francis set himself the challenge of translating his work into the medium of paint, adding richly textured surfaces, painterly expressivity and luminous pigmentation to his repertory of evocative, surreal and sensual narrative tools.

LA - "Untitled Love Project: Phase IV" (08/04/07)

UNTITLED LOVE PROJECT: Phase IV
Saturday August 4th, 2007 6-11pm (*special one-night only event)

Thinkspace Gallery
4210 Santa Monica Blvd. (near Sunset Junction in Silver Lake area)
Los Angeles, CA 90029
#323.913.3375

NYC - "Sultana's Dream" (08/04/07 - 08/31/07)

One Size Fits All: Artists' T-Shirt Summer Spectacular (08/04/07)

One Size Fits All: Artists' T-Shirt Summer Spectacular

Printed Matter, Inc. / 195 Tenth Avenue, NYC

Saturday, August 4th / T-shirt sale starts at 11am / Party from 4 � 7pm

Featuring William Bahan, Douglas Groupp, Maya Hayuk, heartschallenger, Kayrock and Wolfy, Nelson Loskamp and Uzi, Noah Lyon, Maya Miller, j. morrison, Asher Penn, Jasper Sebastian St'rup, Eric Shaw, Adam Shecter, Elizabeth Sporleder

Printed Matter Inc. is pleased to announce our second annual One Size Fits All: Artists' T-Shirt Summer Spectacular on Saturday, August 4. Printed Matter is located at 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Streets).

NYC - Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Spam Allstars, Tato Torres Y Yerba Buena, & Bobbito Garcia (08/04/07)

Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Spam Allstars
Tato Torres Y Yerba Buena
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a Kool Bob Love

Saturday, August 04, 2007
From 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage

Classic salsa, Latin electronica and Boricuan rhythms rule the day for this exciting SummerStage event.

LA - Tonalism Music Event (08/04/07)

LA - "The Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art Grand Opening Group Show" (08/04/07)

Seattle - "Adventures in Weltschmerz: Comic Art by Paul Hornschemeier" (08/04/07 - 08/29/07)

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS PRESENTS "ADVENTURES IN WELTSCHMERZ: COMIC ART BY PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER"

Fantagraphics is proud to celebrate the release of Chicago artist Paul Hornschemeier's long-awaited graphic novel, THE THREE PARADOXES, with a month-long exhibition of Hornschemeier's artwork and an opening night reception with the artist at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood on Saturday, August 4th, beginning at 6PM.

SF - "No Distance Is More Awesome" (08/04/07 - 09/29/07)

No Distance Is More Awesome
(than the few feet across borders and frontiers)

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 4th @ 7:30 PM
Exhibitions Dates: Sat., Aug. 4 – Sat., Sept 29
Artist Talk: Sat., Aug. 4 @ 2pm

“Picturing Immigration” is a year-long multidisciplinary project addressing issues related to the discussion of immigration. The project will consist of four visual arts exhibitions, an artist residency, the creation of an original performance-based project, an experiential arts education youth component, panel discussions, a series of public art billboards, and a series of film and video screenings.

LA - "Girl" (08/04/07 - ?)

South Street Chili Cheese Fries.

July 31, 2007 - 1:20 p.m. - Burbank, CA

Chicago - "BFF, A Group Show of Friendship" (08/03/07 - 08/25/07)

BFF, A Group Show of Friendship

Once there were 10 lonely artists, roaming the streets of Chicago, friendless and sad. Slowly, but surely these 10 souls met one another (often gelling over there love of toys and art at Rotofugi) and became the very best of friends, forever. BFF is their message to the world.

Featuring works by Blutt, Joey D, Joey Potts, Ken Keirns, Peabe, Phoneticontrol, Revise CMW, Shawnimal, Veggiesomething & Yunicorn

Opening Party/Artist Reception
Friday, August 3, 7-10 pm

Boston - "It's a Beautiful World" (08/03/07 - 08/18/07)

LA - "Hysterica X" (08/03/07)

Hysterica X

by Hysterica Dance Company

John Anson Ford Theatres
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East
Los Angeles, CA 90068

Friday, August 3, 2007 at 8:30 pm

Hysterica will revive favorite pieces from its past 10 seasons, including Ford hits "Sticks & Stones" and "Noir," and world premiere of three hypnotic new works featuring Hysterica dancers past and present set to original music in high fashion costuming.

SF - "The Innocent Gaze" (08/03/07 - 08/26/07)

The Innocent Gaze
August 3 – 26, 2007
Opening Friday Aug. 3; 6-9pm
Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco

The Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, is pleased to present The Innocent Gaze, a group exhibition featuring artists Hisham Bharoocha, Leslie Shows, Chris Sollars, Erika Somogyi, Ted Riederer and Edmund Wyss and curated by Dina Pugh. The Innocent Gaze examines various ways in which artists are addressing disaster, war, and tragedy by assembling/deassembling information and ephemera from the media. Using art to understand, cope with or connect to disturbing current events, these disparate artists choose to respond with varied aesthetics from the sublime to the fetishized.

In the 2001 article "Welcome to the Desert of the Real" Slavoj Zizek discusses the "innocent gaze" as the current American viewpoint due to our physical and emotional distance from wars waging abroad. The artists in this exhibition represent or critique their own removed position and ultimately reveal the difficult task of attempting to respond to events beyond our full comprehension. While the media is looked to as a source of information, it also shelters us from the harshest of realities. These artists confront difficult, political subjects by sourcing media images and thus flipping the media’s intermediary gaze to create a personal connection. Many of the images on display are highly aesthetisized, often sublime and nearly void of recognizable political content. On one hand this can be perceived as a sign of escapism, on the other it calls attention to the distance that still exists between our sheltered viewpoint and "the real".

links for 2007-07-30

• Philip K. Dick Collection Aimed at New Generation
  Four of Dick's novels from the 1960s have been bundled into one book to give a new generation the opportunity to discover his futuristic visions
  (tags: Authors Writers ScienceFiction Books PopularCulture Films NPR)
• Indie Rockers Rally Around One of Their Own
  J. Robbins wrote: "I don't see how Callum will ever grow up to be a properly cynical punk rocker, since he is already experiencing undeniable proof that at least some people are essentially good at heart."
  (tags: Health Science Musicians Music NPR)
• World Series of Video Games
  The magic of television has already transformed everything from motorcycle acrobatics to poker into living-room spectator sports, not to mention turning competitive singing into a national obsession. Next on the list: video games.
  (tags: VideoGames TV Entertainment Technology PopularCultuer NYTimes)
• Warren Spector’s blog
  Uber game designer, Warren Spector is now sharing his thoughts online.
  (tags: VideoGames Business Entertainment Design Blogs Technology Friends)
• Ingmar Bergman, Famed Director, Dies at 89
  Good night Mr. Bergman.
  (tags: Directors Artists Films Obituary NYTimes)
• Tragic Lovers
  Kevin Roderick's observations on writer Theresa Duncan and artist Jeremy Blake's deaths for KCRW.
  (tags: Blogs Death Artists Art Writers NPR KCRW)

Call For Submissions: Swerve Festival

SF - "Learn Of Light By Defining A Shadow" (08/02/07 - ?)

Learn Of Light By Defining A Shadow

Upper Playground in association with FIFTY24SF Gallery is pleased to announce "Learn Of Light By Defining A Shadow". Japanese artist, Usugrow, presents new drawings and paintings as well as the release of his new book, “LOVE HATE FROM JP”. This new hardcover book is a 96-page overview of Usugrow’s distinctive inks on paper, paintings as well as personal photographs of different segments of his career.

Usugrow began his career creating flyers for the local hardcore music scene in his hometown of Fukushima, Japan in 1990. Aside from music, his style has largely been influenced by the lifestyles of skateboarding, graffiti and hip-hop. His depiction of harder subject matter such as skulls, horror characters and tattoo art, fall in sharp contrast to his delicate pointillism and line work. He executes each piece in complete commitment to the detailing of the intricacies of his subject matter and is known to spend several weeks on one drawing. Currently, Usugrow continues to create his work for several clothing brands (such as Upper Playground, Famous Stars and Straps and Bad Taste), skateboard companies (including Care Free, Consolidated Skateboards and Natty Dread) as well as album covers.

Opening Reception and Book Release: Thursday, August 2, 2007 from 7-9:30 p.m.

FiFTY24SF Gallery
252 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94117

London - "And Many More" (08/02/07 - 08/03/07)

'and many more....'
Calum F. Kerr
Thursday 2 August (12 noon to 9pm)
Friday 3 August (12 noon to 6pm)

With a self-deprecatory reference to the phrase often tagged onto the end of a list of names on exhibition invitation cards, 'and many more...' looks at the mistakes in making performance, the slip ups in organising events, names printed incorrectly, and biographies muddled. The show presents an examination of the characteristic systems and objects used in Calum F. Kerr's performance work, and of the questions and problems arising from his interactions with an audience. It also begins a series of ongoing retrospective actions by Kerr, in which evidence of past performances will be revisited with help from an audience and reconfigured in new ways.

LA - "Ladies and Gents" (08/02/07)