Hustler of Culture

Todd St. John's "Wave Fade"

Hawaiian native, artist, designer, and pal Todd St. John sent Lulu one of his magnificent Wave Fade prints for her Dogtown-inspired bedroom. The big wave is crazy perfect with the bright blue colors and clean design. I especially love the message he inscribed to her... we should all inspire to stay young!

Produced in an edition of 220, the signed and numbered 1-color blended silkscreen is printed on white paper. More deets below.

Wave Fade
2008 (based on a design originally printed in 2003)
Silkscreen on paper
26 x 26
$165

Related: HunterGatherer and @HUGANYC

THANKS so much, Todd!

OsGemeos Birthday / 10 Year Reunion Dinner

OsGemeos are in town getting ready for the big "Art in the Streets" opening at MOCA in a couple of weeks. The stars aligned and we ended up hosting their birthday dinner at our home with new and old friends in tow -- nearly a decade after we first met during their inaugural trip to America. We've been lucky to catch the twins over the years, but what made the evening incredibly special was our reunion dinner included photographers Louise and Ig from LostArt, who were also with us 10 years ago (see related link below).

I found my original photographs from the 2001 visit and we happily took the trip down memory lane together. Back then, we were much poorer (the twins crashed on the floor of our 150 square foot sublet in New York City) and aside from a lifestyle upgrade for all of us, not much else has changed except that OsGemeos is now more of a household name in the contemporary art scene and we're all a bit chubbier.

As seen in the slideshow above, here we are hanging with old pals, Ig and Louise from LostArt and Gustavo and Otavio of OsGemeos and Wendy, Arnaldo, Koyo and Ray. We celebrated the twins' birthdays and 10 years of friendship. Cheers to many more years ahead...

RELATED: Lost Art, Found Friends

Low - Especially Me (Not the Video)

LA - Tillman Kaiser and Rob Fischer's New Works (04.02.11 - 05.14.11/05.07.11)

Honor Fraser is pleased to announce exhibitions of new work by Tillman Kaiser and Rob Fischer, opening Saturday April 2, 6 to 8pm.

Tillman Kaiser presents new work in 3 different genres; sculpture, painting, and an editioned wallpaper work. The wallpaper creates context and sets the stage for Kaiser's subjects, the paintings and sculptures in the exhibition. Kaiser has enlarged a found photo of a church organ, abstracting the appropriated image. He then reiterates the abstracted shapes in the sculpture and paintings, marking Für Kinder und Kenner's narrative with a steady rhythm of formal repetition and variation. The underpinning is his sculpture, and like Kaiser's early sculptural works, it evolves from an existing building, but pushes fearlessly away from representation. Although rooted in post-modern architecture and minimalist form, Kaiser's sculptures emanate an aura of the future. Employing a subtracted pallet of only black and white he creates hard, protruding edges and angular lines with less durable material such as cardboard, which in turn emphasizes his interest in form over function. With his use of egg tempera, and pencil on canvas the paintings Kaiser presents could be the crystallized exhalations of the sculpture; hard-edged forms appear soft, delicate yet deliberately defined in silkscreen.

LA - Todd Williamson's "Thoughts from a Mind like Mine" (04.02.11 - 05.14.11)

Todd Williamson: Thoughts from a Mind like Mine
April 2 - May 14, 2011
Artist Reception Saturday, April 2, 2011 5-8pm

George Billis Gallery is pleased to present the Los Angeles gallery's first solo exhibition of Los Angeles artist Todd Williamson's work, titled Thoughts from a Mind like Mine. The exhibition features the artist newest body of paintings and continues through May 14th.

Williamson's abstract paintings are nuanced and intriguing. While clearly in dialogue with the American colorist tradition of the likes of Rothko, Williamson's paintings show a visually vocabulary that is all his own. Paint is pulled across the surface revealing layers of color and varied textures all the while being held in balance with the horizontal line systems that are a hallmark of Williamson's current body of work. There is a musicality to these pieces - not only in the structural connection to a musical score's bars but also in the mood and lyricism of his colors. At times disturbing and on the edge and at other times calm and coolly distance, Williamsons paintings are stunning visual experiences that simultaneously reflect an emotional journey and capture the feel of a specific moment.

Miami - "Abe's Penny Live" (04.02.11 - ?)

NYC - "Gumption" (03.31.11 - 05.07.11)

Gumption
March 31 - May 7, 2011
Reception for the Artists: Thursday, March 31, 6-8 pm

ZieherSmith presents a group exhibition featuring vigorous paintings and works on paper by Melissa Brown, Tomoo Gokita, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Kirk Hayes, Keegan McHargue and Gary Panter.

Melissa Brown received her MFA from Yale University. She has had solo exhibitions at Canada, New York, Bellwether Gallery, New York and Kenny Schachter, Rove Projects, London. Brown lives and works in Brooklyn.

Japanese artist Tomoo Gokita has shown at Bill Brady/ATM Gallery, New York and Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo and had work featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Deitch Projects, New York, Peres Projects, Berlin, and the Pera Museum, Istanbul. He lives and works in Tokyo.

In 2010, Trenton Doyle Hancock’s work was shown at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland. He has also previously shown at the Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle Art Museum, James Cohan Gallery, New York, and Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas. His work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York. Hancock lives and works in Houston.

NYC - Marilyn Minter's "Paintings From the 80s" (03.31.11 - 04.30.11)

Team Gallery is pleased to announce a solo presentation of work by Marilyn Minter. The exhibition, entitled Paintings from the 80s, will run from the 31st of March through the 30th of April 2011. Team Gallery is located at 83 Grand Street, cross streets Wooster and Greene, on the ground floor.

J Mascis' "Not Enough"

Hurley X Brandon Boyd

Super Natural Every Day!

Congratulations to our dear friend and James Beard Award-nominated cookbook author, Heidi Swanson on publishing another kick ass cookbook, Super Natural Every Day! Making and eating healthy foods doesn't have to be hard or intimidating and more importantly, it can be tasty and fun to cook (if you have Heidi's Super Natural Cooking, then you already know this). 

Heidi's new culinary compendium is filled with nearly 100 of her favorite nutrient-rich every day meals. Inside this carefully curated cookbook, you'll find doable recipes requiring five or less components. As Heidi states, "Simply put -- here are real foods and good ingredients made into dishes that are nourishing and worth eating and sharing." I am excited to incorporate her go-to recipes to our regular rotation of home-cooked family meals including her tasty looking yogurt biscuits, crepes (my French/Italian husband cannot get enough of Heidi's cooking), open-face egg sandwich, popcorn, black sesame otsu, and roasted strawberries (now that they're back in season)!

Enjoy the dreamy photographs (many shot by our other good pal Wayne), catch yourself drooling, and then hike on over to the Farmer's Market and stock up. We are in for a treat. You are in for a treat. And my seven-year-old-cooking-club, City Cooks Club is in for a treat! For delicious and sophisticated-but-simple foods, do yourself a favor and buy Super Natural Every Day, today!

And thanks for the shout out, Heidi! I can't wait to cook with you again.

RELATED: Hustler of Yum and Hustler of Words

LA - Michael Arata's "Arataland!" (03.26.11 - 05.22.11)

Beacon Arts continues its Critics-as-Curators series with Arataland! A Mid-Career Survey of Artworks by Michael Arata curated by art critic Doug Harvey, opening Saturday, March 26, 2011.

Arataland! will be the first museum-scale retrospective devoted exclusively to the work of this important Los Angeles artist, and the first monographic exhibit hosted by the Beacon Arts Building during its inaugural Critics-as-Curators series. 

Brooklyn - "Installation 7" (03.26.11 - 04.16.11)

Help Jesse LeDoux, Help Japan!

Here at Hustler of Culture, we are privileged to know so many artists. And in this time of need, many of our friends have banned together to help Japan. If you're looking for a way to lend a hand, consider purchasing one of Jesse LeDoux's prints below. And thank you for your contribution to the cause!

"Rising Sun" by Jesse LeDoux

"Rising Sun" is an 18" by 24" two-color screen print on archival 270gsm environmentally-certified print making paper. The artwork features a high-gloss white ink and red ink on a bright white environmentally-certified paper. This unsigned edition will be available between March 15th and March 29th, 2010. $25 dollars from each print sold will be donated to the International Red Cross' relief efforts in Japan.

"Rising Sun" is an accompaniment to Jesse LeDoux's two-color "Exit Strategy" print. With a complimentary color scheme, "Rising Sun" features all new artwork.

$35.00

"Exit Strategy (black dot)" by Jesse LeDoux

This print looks terrible as a jpeg and incredible in person. From a distance, it is a simple black dot on a plain white background. However, as you move closer, details start to appear. At 10' away, you will begin to see the glossy face in the black dot. At 3', a world opens up to you in the white field. The black dot continues to draw you in and rewards you with a new universe to explore.

2-color screen print (white and black ink on white paper). Edition size: 75 (signed and numbered on the reverse). Print size: 18"x24"

$35.00

If you're LA-based, consider patronizing Giant Robot's "Water Works" or Sweet Street's "#PrayForJapan" exhibition/fundraisers.

NYC - Robert Crumb's "Lines Drawn on Paper" (03.23.11 - 04.30.11)

Guilty!

[Big ups to Julie and Cesar for the link!]

LA - "Playtime" (03.22.11 - 05.14.11)

Playtime

Curated by Leonardo Bravo and Janet Levy
March 22 – May 14, 2011
Opening reception: Tuesday, March 22, 5-8pm

See Line Gallery presents Playtime, a group exhibition curated by Leonardo Bravo and Janet Levy, including works by Steven Bankhead, Joshua Callaghan, Sumi Ink Club, Megan Geckler, Gustavo Godoy, Katherine Gray, Katrin Jurati, Siri Kaur, Brian Roettinger, Michael Worthington, Meeson Pae Yang. Playtime includes sculpture, installation, photography and works on paper.

Playtime: a time for play or diversion, is an exchange between the two curators, Leonardo Bravo and Janet Levy, that creates an environment in which ideas and disciplines have the opportunity to interact and bounce off each other. In this exhibition, these artists' works are presented so as to engage in playful interactions that create new meanings due to the cross-referencing of disparate media and methods. These dynamic connections abound from work to work and inspire the viewer with a spirited notion of play.

LA - "Water Works at GR2 - A benefit for UNICEF and child victims of the earthquake in Japan" (03.19.11 - 04.13.11)

Bristol - "Flogging A Dead Horse" (03.19.11 - 03.27.11)

LA - "#PrayForJapan" Art Fundraiser (03.19.11 - 04.04.11)

SWEETS STREETS
Presents 

#PrayForJapan
Art Fundraiser Exhibition
 
Opening Reception Saturday, March 19, 2011 from 7:00-10pm
On View March 19 –  April 4, 2011
JapanLA, Los Angeles