Audio Absinthe

- Posted by Ryan U -

“Is that a Gun My Friend?” - New Works by Parra
The opening party is Saturday, April 4

Parra is an awesome artist from Amsterdam. He has recently done some pretty funny text based shirts for Stones Throw and you may have caught some tame Parra on the cover of James Pants‘ latest album. Lots more as well, he is getting pretty big lately. He also has a little musical act called LeLe. Check the video for ‘Breakfast’ for which he did the animation as well as the music; seriously take 4 min and watch this, its great, then come to the opening off Melrose at Spaulding

LeLe – Breakfast

HVW8 Art + Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave.
Los Angeles CA, 90036
gallery.hvw8.com

James Pants – We’re Through

A Retrospective of works by JOHN VAN HAMERSVELD

- Posted by Ryan U -

Opening Reception:
This Friday, March 6th, 8-11pm

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS
1331 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
www.subliminalprojects.com

Highlights from below: Best known for his legendary poster for the 1964 blockbuster surf ?lm The Endless Summer and his album covers for the Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour), The Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street), Jefferson Airplane (Crown of Creation), the Grateful Dead (Skeletons in the Closet), Kiss (Hotter Than Hell) and Blondie (Eat to the Beat).
Wow. 
More info from Swindle magazine: http://swindlemagazine.com/issue05/john-van-hamersveld/

FYI: Subliminal Projects is Shepard Fairey’s gallery in the same building as his office’s for Studio Number One, his design studio. He is usually there himself to DJ the opening party. If you don’t know who that is, look him up.

Like an acid trip in ink on the paper of space and time, John Van Hamersveld?s graphics have transcended the psychedelic ?60s and become classic images that are as futuristic as they are vintage. “Post-Future,” opening March 6th at Subliminal Projects, features many of Van Hamersveld?s classic works juxtaposed with re-imaginings of those images, recent retro- styled pieces and a never-before-seen series of drawings connecting past and present. Through the show, Van Hamersveld creates a lens through which the past can be seen and the future can be sourced, where imagery melts into a pool that is both the source and the destination of creativity.

Best known for his legendary poster for the 1964 blockbuster surf ?lm The Endless Summer and his album covers for the Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour), The Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street), Jefferson Airplane (Crown of Creation), the Grateful Dead (Skeletons in the Closet), Kiss (Hotter Than Hell) and Blondie (Eat to the Beat), among others, as well as the mind-bending concert posters he created while operating the Pinnacle concert production company, Van Hamersveld has built up a wide-ranging body of work over a career verging on its sixth decade. He has been at various times artist, illustrator and designer. Among his other creations: an of?cial poster and 360-foot-long mural for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games; illustrations for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Billboard; and branding and logos for Fatburger, Contempo Casuals and Broadway Deli. The iconography of his oeuvre runs deep, from Day-Glo tones to trippy swirls to the grinning “Johnny face,” an icon in itself. Van Hamersveld?s retro-contempo-future-spective book, also titled Post-Future (Santa Monica Press), is scheduled for release in September.

- posted by Ryan U -

Here are some great art openings this Saturday:

The first and most anticipated is the KAWS show at Honor Fraser gallery.  KAWS is a prolific street artist and seems to be a favorite of hip hop artists like Kanye (on the new album cover) or Pharrell. A lot of his latest work has been reinventing cartoons in his own style (SpongeBob, Smurfs, Simpsons, Family Guy). His original bus-stop-advertising work made me a huge fan.

Also Hype, Hustle, Rip-off by Bill McMullen at The Constant Gallery looks pretty good. Daily du Jour
And Beautiful/Decay Magazine is having a show at Kopeikin Gallery. Beautiful/Decay is a good art magazine and this show features highlights of their 10 year history. TWBE

A ton of really cool Beastie Boys-theme artwork by a bunch of different artists is being displayed and sold by Gallery 1988 (gallery1988@aol.com / (323) 937 – 7088).  Some of the pieces are pretty inexpensive while others are priced relatively high.  You can check it all out at the Beasite Boys blogspot page.

All over the internet, people are asking questions like, “What happened to the Beastie Boys?” and “Are the Beastie Boys still together?”  The Beastie Boys new, instrumental material is seriously getting slept on.  They’ve been coming up with some really rocking, funky, hip hop beats that are awesome and very satisfying.  It’s a serious departure from their older work and even still, it’s great.  The most recent album, The Mix Up would still be a great album even if it wasn’t released under the Beastie Boys name.  It’s a very cool instrumental album that Beastie Boys fans should know about.  I saw them perform at The Greek Theater back in 2007 after the album was released and they did both old and new material.  They put on an awesome show.  Check out one of my favorite tracks off of the album, it’s called “Off The Grid“.  

Ok, now back to the art…