Sour Harvest

Check out Tran’s blog here.

Artist website: http://www.trannguyen.org/

View the work from ‘Portraits of the Unknown’:
http://www.thinkspacegallery.com/2009/06/project2/works.php

Currently on view through July 3rd

Thinkspace
4210 Santa Monica Blvd. (near Sunset Junction) in Los Angeles
www.thinkspacegallery.com

Below is a lil’ photo recap of the evenings art tour….

Jason Hernandez

Michael C. Hsiung

The work of Sam Saghatelian

The project wall next door in Black Maria’s shop that was curated by Ally Takeuchi

From Black Maria, we headed east to catch Andrew Schoultz‘ show at Roberts & Titlton…

The show’s massive wall mural….

This piece is MASSIVE and so detailed – this picture doesn’t even begin to do it justice.

Get out and see Schoultz’ show before it comes down… these have to be seen in person to really appreciate the layers of collage elements in many of his works.

The man of the hour – Andrew Schoultz

From Roberts & Tilton we headed across the street to BSFA to take in the new works of Carrie Anne Baade and Christopher Ulrich…

The amazing work of surrealist Carrie Anne Baade…

Also in the show was the macbre yet wonderul work of Christopher Ulrich

Ulrich’s piece above had a crowd of shocked Culver City gallery goers parked in front of it most of the time we were in attendance…

From Culver City we got back on the road and headed up Fairfax to Tonly Alva’s shop to check out a special show where artists painted their renditions of classic Wynn Miller photographs…

Legends on the tables – Keith Morris of Circle Jerks & Shepard Fairey

Nate Frizzell

Dennis McNett

Shepard Fairey

Shawn Barber

From the Fairfax district we headed over to China Town to POVevolving to catch Attaboy‘s debut Los Angeles solo show…

J. Shea #9′s amazing collaboration with Attaboy…

The Goo Berry install in all its glory… we had to rescue one of these lil’ buggers. Too cool. The return of the pull string… they are very rude lil’ creatures once you pull their string.

The artist – Attaboy alongside one of his works on acrylic

From China Town we got back on the highway and headed north east to find the New Puppy Gallery, where my partner in Thinkspace, LC of Cannibal Flower, was curating a special wine & Cheese tasting that featured Michael Pukac rocking the live painting action (shown above & below)…

The amazing work of Joe Bravo… yes, those are tortillas. Each treated and preserved, Bravo’s work is in several prominent collections and has shown at LACMA as well as many other major institutions…

One of Pukac’s finished oil works… all in all another great art adventure.

Exhibition runs June 22nd – August 22nd

Since the turn of the century, a heterogeneous cadre of artists has been churning out contemporary comics (often referred to as comix) in their basements, bedrooms or studios to a hungry fan base with an insatiable appetite for their work. Flying below the radar of the general public only familiar with superheroes in long-underwear, this uncategorizable scene of visionary artists have no guidelines to delineate their work beyond their interest in the intersection of contemporary art, storytelling and flirting with comic strip conventions.

Today’s contemporary comix grow from a diverse lineage including but not limited to George Herriman, Will Eisner, Charles Schultz, R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, Harvey Kurtzman, Art Spiegelman, Harvey Pekar and Gary Panter. As the contemporary art world has tended to focus on increasing inclusion of up-to-the-minute technology, many of these artists still rely on or at least reference the handmade mark-making process. In recent years, much activity has centered in Southern California, with standouts including the Comicon convention in San Diego, Giant Robot magazine and store, Family Store, Hope Gallery, Ooga Booga and numerous one-off events and zines.

Work exhibited in ‘Strips, Scripts, and ‘Scapes’ comes from an umbrella cast of artists influenced by or working in the Southland, but it is by no means comprehensive. It serves as a tasty sampling of printed, hand-drawn and collage comix art, in addition to sculpture and installation work by artists working within the vocabularly of comix.

The exhibition features the work of:
Sammy Harkham, Johnny Ryan, John Pham, Mike Bertino, Travis Millard, Rusty Jordan, Souther Salazar, Brent Harada, Walt Holcombe, Martin Cendreda, Mary Fleener, Taylor McKimens (pictured above), Roberta Gregory, and Megan Whitmarsh.

Riverside Art Museum
www.riversideartmuseum.org
3425 Mission Inn Ave in Riverside
(951) 684-7111