LBMA ‘Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape’ Press Round Up!

LBMA press round up

‘Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape’ has been receiving great press over the last few weeks. People have been dropping in for previews of the work and interviewing the talented artists transforming Long Beach Museum of Art. Here is our roundup of “Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape’ press.

Long Beach Post: 
OPENING NIGHT:  VITALITY AND VERVE Attracts An Estimated 3,000 Attendees to LBMA’s AFTER DARK Event
POW! WOW! Lands in Long Beach
Esao Andrews on Vitality and Verve
Alex Yanes on Life, Work and Long Beach
Audrey Kawasaki on Perfectionism and Painting Her Third Mural Ever

Tickets are still available for LBMA After Dark 

Arrested Motion: 
Previews: “Vitality and Verve” @ Long Beach Museum of Art (Part I)
Previews: “Vitality and Verve” @ Long Beach Museum of Art (Part II)

BOOOOOOOM:
Pow! Wow! Long Beach

Supersonic:
“VITALITY AND VERVE: TRANSFORMING THE URBAN LANDSCAPE.”

 

Installations Underway at Long Beach Museum of Art

Long Beach Museum of Art

The opening of ‘Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape’ is only a week away. Murals are being finished while new ones are beginning inside the Long Beach Museum of Art. The current state of LBMA is like navigating through a quarantined building, an intense ventilation system pumps in fresh air for the artists and drop cloth covers the doorways and floors. Andrew has been Periscoping his trips to the museum which can give you a sense of  the different world the artists are working in and creating.  The Long Beach Museum of Art is right on the coast and the second-floor muralist have the treat of  natural light flooding from windows that look out onto the beach.

The ‘Vitality and Verve’ exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art is made possible via a collaboration with Thinkspace and Pow! Wow! and will be open to the public 6/27 through 9/27.  Tickets are still available to come and kick off the event with us June 26 from 7 -10 pm with Long Beach Museum of Art After Dark.

Audrey Kawasaki LBMA

 

Audrey Kawasaki

Aaron Horkey LBMA

Aaron Horkey 

Greg Simkins LBMA

Greg ‘ Craola’ Simkins

Jeff Soto LBMA

Jeff Soto

James Bullough LBMA

James Bullough

Brendan Monroe LBMA

Brendan Monroe

For more information on ‘Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landcape’ visit the Thinkspace Gallery website or www.lbma.org.

vitality and verve

‘Invisible College’ at the Fort Wayne Museum Of Art

invisible college fort wayne

We are excited to announce Thinkspace’s upcoming co-curated exhibition ‘Invisible College’ at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana. 

Invisible College
Co-curated by Andrew Hosner, Shawn Hosner & Josef Zimmerman

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana
July 11th – September 27th, 2015

(Fort Wayne, IN) – Opening July 11th, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art will host Invisible College, a group exhibition co-curated by Andrew and Shawn Hosner of Los Angeles’ Thinkspace Gallery, and Josef Zimmerman of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. On view until September 27th, the exhibition will feature new and representative works by 46 artists belonging to the New Contemporary movement. Dedicated to the energy and strength of its growing visibility and recognition, Invisible College explores the aesthetics of a movement that has devised its own course; one that has been largely defined outside of institutional contexts. Moving away from the standard art education model that demands graduate school, an excess of critical rhetoric and an art world careerism, these artists, many of whom are self-taught, have sought their own inspiration and voice instead, drawing on everything from popular culture and social media platforms, to street art, murals and graffiti. By creating a distinct community in support of the diversity of its visions and styles, the movement has mortared and upheld its own invisible school.

The New Contemporary movement, widely acknowledged to have begun in the early 90’s on the West Coast, evolved in reaction to a conceptual turn in fine art. Founded in part on a rejection of the arbitrary division of visual culture that tends to elevate “high art” above the social and popular realms, the movement invoked the countercultural and drew content from an immersion in social experience. The standard of excessive academicism and abstraction, against which it grew, was commonly held in higher regard than more figurative, graphic or representational forms of art. This marginalization inspired the New Contemporary movement to set its own terms and create its own context for the reception of its work. With a renewed emphasis on technical skill, narrative and representation, it has encouraged a social return in art. The Invisible College captures the energetic irreverence and variety that has continued to shape the movement and its spirit of self-determinism. The works included in this exhibition range from the illustrative and graphic, to the surreal and figurative, embodying in one way or another the populist sensibility that makes the movement so exciting, current and relatable.

Invisible College offers a cross-section of some of the most exciting artists working in the New Contemporary genre. As it continues to evolve and expand, the movement embraces talent from all over the world and ushers in a new-guard that seeks to increase the social and popular relevance of contemporary art. Rather than limiting their work’s reception to art world initiates, these artists create pieces inspired by popular and street cultures, summoning the world back into art rather than championing its exclusion and remove.

Invisible College will include works by Adam Caldwell, Adrian Falkner, Alex Yanes, Allison Sommers, Amanda Joseph, Andrew Hem, Brian M. Viveros, Christine Wu, Cryptik, Curiot, Daniel Dienelt, David Cooley, Drew Leshko, Ekundayo, Erik Jones, Ernest Zacharevic, Gaia, Jacub Gagnon, James Marshall (Dalek), Jeff Ramirez, Jeremy Fish, Joel Daniel Phillips, Jolene Lai, Kay Gregg, Keita Morimoto, Kevin Peterson, Know Hope, Kwon Kyungyup, Luke Chueh, Matt Small, Meggs, Natalia Fabia, Nosego, Ravi Zupa, Sandra Chevrier, Scott Radke, Seth Armstrong, Stephanie Buer, Tony Philippou, Troy Lovegates, Yoskay Yamamoto and Yosuke Ueno. Included in Invisible College are special mural installations by Andrew Schoultz, Cyrcle, Mark Dean Veca and Troy Lovegates. The exhibition will also include a featured installation by Brett Amory.

Fort Wayne Museum of Art
311 E Main Street
Fort Wayne, Indiana
46802
www.fwmoa.org
(260) 422-6467

About the Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Beginning with art classes in 1888 given by J. Ottis Adams and later William Forsyth, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art has evolved into a center for the visual arts community in Northeast Indiana. Regularly exhibiting regional and nationally acclaimed artists, the FWMoA also boasts an extensive permanent collection of American Art as well as prints and drawings from artists such as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. The Museum is committed to the collection, preservation, presentation and interpretation of American and related art to engage broad and diverse audiences throughout the community and region, and add value to their lives. The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is a funded partner of Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne.
www.fwmoa.org

About Thinkspace Gallery
Founded in 2005, Thinkspace gallery was established with a commitment to the promotion and dissemination of young and emerging art. The Culver City gallery is a catalyst for the emerging art scene in Los Angeles and beyond, and is dedicated to the exposure of its artists and the support of their tenets. This young movement, straddled between street art, graphic art, design and popular culture, is subject to steadily increasing international exposure and interest, and is in need of institutional advocates. Thinkspace is positioned to create opportunities and act as a visible platform for the New Contemporary movement, and its aim as a gallery is to establish both a curatorial forum and a collector base for its output. As an institution, Thinkspace is committed to vision, risk and the exceptional talents that wield it. From the streets to the gallery, from the “margins” to the white cube, Thinkspace is re-envisioning what it means to be “institutional”. As a haven for talent, and a venue founded in passion, conviction, and community, the gallery’s mandate is rooted in belief and support.
http://thinkspacegallery.com

Long Beach Museum of Art – Vitality and Verve

vitality and verve

The Long Beach Museum of Art is set to open ‘Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape’ on June 26th.

The exhibition will focus on current developments in the growing field of urban contemporary art. It will feature site-specific ephemeral murals and multi-media installations by established and emerging cutting-edge artists who will be demonstrating the skilled and nuanced application of their craft. The exhibition will run through September 27, 2015.

‘Vitality and Verve’ aims to illuminate the sensory value and powerful practice of these artists as they transform the urban landscape around them. The meticulous renderings, the hyper-realistic imagery and patterns and the gestural strokes assert the diversity in a fully immersive experience.

Participating artists will include:
Aaron Horkey, Alex Yanes, Andrew Schoultz, Audrey Kawasaki, Brendan Monroe, Brandon Shigeta, Cryptik, Esao Andrews, Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins, Hot Tea, James Bullough, Jeff Soto, John S. Culqui, Low Bros, Meggs, Nosego, Nychos, Saber, and Tristan Eaton.

“One of the goals behind ‘Vitality and Verve’ is to spotlight artists who are stepping out of their studios to paint on a grand scale using outdoor walls as their canvas as well as urban artists who are beginning to work in a traditional studio setting.” said Ron Nelson, Executive Director of the Long Beach Museum of Art. “Most of the works in this exhibition will be created on our gallery walls using both traditional and non-traditional art media resulting in an immediacy that extends well beyond the confines of a picture frame. Once the exhibition ends, the walls will be repainted and prepared for the next exhibition. Therefore, it is important for art enthusiasts to see this amazing exhibition before it closes.”

The ‘Vitality and Verve’ exhibition will be one of several locations in Long Beach this summer that will feature mural art. POW! WOW! Long Beach 2015, celebrates an inaugural art festival that will feature mural projects, gallery shows, and exciting programming – throughout downtown and nearby locations, which is slated to run the week of June 21 – June 28 featuring internationally renowned artists.
‘Vitality and Verve’ was made possible in collaboration with Thinkspace and Pow! Wow!

In conjunction with the opening of the Vitality and Verve exhibition, the museum will also be hosting its famed LBMA After Dark on Friday, June 26 from 7pm – 10pm located on the museum campus. Admission is $10 for non-members.

For more information please visit www.lbma.org

POW! WOW! Long Beach … Coming Soon in June!

 

Honored to once again be partnering up with the fine folks of POW! WOW! for the inaugural edition of POW! WOW! Long Beach taking place between June 22nd and June 27th.

The lineup includes: Jeff Soto, Low Bros, Bumblebeelovesyou, Tristan Eaton, Hueman, Fafi, Nychos, Cryptk, Jeff McMillan, Madsteez, Aaron De La Cruz, James Jean, Benjie Escobar, Push, and Jeff Staple.

Made possible with the help of  IntertrendImprint LabRVCAFlex FitMontana Cans, Jet BlueKnockaround Sunglasses, Meet In Long Beach, Long Beach Museum of Art, The Seventh Letter, and Thinkspace Gallery.

POW! WOW! Long Beach logo designed by Matthew Tapia.