June Art Adventure (Black Maria, Roberts and Tilton, BSFA, Tony Alva, POV, New Puppy)…

Last weekend we headed out for a tour of Los Angeles, and hit about every corner of the monsterous city as we took in a full night’s worth of art. We started out the night at Black Maria, and checked in our weapons at the door as requested…

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.

Andrew Schoultz returns to LA this Sat @ Roberts & Tilton…

Andrew Schoultz
‘White Noise and Silence: New Paintings and Drawings’

Opening Reception: Sat, June 13th 6-8PM
On view through August 1st

Roberts and Tilton
5801 Washington Boulevard in Culver City

Schoultz has been busy on the art fair circuit of late and his installation at last year’s Pulse (during Art Basel), with the Morgan Lehman Gallery, was a site to behold and a highlight of the fair for many. View images of this epic install here.
With the full main gallery of R&T’s beautiful new space at his disposal, expect mixed media installations & murals of the grandest scale. So can’t wait to check this show out!!!
You can also catch his work over at the current House Of Campari event (on view through June 14th). Schoultz was recently named the recipient of House of Campari’s 2009 Commission Award. Located at 8783 Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood.

Kehinde Wiley this week: talk @ Getty + new solo @ Roberts & Tilton…

We’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. We first posted on this a month back, but wanted to post a reminder, along with a lil’ more info on the show that opens this Saturday / ‘The World Stage’ series as a whole. Not to mention some info on Wiley’s signing this Thur at The Getty Museum and a nice video shot around ‘The World Stage: Africa’ for a lil’ further insight to this incredible talent.

Roberts & Tilton is pleased to announce ‘The World Stage: Brazil’, the latest offering of Kehinde Wiley’s ambitious ‘World Stage’ series. Through Wiley’s extensive investigative exchange, the artist’s contemporary yet historical oeuvre accentuates international cultures and their denizens, evoking discourse on an ever-expanding examination of globalization.
During Wiley’s residency in Rio de Janeiro, Afro-Brazilian men became the impetus for the majestic paintings, inspired by the iconic nationalistic sculptures that line the city streets and anchor its parks. Statesmen, noblemen, and the elite of Brazil are erased from their perches; the young black and brown men from present-day favelas are aggrandized. In tandem with the homoerotic undertone, Wiley further challenges the realm of the conventional male gaze. The viewer is forced to confront notions of the inherent colonial influence, exoticism and festishization.

Though weaving in the history of Western portraiture, the Brazilian essence radiates from Wiley’s new body of work. Oversized, tropical flowers bursting in bloom, appropriated from brightly hued indigenous textiles, encompass the spirit and culture of Brazil. Set against a storied backdrop of Brazilian iconography, the male subjects pose in their own clothing, reflecting a reverence for American conspicuous consumption. Past segments of ‘The World Stage’ include Africa (image from that series above) and China. This is Wiley’s third solo exhibition with Roberts & Tilton. Previously, Wiley has had solo museum exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, New York), the Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, Ohio) the Portland Art Museum (Portland, Oregon) and most recently The Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, New York). He has also been included in exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, (Los Angeles, California), the Rubell Family Collection, (Miami, Florida), the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.), and the Whitney Museum (New York, New York).

Kehinde Wiley on His Art and Its Influences
Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required. Call (310) 440-7300

Please note: due to high demand, people without reservations or those arriving later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the program may be seated in a second auditorium to view the program on video simulcast.

The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles – approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.
Below is a great video on ‘The World Stage: Africa’ collection and how it came together, please take a moment to check it out.


The World Stage: Brazil – opens Sat, April 4th (6–8pm)
April 4th – May 30th
Tuesdays–Saturdays (11am–6pm)
Roberts & Tilton Gallery (5801 Washington Blvd)
#323.549.0223

Get ready… Kehinde Wiley is coming back to LA this April

‘The World Stage: Brazil’
Opening Reception: Sat., April 4th, 6 – 8pm

Roberts & Tilton is pleased to announce ‘The World Stage: Brazil’, the most recent chapter of Kehinde Wiley’s ambitious ‘World Stage’ series.

On view through May 30th

A 64-page hardcover book of the exhibition, published by Roberts & Tilton and the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be available through D.A.P. in Summer 2009.

Kehinde Wiley will speak about his work on Thurs, April 2nd at 7pm at the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center, Los Angeles. Mark your calendar for that now.

Roberts&Tilton
5801 Washington Blvd in Culver City / 323.549.0223

October 11th art adventure…

We went out this Saturday and hit up most of the big openings about town. We started the night off at the Ben Maltz Gallery on the campus of OTIS. They were in the midst of their Alumni weekend celebrations and the focul point of the whole event was Phantasmoria which featured a massive mural installation from Mark Dean Veca… images below…

The mural was sprawling and really must be seen in person to really appreciate the scope of it… the man of the hour is seen below chatting it up with Ben Maltz curator Meg Linton (also curator of In The Land Of Retinal Delights)…

After taking in all the details of Phantasmoria we headed over to Culver City to take in the 2nd show at the new location of Roberts & Tilton to take in Flowers As They Are In The Field (Hana Wa No Ni Aruyouni) featuring new works from Ai Yamaguchi as well as a killer installation in the middle of the gallery with a beautiful wrap around painting within…

Seen below is one of the two ‘benches’ featuring in the exhibit… how nice would that be to have sitting about the ol’ home? Just not sure how one would really display and fight dust, seems you’d have to put it in a large case… regardless, very nice to behold and they really pop the exhibit off along with the install in the middle of the room…

Seen above is an interior shot of Flowers As They Are In The Field… beautiful show. After grabbing a quick bite we resumed our art adventure and headed down to Kinsey / Des Forges (formerly BLK/MRKT) to take in the debut LA solo show of local artist Lisa Solberg

Definitely a different show for Kinsey and crew, but super colorful and huge works, worth a visit if over in Culver City for sure. After that we headed over to see the new joint venture between Project: and Cerasoli (ex-Lab 101), the new Cerasoli : LeBasse Gallery. The Blender group show was laid out really nicely and featured a very intensive installation from Japanese artist Ogi (aka Ryuichi Ogino). Blender also featued works from Vincent Hui (whose work didn’t photograph well due to glare on glass, but must be seen – great find there for sure), Melissa Haslam (grouping of works featured below, and all had sold by end of night I hear… believe Hung-Hei from the Artchival board/Arrested Motion first found her and started posting about her work), Deth P. Sun and Mari Inukai (work pictured directly below) plus in gallery 2 they had new works from Jennifer Davis and Suzanne Sattler…

Above is the one and only Jack from Vinyl Pulse and Beau’s camera shy wife Christine… almost got her 🙂

Above is Ogi‘s floor to ceiling install and below is the collection of smaller works from Australia’s Melissa Haslam

After hangin’ out a bit at Beau and Freddi’s new digs, we headed up the street a bit to take in the new show at BSFA (Billy Shire Fine Arts). They were featuring the 2nd solo show at their gallery from collage artist Miriam Wosk. Paradise and Wildlife featured sprawling collage works and a simply stunning install in the middle of the gallery (see below 2 shots)…

After taking in the show at BSFA we headed out towards downtown Los Angeles to a deserted area where one would never imagine to find an art show. Down a dark part of East Washington we came upon the BOXEight rental spot to take in Native Sons featuring new works from Sage Vaughn that was curated by his European representatives Galerie Bertrand & Gruner. Due to this, all the works were priced in Euros and definitely a huge increase over last year’s showings… but word has it that he’s been doing great over in the UK and Europe and this tour de force show was testament to that… one stunning over-sized work after another lined the walls of what turned out to be a very cool spot to have an underground art show…


The exhibit featured a great array of both his ‘Wildlife’ and ‘Wildlives’ series and also featured almost a dozen of his nail bat sculptures that we were lucky enough to have exhibited a few of back in one of our Picks of the Harvest group shows… just love the bats!

The man of the hour is seen below with my wife Shawn in front of one of his massive showstoppers… big ups to Sage for really delivering one hell of a show…

We headed out from the depths of nowhere LA on the outskirts of downtown into downtown proper to hit up the Zero One Gallery… far removed from gallery row near a strech of new lofts. On the way to the spot, we strolled into what we thought was another opening but we quickly figured out it was someone’s loft party.. we could have crashed it, but we had art shows to see damn it! So onward to Zero One it was to take in the one and only Mear One‘s new solo exhibit. Upon entering you were greated by a sprawling wall of his new works along with segments of his new DVD (also being released this night) being projected upon the upper portions of the gallery’s wall….

The downstairs featured Mear One‘s larger acrylic and oil works on canvas and board (seen below from the upstairs balcony) to smaller acrylic and ink works on paper in the loft/balcony area (seen above)

After taking in Mear’s show and finally tracking him down to offer up congrats on a great show we loaded into the ol’ VW to head over to Bergamot Station in Santa Monica to hit up our final stop of the night to catch Copro Nason‘s new show with Laurie Lipton. Day of the Dead was a full on display of skill. Laurie’s graphite works were just intense. I highly suggest swingin’ through Copro to catch this show next time you are out at Bergamot this month…

On the way to Copro, we almost threw in the ol’ towel since it was close to 11PM and we’d been hitting up shows since 5PM, but upon arriving we ran into good friend and mega-collector Ryh-Ming Poon (with my wife Shawn above) and also collector Chris Ward – both of whom have a great eye for the works they chose to add to their collections…

I will leave you with Laurie’s masterful “Angel of Death” (shown above)… my photo doesn’t begin to do this work justice. Be sure to go out and catch this show in person.
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