Browsing “Events”

The A.skate Foundation is once again looking for artists to donate work to their annual “1 in 91″ art show. For those unfamiliar, A.skate is a non-profit, grass roots organization that “allows children with autism to be a part of the social world through skateboarding. They hold clinics for children with autism at no cost to the families, give grants to children with autism for skateboard gear, as well as promote awareness and educate families about the skateboard industry”. A worthy cause for sure. I donated a piece to last year’s event and will definitely be participating in round 3.

This year’s auction will take place at The Lab in Costa Mesa, CA on Saturday, April 21st.  Email  info@askate.org for details of how to donate work.  Art is due no later than April 12.

HIGHLAND PARK, LOS ANGELES: There’s a huge upcoming group show THESE FRIENDS 3 coming Friday, February 24th at THISLOSANGELES gallery in Highland Park.  Too many talented artists to name, so make sure to take a peek and drop by.  They’ll also be giving away some tote bags that I designed to the first 100 folks who arrive.

Sneak peek of the weird hairy hunter guy I did for the tote.

If you are on the Gold Coast in Australia, you’re not going to want to miss this.

NEW YORK, NY: I’ll be participating in an upcoming group show, Rabid, Wild & Docile, which opens at myplasticheart  NYC February 24th, from 6-9pm.   The show features various bear-inspired works from artists such as Luke Chueh, EVOKER, Tim Sullivan, Flying Fortress, and many more!

Rabid, Wild, & Docile
A collection of bear inspired artwork
February 24 – March 25, 2012
myplasticheartnyc
210 Forsyth St
NYC 10002

So, yeah, last summer I was curating a few chunks of that huge skateboard art show in Paris called Public Domaine… This one.  Among other things, I was in charge of a deck exhibit downstairs under the moniker Agents Provocateurs -an anthology of offensive/controversial/political/message-charged skateboard graphics from then (1990-ish) to now. So that could have been that.

But the venue in question bares a souvenirs-type of shop, and I thought it’d be cool to pick a few of the graphics exhibited and make super high-quality silk-screen prints of them, just a run of 100 prints for each. The two chosen ones ended up being the Sean Cliver “Charles Manson Brown” done for 101 in 1993, and Todd Francis’ “Nature’s Revenge” deck for Julien Stranger out on Antihero.

To make sure this awesome art was going to be treated right, I really wanted to work with Anagraphis/Les Freres Lumineux, whose outstanding portfolio print work for legendary alternative cartoonists (Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton etc) is mind-blowing, albeit of course not cheap at all.

Prints were made, they looked great, a bunch sold at the show… But the leftover was pretty much promised to rot in the shop’s basement once it was over. It killed me to see it going to waste. So in broke-ass, yet super-hero-ish fashion, I went and salvaged the about 50 prints of each graphic left. The only thing I forgot is that I might not have at all the money for it but fuck it, I bought them all back -scooped them up American Pickers-style, minus the profit. And here they are now, available exclusively on Memory Screened!

I’m super excited to announce Booze, Dudes and Bears, a new zine of drawings, to be published with the help of the awesome folks at The Secret Headquarters. We’re going to debut it for the LA Zine Fest Feb. 19th alongside Nick Thorburn’s new zine What A Gas.

Dreamland, an Exhibition of Artworks by Claudio Kirac.

‘Dreamland’ revolves around two key themes; the thrill of travel and the longing for home. While ‘on the road’ for periods at a time, and mostly without the leisure one would assume with travel or ‘holidays’, Claudio grasps the moments around him; wholly embracing local cultures and traditions, venturing ‘off the beaten path’ and stepping outside the comforts of everyday life. While befriending strangers and capturing those special moments one only encounters on ‘the journey’, work and play blur into one. Soon comes the challenge of missing the familiarity of home, the everyday norm, the common voices of close friends and the touch of a loved one. But it is this that makes us appreciate the everyday and helps restore our balance and soon we are home again where we can reflect on the journey and the places that became home for those moments in time. The works of ‘Dreamland’ express and investigate many of these notions.

Feb 23rd – March 6th 2012
Comb Space Gallery
Kirra Point, 23 McLean St, Coolangatta, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.

Tomorrow night this opens in San Francisco. Last weekend I help art director, Porous Walker set up some of the installation and documented the progress. Photos can be seen over on my COLOR blog. More on Porous, the art department and the installation coming soon.

About the installation from the gallery:

FIFTY24SF Gallery, in association with Upper Playground and American Zoetrope, are pleased to announce TWIXT sc. 83, an exhibition and installation coinciding with legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s newest feature film, Twixt. The exhibition opens January 13, 2012 with a public reception at 7PM.

Over his past three films, Francis Ford Coppola, famed director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, has set-out to create self-written, self-financed, self-produced, and self-distributed films with his own intimate crew. Developed through personal experiences, a love of American Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe, and Coppola’s own trials as a horror genre author, Twixt is the story of B-list author Hall Baltimore’s process of writing his new mystery while researching an old murder case in a remote Northern California town. While Baltimore (played by Val Kilmer) is seemingly rewriting history with the help of the an eccentric town sheriff, he finds himself embedded in his most personal, demanding story he has ever written. Filmed around Northern California with locals as actors, as well as sets built on Coppola’s own property in Rutherford, Twixt examines the process of storytelling as it applies to personal experience, artistic influences, and the classic American genres that have become staples of modern cinema.

Working within their own self-financed restraints and freedoms, the team behind Twixt had the unique experience of researching and building sets in and around Coppola’s home in Northern California. Many of the sets were built in Coppola’s backyard, while some required the small town backdrops of Northern Napa and Lake counties. In keeping with the original spirit of American horror, some scenes were created with intentional kitsch, while some dream sequence were shot with highly-detailed, ornate sets and original post-production work.

For TWIXT sc. 83, members of Twixt‘s tiny tiny Art Dept, (Jimmy DiMarcellis, David Hopp, and John Paul Goorjian) will be rebuilding the set of the film’s dramatic climax sequence, scene 83. The center of the gallery will feature a remake and stand-alone installation of the film’s clock tower, shown in the film as an impromptu 3D experience. Also on display from Twixt, will be bat and birdhouses from Nice, California artist John Hathaway, whose front yard/gallery/shop “The Woodpecker”, was a key set in the film. TWIXT sc. 83 will also feature a series of other pieces from the film’s set department that were found around different locations in Northern California and in the Coppola archives, as well as behind the scenes photography by the film’s executive producer, Anahid Nazarian and set photographer, Kalman Mueller. The gallery will run trailers of the film, along with other enhancements to bring Twixt‘s horror scenes to life.

Like parks and recreation and helping out a good cause? If you answered “yes”, then you should check out Philadelphia based Slingluff Gallery’s (http://www.SlingluffGallery.com/) open call. They are putting on a fundraiser art show to help benefit Penn Treaty Park. In their own words “The park is down the street from the gallery, it’s a great little park on a river that hosts a ton of music, art, and other events through out the year so it feels good to be able to give them something back.” This isn’t your normal “art donation” benefit either. They want to make sure everyone involved gets something out of this.

The opening is going to be sponsored by Art In The Age (http://www.artintheage.com/) who will be providing Root and Snap for your drinking pleasure, granted that you are of drinking age. The opening will be on the first Saturday of January which is on the 7th and will run from 6-9p and the show will be hung till January 29th.

For more info and any questions regarding this group show please feel free to email them at: theslingluffgallery@gmail.com

TOP 8 from THE ISLAND

1ST: Chima Ferguson ($4000)

2ND: Tommy Fynn ($2500)

3RD: Jack Fardell ($1500)

4TH: Jack Kirk ($800)

5TH: Jake Duncombe ($500)

6TH: Reece Warren ($300)

7TH: Alex Campbell ($200)

8TH: Joel McIlroy ($200)

ISLAND WRAP

Cockatoo Island is not only the largest isle in Sydney Harbour; it has one of the most colourful histories. Prior to being home to the first ever SbA Pro/Am Grand Final it was an imperial prison, an industrial school, a reformatory, a jail and was the site of one of Australia’s largest boat building docks. Cockatoo is also closely aligned with the legend of bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, who was one of two prisoners to ever escape the island. Their escape was aided by Thunder’s lover Mary Ann Bugg who swam through the harbours shark-infested waters to save them. Thunderbolt was given his name whilst on the job: during one of his robberies he knocked on a door as a clap of thunder and lightening ignited the skies. The victim asked who was at the door to which he replied: “Thunderbolt”. Of course prior to the intervention of colonialism Cockatoo was no doubt a sacred stomping ground for indigenous tribes and possibly the odd cockatoo.

During event lead up there were several trips out to the island. My first trip was with Cuzz and we were in charge of surface checks on the heritage-listed ground. After a serious run in with an egg-guarding screech-burger of a sea gull, and several heated discussions regarding the logistical problems of holding a comp on the island, we thought we would calm our nerves with a beverage. Whilst ordering the edge was taking off by a gruff but jovial chinless wonder of a Hungarian tuck-shop manager. He was the kind of odd character you would find in an old Bond film. His vibe somehow smoothed the situation and mid bev we ran back over to the site and finally sussed how the course could work.

Over the months of prep that followed it was no doubt that Logistics Manager Steve Murphy went through the most trials and tribulations. At one point he was heard ordering some fluorescent inflatable tower lights over the phone: “So how big are they mate?“… (pause)… “Oh so about as big as a fat person?” The attention to detail was phenomenal. So how do you get a skate course built on an island you ask? Every element had to come by barge: 24 of them! The course design and construction was a combination of efforts between SbA, Convic and Shane Serena’s Revolution crews. The course housed elements such as the bank to ledge to bank, the out rail (based on Perth’s swing out bar), the doorstop slappy kickers, the wheel chair ramp and the Sydney Harbour Bridge China Bank. (article continued with video over on the sba site)

(link straight to video)