It’s been a while since the site has had a featured artist. Some contests and other projects took time away from this section. Well, it’s back and to kick it off again is Toronto based artist Kelly Durette. Along with a gallery of her work, there is also a short interview with Kelly. So head on over and check out the first featured artist for 2011.
Kelly Durette Interview + Feature
Spoke Art, the force behind the Bad Dads and Quentin Vs Coen group shows, are opening a San Francisco based gallery this Thursday May 5th. To kick off the very first reception of this new space, Rod Luff, who recently showed at the Phone Booth Gallery, will be showing some new works. The Moleskine Project features framed pages from an entire sketchbook the artist filled with oil paintings, sketches, studies, and more. The gallery also made the great decision of having the works framed in a way so that you can turn it around and still see what was on the other side of the pages, so no work by this exciting artist has been lost. The reception opens @ 5pm and the show will be up until May 28th. I’ll be stopping by to check out the work, take some photos, and even a video. Prepare for a more in depth review soon.
he duo show of Sarah Joncas and Anthony Pontius opened at Last Rites over a week ago. The gallery now has some photos of the reception with both artists in attendance. Looks like there was some live painting going on. The photos look amazing and really help fans to “virtually” check out the show. make sure you check out the galleries event page as well.
Check em out: Last Rites on Flickr
Sarah Joncas
Opening this Saturday, May 7th at Rivet Art in Columbus, OH a group show featuring the work of Jason Snyder, Paul Barnes, Joe Scarano, & Roland Tamayo opens. A majority of the work is from Jason Snyder, and I really like the combination of the color palettes and the frames that Jason chose for his works. The show flows very well and is worth a look. Keep your eye on the site for the full show to be posted.
Dropping tomorrow, May 5th from Vannen Watches is a new limited edition timepiece by the outstanding Godmachine. I haven’t much about Vannen Watches, if at all, but I think it’s a great new way for fans to got some art they love that isn’t a print, t-shirt, or iphone skin. They’ve released quite a few watches so far, from such artists as Alex Pardee, Brian Morris, Travis Lampe, McBess, and more. Godmachine’s new watch Tempus (latin for time) is limited to 150 watches, with 10 silver variants. Each watch comes in signed and numbered packaging enclosed in a body bag, and you even get a Godmachine sticker. It’s an intense looking watch, but what else would you expect from such a dynamic artist? If you head over to the Vannen site there is also a good interview with Godmachine, so check out the watch and get to know the artist a bit more.
1xrun has a new print for the week, “On A Good Day” by Allison Torneros. The painting was created specifically for this limited edition print. The original is available from the site, and they even have a video showing Allison creating the painting. The print is 12.5″ x 17″, which is almost the same size as the original, it is signed and numbered in a max edition of 40.
Get it here: Allison Torneros @ 1xrun.com
For the past year Portland based artist Isaac Bushkin has been learning how to tattoo. He is now back and has some new work to show, along with a new print. “The Bully” is 11″ x 17″, not sure if this is limited or open. His up Isaac from his site if you are interested.
Here’s an artist I learned of from one of the fans of the Creep Machine Facebook group. Kilian Eng is an illustrator working out of Stockholm, Sweden. He has a very retro style to his digital illustrations. I have seen a few sites bring up the idea that his work looks like still from an epic animated movie, or something right out of the pages of Heavy Metal magazine. The color palettes and the slight grain that he adds to these images really help to create this nostalgic feel. Head on over to his Behance profile for more work to view, he also has a Tumblr with some latest works.
An artist working of of the Highlands of Scotland, Tim Maclean. He works primarily with acrylics and has a very unique style of drawing. The distorted and stylized figures he creates can be seen clearly in his preliminary drawings as well. His website seems to be under construction, but you can check his work out on Flickr as well as Society6.
Edit Lebeau (featured) has just added a new print to her Society6 shop. The print entitled “Hamadryad”, is first in a series of 3 paintings. It comes in four sizes, 8″x 10″ all the way up to 22″ x 28″.
Get it here: Edith Lebeau @ Society6
On April 16th, the Jonathan Levine Gallery opened a new solo show from Los Angeles artist Van Arno. This is the artist’s first solo show at the gallery, and features some of his biggest paintings yet. The exhibition is entitled “The Minstrel Cycle” and the show title “references minstrelsy, a controversial form of entertainment from the 1800s, in which performers in blackface lampooned African-American culture through comic-musical variety acts loaded with racial stereotypes.” There are seven paintings in this show, and continue Van Arno’s always exciting, dynamically posed mythical and historical figurative paintings. In the artist’s words: “I attempt to paint the archetypical moment of clarity and passion. Imagery must be made exciting and alive. Rules of lighting, anatomy, gravity and physics must be bent or broken to make the picture LOUD. That is the ultimate goal of my work.” Van Arno’s paintings are consistently filled with some of the most intense colors, layouts, and contorted and stylized figures around. Along with images of the paintings, the gallery also has some shots that show the paintings hung, giving online viewers an idea of scale.
Check it out: Van Arno @ Jonathan Levine Gallery
Dave MacDowell’s solo show “Lowbrow Love Letter” opens tonight, April 30th at the Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City, CA. Dave will be there at the reception so make sure you let him know the Creep Machine told you stop by. Along with the original works, that are most sold out, that will be on view and limited edition print will also be available. “Abide” is based on the original painting for this show, and is 16″ x 20″ on Museo portfolio rag paper, signed and numbered in an edition of 25 for $100 each. Not sure if these will be online after the reception or not.
