Just this past Friday, August 6th at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery, an amazing show featuring new works by Christoper Ulrich opened up. Entitled “Illuminator: The Royal Wedding”, this solo exhibition, “Each piece in the series is designed to be its own portable temple marked and charged by the number 8″. The show features 16 paintings, 16 illustrated studies, 1 additional drawing, hidden notes, and 16 print editions. The prints are of the original 16 illustrated works and are each limited to a series of 12. Not only are the drawings expertly rendered showing Ulrich’s skills with graphite, but the oil paintings are even more impressive. Every inch of these works is filled with beautiful contrast, intense colors, and a perfect blend of inspiration from contemporary and classical works. I also liked the fact that each painting has its own custom made frame. Ornate frames chosen to fit with the paintings are great, but when the frame is designed specifically for the work or series of works, its just one more detail an artist can add to a show to really make a difference. It would be great to see these works in person, but for many the web will have to do. Make sure you check out the site, read the intro and digest every painting in this show.

Christopher Ulrich “Illuminator: The Royal Wedding” @ La Luz de Jesus

The Creep Machine is happy to announce a new guest writer, China Blue. Living in New York, China has the ability to check out some of the amazing exhibitions that open up there, and give the readers of this site a proper full-fledged review. Here we go:

Saturday, August 10th didn’t officially begin until nightfall when I arrived at the Last Rites Gallery’s opening for “New Breed II”, a group show including artists Patrick Deignan, Mark Elliot, Steve Ellis, John Cebollero, Angie Mason, Natalie Shau, Celeste Rapone, Jasmine Worth and Leslie Ditto. I had been absent from the New York art scene for two years while traveling, and I was more than excited to be coming back to one of my favorite galleries. Last Rites never skimps on ambiance – not from the dripping candles, the blood-red curtains or the all-black attire of the hosts. Stepping out of the elevator on the third floor, I always feel as though I have crossed the threshold into another, more sinister world. The title “NewBreed II” denotes that many of the artists had never before shown at Last Rites and all were encouraged to explore a darker side of themselves and produce work with a more morbid or grotesque spin.

On July 10th, the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco opened a duo show with new works from Van Arno and Chris Pugliese. I was finally able to make my way into the city to see the work in person, and I’m very glad I did. The show opened July 10th and will close August 7th. I have been a fan of Van Arno since the first time I saw his work at the Shooting Gallery. He has an amazing, energetic way of painting the figure, and his color palette and stylized body types make his work very unique. I was also very surprised with Chris Pugliese’s paintings. I had seen his work online, but I think it is really important to see art in person as so much is lost when it is presented on the web. Click the jump link for the rest of the review, or just look at the photos from the show at the Creep Machine Flickr.

The Creep Machine was lucky to get one of the participants of the Crazy 4 Cult 4 show, Apricot Mantle, to not only take some photos of the event for us, but write a review as well. Hit the link to see the rest of the photos and the review. Hopefully we can talk Apricot into doing this more often.

Opening this Friday, July 2nd at the White Rabbit Lounge in New York, Anagnorisis Fine Arts presents a solo exhibition entitled “Angelic Possession” featuring new works by Buddy Nestor. During opening night only there will be live painting by Katie Perdue and Scott Cranmer, as well as some new video work by Josh Graham (Storm of Light & Neurosis). I was able to see Buddy Nestor’s work up close before Eclectix Gallery closed, and it looks amazing. I really love what he does with the distortion in these portraits. The paint is handled beautifully, and each portrait is an exciting example of how polished Buddy’s style is. Take a look at these few preview images, and if you can’t stop by the White Rabbit Lounge in person, make sure to check out the full show at the link provided.

“Buddy Nestor “Angelic Possession”

Just this past weekend, June 26th, Jeff Soto’s latest solo show “Lifecycle” and Dave Cooper’s show “Mangle” opened up at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York. Jeff’s work is now a little bit more detailed and intense this round. His last solo show was “The Inland Empire” at Stolenspace, and while that was a great show the work in “Lifecycle” seems a little bit more jarring, and more richly conveys the fear and environmental issues his work often holds. Much of the icons were are used to seeing in Soto’s paintings are here, but some new ones have entered and others have been re-imagined.

Next door in Gallery II is Dave Cooper’s “Mangle”, featuring “new drawings and paintings of twisted ladies”. The color palette is a darker than his latest works have been, and the feel of Dave’s work is a nice compliment to Soto’s. I would like to see the two shows in person, but I can imagine that the feel the patrons had was pretty intense.

Check out the preview images, and then the full show. Jonathan Levine Gallery

Curated by Jan Corey Helford, this past May 15th marked the opening of the “Art From the New World” group exhibition at the Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery. This show will run until August 22nd, but for those of us that aren’t able to see it in person, we now have some images of the art and even behind the scenes photos of the preparation and build up to opening day (see here).

Last year the Bristol City Museum featured the works of Banksy, and during the course of the exhibition over 300,000 visited the museum. Now for the “Art From the New World” show, there have been over 5,000 visitors in the first 6 days of the opening. This is not only a very exciting show, but an important one for the future of the art we love so much. Originally referred to as a scene filled with “illustrators”, this art is now gaining more momentum than ever. Museums are taking notice, and the fan-base is becoming larger than ever. There is some amazing work in this show, from artists such as Kent Williams, David Stoupakis, Joe Sorren, Brandi Milne, Buff Monster, Camille Rose Garcia, Dave Kinsey, Travis Louie, Mercedes Helnwein, Ray Ceasar, Sas Christian, Melissa Forman, Jason Shawn Alexander, Dave Cooper, Liz McGrath, Mike Stilkey, Gary Baseman, Craola, Luke Chueh, Coop, Natalia Fabia, Chris Anthony, AJ Fosik, Joe Ledbetter, Todd Schorr, Van Arno, Martin Wittfooth, Josh Agle, Lola, Sylvia Ji, Marion Peck, Mark Ryden and many more. How is that for a lineup? I really wish this show was going to travel and come to some museums here in the states. Take a look at the preview images here, and then head over for the full preview.

Art From the New World: Here and Here

This past weekend at the Rotofugi Gallery, two solo shows opened up. “Wee Epic Masterpiece Theatre” by Travis Lampe and “Beneath the Noise” by Dan May. Both are amazing exhibitions, but for this post I am going to focus on Travis’ show. All of the works in this show, save for the two prints, are all inspired by classical works of art. For an art historian (in progress) like myself, this show is filled with all sorts of eye candy. Classical works of art such as: Géricault’s “The Raft of the Medusa”, Jaques-Louis David’s “The Death of Marat”, Sandro Boticelli’s “The Return of Judith”, and Caravaggio’s “Medusa” have all been re-imagined by Travis with his signature characters and vivid color scheme.
While classical works may be boring to some, the content is often filled with exciting stories, allegories and fables. All of which are worthy of being retold. It is these stories, the inner meaning of art that holds onto us and allows the art to function as much more than just something pretty to look at.

Head on over and take a look at the full show. This is such an amazing show. I also like that Travis created a silkscreened frame that would be used for multiple works.

Travis Lampe @ Rotofugi

Last week, the “Lush Life 2″ group invitational opened at Roq La Rue in Seattle. The shows features new works by Joe Sorren, Chris Berens, Marion Peck, Kris Kuksi, Travis Louie, Brian Despain, John Brophy, Martin Wittfooth, Ryan Heshka, Michael Brown, Charlie Immer, Mandy Greer, Gail Potocki, Laurie Hogin, Boomer, Madeline Von Foerster, Ryan Heshka and more. How is that for a line-up? With so much amazing work in one gallery it makes me wish Seattle was just a little closer. The show isn’t fully online yet for those of us that weren’t able to make the reception, but there is a web preview you can check out. So far from the preview, all of the works are very strong, but I am particularly taken with Travis Louie’s “The Ghost Of Laura From The Reeds”. His paintings are insane in person, the level of detail is very impressive to say the least. I also like that he adds stories to each of his characters. I often did this with my mothers Cabinet photo and tintype collection, but my stories were not as entertaining as the ones Travis comes up with.

I really liked that a good majority of the artists in this show, are either inspired by classical themes, or paint in the style of classical masters. This is seen with the work of Madeline Von Foerster, Andrew Arconti and the “Lady Clown” from Marion Peck. That painting is so perfect, the color palette, the inspiration from Francisco Goya’s “La maja desnuda“, and the expression that clown face has. I really hope this is turned into a print soon.

Check out the preview here: Lush Life 2 @ Roq La Rue

Last weekend, March 6th, I made my way over the 7th Anniversary show over at the Shooting Gallery in SF. It has always been one of my favorite galleries to visit, as there is perfect lighting for photography and consistently good exhibitions. Opening that night was the latest solo show of Aaron Nagel entitled “Marks”. Right next door at the White Walls Gallery was also works from Kevin Cyr, Jessica Hess and upstairs at Gallery Three was new works by Jessica Whiteside.