Opening this Friday, March 9th at the Rotofugi Gallery is the latest solo exhibition from Ken Keirns. Entitled Quietly, this is the fourth solo show Ken will have the gallery; the previous one pretty much sold out each time. The reception is from 7-10 PM if your in the area, and the show runs until April 1st.
Preview: “About Face” @ WWA Gallery
Opening this Friday at the WWA Gallery in Culver City is a show dedicated to portraits entitled About Face. This group show features work by Van Arno, Ana Bagayan, Sarah Bereza, Michael Foulkrod , Jeremy Cross, Richard J Frost, Tom Haubrick, JoKA, Jason John, Charlie Immer, Ken Keirns, Dave MacDowell, Laurie Lipton, Richard Salcido, Allison Reimold, Chris Peters, Cate Rangel, Casey Weldon, and many more. The reception is from 8-11 PM, and the show will be on view until February 11th.
Check it out here: WWA Gallery
The New Thumbtack Press
Back when I was writing a weekly article for SFWeekly about prints, one of the shops that I featured quite often was Thumbtack Press. They had a good selection and great prices. The site dropped off for a while but is now back, with new ownership, a new design, and more artists. The new site looks amazing, and most importantly is easy to move around. You can easily look at the recent print releases, or check out the full gallery from a specific artist. There is also a good amount of variety, from artists like Bob Dob and Ken Keirns, to Peter Diamond, Casey Weldon, Heiko Mueller, Candykiller and more. With each print you have the option of choosing stretched canvas, framed print, or just the print alone, and each print has a choice of different sizes. Another great feature is the “virtual room”, so you can choose a size and see how it will relate a room and the article inside. Gives you a good idea of the size of the print and if you might want one a little bigger.
Take some time and check out what they have to offer: Thumbtack Press



Preview: “Monkey in the Middle” by Ken Keirns @ My Plastic Heart
Opening tonight, Friday June 17th, is a new solo exhibition from Ken Keirns entitled “Monkey in the Middle”. This new show features toys, paintings, and “other such nonsense”, and with Kens unique style and ability to create these beautifully rendered portraits, it’s bound to be a great show. You can also see in the couple of the paintings that he has added some pop culture reference, such as Yoda and even Oscar the Grouch, if that’s pop culture now or nostalgia I have no idea. Keep your eye on the site for the full show to be opened up, and if you are in the area make sure to stop by the reception that opens from 6-9pm.
Ken Keirns “Alone With Ghosts” @ Gallery 1988
The past weekend some really great shows opened up, with Craola’s “INLE” group exhibition opening at Gallery 1988, and Ken Keirns latest solo show at the Venice gallery. This latest show from Keirns is entitled “Alone with Ghosts” and features 14 new oil paintings. Ken has such an amazing style, the figures in his work are becoming more intense. Compared to his early works, these latest paintings have this “smokey” or Sfumato look to them. Make sure to check out the full show.
“Idol Hours” @ London Miles Gallery
On November 13th, the London Miles Gallery opened a group show entitled “The Idol Hours”, which is a reflective study of great historical master paintings by new contemporary artists. The show features work by some amazing artists such as Dave MacDowell, Stella Im Hultberg, Tom Bagshaw, Matthew Bone, Travis Lampe, Zoe Lacchei, Bob Dob, Carrie Ann Baade, Carles Gomila, Nom Kinnear King, Chris B Murray, Ken Keirns, and many more. I was very excited, being an art history geek, to hear of this exhibition and see what some of these artists would come up with when taking classical works for inspiration. Ken Keirns did an outstanding re-interpretaion of Da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine”, and even Dave MacDowell chose to reimagibe Da Vinci’s work. Tom Bagshaw, Chris Murray, and Carrie Ann Baade made some stand-out paintings. I loved looking through the works and attaching them to the classical pieces the artists worked from. I do feel that Joe Ledbetter could have created something so much better, instead of painting a small area on a print. of the original work.
Check out the full show: Idol Hours @ London Miles Gallery



Review: Crazy 4 Cult 4 by Apricot Mantle
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.

Preview: Crazy 4 Cult 4
The group show Crazy 4 Cult is now back again for the fourth installment. The full title “Crazy 4 Cult 4: The Case of the Redundant Number”, will feature work inspired by cult movies from a wide range of amazing artists. Just a few of those participating are: Allison Sommers, Anne-Julie Aubrey, Apricot Mantle, Casey Weldon, Chet Zar, Chris Murray, Dan May, Dave MacDowell, Ewelina Ferruso, Gene Guynn, Joe Scarano, Ken Garduno, Ken Keirns, N.C. Winter, Rich Pellegrino, Scott Campbell, Stella Im Hultberg, Tom Haubrick, and many more. Some are veterans of the group show, and many are new. The past three shows seemed to have been dominated by just a handful of movies, Donnie Darko, The Big Lebowski, Edward Scissorhands, and Willy Wonka. There are so many amazing cult movies, I do hope some of them are given the same treatment some of the repeat titles have. Here is a short preview of some of the works that have been posted around the web, or graciously shared with the Creep Machine. Hit the jump-link to see the full preview.

Breakfast Fight Club by Dave MacDowell

This is the Last Time I Saw You by Ken Keirns
continue reading «Preview: Crazy 4 Cult 4»
“Fables and Follies” @ the Alternative Cafe
Opening tonight at the Alternative Cafe in Seaside, CA is the latest Creep Machine curated exhibition. “Fables and Follies” is a group show that will feature work by Wesley Burt, John Cebollero, Dan Harding, Dave MacDowell, Jason Levesque, Jessica Ward, Apricot Mantle, Ken Keirns, Joseph Larkin, Arabella Proffer, Celene Petrulak, and more.
The reception starts at 7 pm, and for those that can’t make the show, the works are not on the galleries website.
Take a look at these preview images and then head on over to see the full show.
Fables and Follies @ Alternative Cafe

Tortoise At the Hare by Dan Harding

Pursuit of Love by John Cebollero

Vernor Tweakman by Joseph Larkin
continue reading «“Fables and Follies” @ the Alternative Cafe»
“Isolation” print by Ken Keirns
Coming from Ken Keirns solo show “Dream Burn Down” at Rotofugi, a new print has been released. The print comes from his painting “Isolation”, and is 9″ x 12″, signed and numbered in an edition of 25. There is a limit of one per customer.
Get it here: Ken Keirns Isolation @ Rotofugi








































