Dan Witz is in Town | Book Signing at Space Gallery

Dan will be signing copies of his book, In Plain View at Space Gallery on Friday, January 7th from 8-10PM

Be on the lookout for his work as it shows up around the city!  For each work on view at White Walls, a corresponding piece will take root in the Bay Area’s public space.

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Jesse Hazelip: “The Belle of the Brawl” at 941Geary

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White Walls Gallery Presents Dan Witz: “What the %$#@? (WTF)”

Dan Witz’s integrity in expressing beauty through subversion and an enduring interest in realism has sustained the artist a copious 30-year career. Known for his hyper-realistic paintings, Witz challenges himself to keep representational painting relevant in the postmodern era and digital age.  This challenge commands that the artist must continually grow and experiment in his art practice which has contributed to him being cited as one of the most progressive and influential painters of our time.

White Walls Gallery is pleased to announce the debut solo show by Dan Witz entitled “What The %$#@? (WTF)”. The opening reception will be held on January 8, 2011 from 7-11pm. Witz is known for using  his mastery of the visual deception of trompe-l’oeil and photorealistic painting techniques to create conceptual visual pranks, producing a definitive and unparalleled street art practice.

The “What The %$#@? (WTF)” series is named for the universal reactions it often inspires within the viewer.  For this street art project, Witz is installing his Dark Doings pieces on walls beside highway ramps and interchanges–bottleneck locations where traffic backs up and a captive audience develops as cars pass by at low speeds. Dark Doings is made up of digital photo prints with extensive over-painting mounted on plastic and then framed.  For each piece that Witz will be showing within the gallery, a corresponding piece will be put up somewhere in the Bay Area.  The artworks come in an edition of 6:3 for the street and 3 for other distribution.  The street versions are unsigned, but marked with NFFS*.  The asterisk indicates (on the back of the piece) *NOT FOR FUCKING SALE.

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Interview With Glen E. Friedman x Shepard Fairey by Colin Day

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The Underbelly Project

Over 100 artists culled from an international spectrum have participated in what project organizers/curators, Workhorse and PAC are calling The Underbelly Project.  Deep in the clandestine bowels of the New York subway system is a den of street art works that are off limits to collectors and appreciators.  They exist as somewhat public works, accessible to the adventurous–urban archeologists and selected members of the press, but inaccessible to the grip of the art market’s talons.

Personal favorite Dan Witz! (above)

Read more here.

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Deitch Being Deitch

The press releases haven’t been written up yet, but the buzz begins; Jeffrey Deitch’s first 2011 show will be a graffiti and street art one.  Surprise! Deitch continues to champion the genre, and MOCA will no doubt benefit from a huge turnout thanks to a whole new demographic.  The show will be large in both artist representation and historical scope, por ejemplo– a special nod to LA with the inclusion of 1970s Chicano mural art.  Read more.

Fasten your seat belts because next week I will be talking about literary arts.

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Installation Shots: Jesse Hazelip @ SFMOMA Windows

Jesse Hazelip is currently installing the work for his next major exhibition opening this Saturday, July 10th in conjunction with the SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery. This installation will be on display through November 13th and is visible in the SFMOMA Garage’s street-level windows on both the Natoma and Minna St. alleys between New Montgomery and Third St.

The work for this installation involves large scale mixed media pieces on wooden panels, each commenting on contemporary sociopolitical issues in a cause and effect statement. Topics of waste are addressed through the artist’s use of found, salvaged and repurposed materials. Capitalism and greed are commented on through the artist’s discussion of the recent BP oil spill, and the sort of rugged individualism that defines America while blinding us to our fellow humans’ plight is illustrated in a piece dedicated to the alarming statistic that names suicide as the number two cause of death amongst Native American adolescents.

Check out more preview shots here.

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New Work by Mars-1 at Meta Gallery

Infinite Tapestry, Acrylic on wood panel, 36"x48", 2010

“Infinite Tapestry” is the collection of new work by Mars-1 up at Meta Gallery in Toronto. Although this show is about 2 days from ending, I had to post these images anyway. They’re breathtaking! Mars never disappoints but this work is on another level. The black and white pieces are a favorable divergence from his usual color palette and make me wish I were staying at this on my living room wall instead of on a computer.

"Infinite Tapestry #2", Acrylic on wood, 24"x30", 2010

"Tulpa 2", Acrylic and sumi ink on paper, 72"x48", 2010

"Echoes 2", Acrylic and sumi ink on paper, 40"x30", 2010

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New Image Art Feature – The Creative Lives

Before “street art” was given it’s name; before artists like Barry McGee and Shepard Fairey were talked about around the dinner table, there was a group of artists influenced by skateboard graphics, graffiti, and the like. Before these individuals had the option of showing in New York or in any one of a number of Culver City “lowbrow” art galleries, there was New Image Art Gallery, run by the infamously incomparable Marsea Goldberg. These artists found their orbit, and New Image was their sun. 15 years later, Marsea is known for an eye that never fails and a passion that won’t quit. It’s easy to take a lot of the art, the community, and the progress of this genre for granted. But make no mistake, without New Image and Marsea, this point in time wouldn’t shine nearly so bright.

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The New York Times Talks Street Art

Isabel Samaras "Wize", Oil on wood

The 5 Year Anniversary show at Jonathan Levine Gallery runs through the end of March. I was checking out the work online and just happened to catch the fact that Jonathan, his artists, and a run down of the street art genre was featured in a New York Times article. It’s a nice first attempt to bring the work of some worthwhile artists into the minds of the mainstream art establishment. Written by someone who I presume is completely outside the circle of artists he’s writing about, in terms of taste and life experience, the article does its best to define the work and give the group a nod of approval. Somehow, it still manages to rub me the wrong way, but that’s not difficult to do these days – especially when it comes to art and its criticism. I guess I just wish that the genre weren’t still in a stage of having to fight for recognition. Maybe “fight” isn’t the right word. It isn’t as though any of the artists referenced by the article are all that concerned with appealing to the snooty art establishment anyway. I guess to me, the piece just feels like a handout when it could have just been written about in terms that presented it as a capable art scene that’s been standing on its own two feet for a while now. It seemed the author was still validating it in some way. The name dropping at the end of the article didn’t help. And trying to re-define the entire genre as “pop pluralism” just sounds ridiculous. Whatevs.

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