RETNA ONE starting out….

About a month ago I had a chance to check out the Street Legal show featuring Mear One, Retna, El Mac and Kofie, at the Riviera and Rivera gallery. At the same time that show took place, each of these prolific artists were contributing to a live painting of immense proportions at the LA Art show. Here is a fresh video and picture recap of the show..

Kofie in deep mediation and work. Zoning it all out.

Few sit and stand, but all are in quiet awe of Kofie who paints an abstract playground for the eyes. Rarely does he acknowledge these spectators of the Los Angeles Art Show. Inches away from the 12 x 12 foot canvas, he lives and works, spiritually tethered to a geometric pool of tides and axes.

Kofie’s approach and aim, is oblique like his style of “vintage futurism.” The artist avows, “Bottom line: I always like to fuck with people’s heads. There’s no real grand scheme with what I’m trying to do here. I’m really just doing what I do.”

Kofie and Mear grinding out…

Retna putting final touches to the pieces him and Mac worked on.

Unfortunately, Mac was unable to put on a show for the fans because spray paint was not allowed into the building, so the portion of his middle-aged woman was completed beforehand, as that is his tool of trade.

What is interesting are Retna and Mac’s mediation and process on creating a spirit of a woman rather than an ethnicity.

“You can’t quite place the culture of the woman. She could be slightly Asian. She could be slightly African American. She could just be an older Caucasian. We can’t place her. I think [the letters] are incredibly beautiful forms and they go with the way [El Mac] has constructed her face, a sort of etching quality that describes dimension. And if you look at the forms, they have a symbolic quality, so you don’t know what that’s saying, but you can go with it — make a little story about her.” -El Mac.

“We’re paintings murals of people that don’t necessarily have a voice, so we like to glorify them,” Retna explains.

MEAR ONE- Completed work.

The dicussion of fine art, street art, graffiti is one that is interminable, multifaceted and knows no bounds.  Forever, will we have out debate on how to categorize and interpret art. There is a rich tradition and history that few understand and critique. However, I feel that one should soak it all enjoy rather than critique. What fun is it to be a dilettante and overly criticize?  Apparently, as long as you know what you are talking about, you’re fine.

Marta Avellaneda, 56, represents Galeria del Paseo in Montevideo, Uruguay, and opines that VOX HUMANA is neither graffiti nor fine art: “The way I see it, more than graffiti, is that it’s mural work. They’re muralists, but muralists on canvas. To me, maybe because I grew up in the 60s and 70s, the fact that someone is a street performer and becomes part of an art collection — it loses its feeling.”

Avellaneda concedes that the title is apt: “You have a feeling of each [artist]. They have many voices. You have a geometric voice, a figurative voice, an abstract voice. It’s a human voice.”

Partial credit to Juxtapoz and Tommy Tung for the interview.

The other day, while snooping through the scrambled mess that is Netflix instant streaming (that’s right), I came across a surprise gem I wouldn’t expect to find in there. The film I caught was Infamy, a documentary style film that displays a different perception of taggers/street artists and the lives they live, and risk, in order to spray their emotions onto the next wall throughout big time cities like Philly and SF. Infamy offers an inside look into the everyday actions of SABER, TOOMER, JASE, CLAW, EARSNOT and ENEM, showin’ us what drives them to do this medium of art, even in times when graffiti seems to be the root of their problems. Impressed much?

The film makes no effort to hide the main stigma that surrounds street art: some truly see it as vandalism. In comes the man Joe Connolly, known as the Graffiti Guerrilla, who buffs out graffiti around his town for free. Yeh, from the name the guy seems like a G.I. Joe wannabe, but the dude is completely serious. So the film offers two sides of the story of street art, a smart move to appeal to an audience who might just be beginning their trek into this taboo world.

What really drove my interest was watching Saber walk down the LA River and discuss the nights he spent painting his iconic piece that would become a symbol for artists everywhere. After it all, I was left with this message: to do street art successfully is to live it, thrive in it, and sacrifice for it. It is not a livelihood, and you won’t make millions off it. Instead, others will be bringing in money in order to take you down. So you have to keep running, and let the love of the culture be your fuel.

Gorillaz feat. Mos Def “Stylo” from LTD Magazine on Vimeo.

World premiere..

New track by Gorillaz with Mos def and Bobby Womack. This collaboration is ridiculous and Gorillaz has always been inspirational.

15th Anniversary of Pier 59 Studios from James Jeon on Vimeo.

Check out what its like to work & party in the largest fashion photo studio in the world. Here’s the fab final edit of Jame’s video from Pier 59’s Anniversary bash.

We had the opportunity to interview Model and personality, Joli Robinson, for our online magazine. Here Joli takes us into the high fashion and art world at an inside look of Pier59 studios, champagne, beautiful women, art and photography are present in this montage.

Friday, I had an opportunity to check out the opening reception of Haze’s gallery done in collaboration with Stussy, curated by Known Gallery. For those in the know, Haze really needs no introduction for his graff work in the streets of Manhattan’s West Side during the 70’s.

As an artist, it was no mystery what he wanted to set out to accomplish early on as a designer who roots were set in the Graff. From the streets of NY to artwork for the Beastie boys & EPMD, Haze’s handiwork can be seen and felt from many facets of differing cultures. His signaure handstyle and use of black and white, is instantly recognizable.

Going into the reception,the curation, exhibit and response were immense as well as refined. A lot of Ogs were in the building including: Revok, Mear, Abel, Risk. It was definitely nice to see the community gather together for such a fresh exhibit. The Stussy Haze collaboration project is an interesting one because it represents the union of two forces that have paid their dues in the grimey streets but continue to perpetuate to influence modern street culture and art, while having their roots etched very deep. Personally, I enjoy seeing Haze’s work on the street or a wall, where the subtle details of his work play on the context of its environment.

Cut Chemist was spinning some delicious Latin vinyl which set the mood.

One of the favorite pieces of the night…

Haze recap’s from Tokyo…

Curious Displays from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.

Is this the wave of the future for concept designs. The effect is amazing, but is the design truly practical. Even for the avant- garde enthusiast, I feel the pragmatism of this application is a bit out of left field.

If you needed a reminder of where the remote was, a colony  of these devices could go form an arrow pointing at it. A bunch more could make up a shopping list for you near the fridge. And so on and so forth.

Is a location-based display really needed? Is this something a phone, tablet or another application could not solve.

Maybe Curious displays are the wave of the future, or not.

Thanks Nosaj Thing and Julie Tsao…