Orchestra Superstring featuring X’s D.J. Bonebrake on vibes performs Cal Tjader’s “Mamblues” at The Speakeasy in Venice, CA on Feb 13, 2012. This song is not on either of Orchestra Superstring’s Dionysus albums – enjoy!
Danni Shinya Luo “Soft Candy“
February 14 – 26, 2012 –
Valentine’s Day
Book Signing Party
Tue, Feb 14th; 7-10 PM
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
click for show preview
Shanghai-born Danni Shinya Luo presents a collection of brand new drawings, paintings and illustrations. Turning the pages of this dainty 7″ x 7″ art volume is like stealing glances into a beautiful young woman’s salon — the voyeuristic reward of forbidden access. Watercolor, ink and graphite give rise to Luo’s vision of sexuality, innocence and whimsy over 200 full color pages behind a foreword by art impresario Billy Shire (of Soap Plant, Wacko and La Luz de Jesus Gallery). This new collection explores shifting perspectives of beauty, attraction, lust and decency presented through alluring and decadent images of the female figure. Visions of nymphs in a myriad of suggestive contexts are divided into five distinct chapters -each acknowledging a different aspect of sensuality as expressed through food, frailty, fetish, fauna and fantasy. The notion of eye candy is emblematic of the capacity to sense flavor, and Luo’s gift for capturing the soft, subtle sweetness of young adulthood is often erotic but always tasteful.
Shinya’s art is whimsically feminine, and her watercolor paintings are meditations on the female figure. The colors are fresh and luscious, her line work fluid and organic, and her composition engaging and impactful. Psychological tension and emotional torsion fill the images, binding love and lust. SOFT CANDY is an irresistible temptation that satiates the hunger of desire.
At first blush, Danni Shinya Luo would seem to be the unlikeliest source of the sexually charged material in Soft Candy. A sweet and invariably good-natured Chinese girl, she can disarm you with her bubbly personality while her paintings all but clobber you over the head. Her primary subjects are nubile nymphets; as wrapped in allegory as they are naked. They are both innocent and in your face. While the natural inclination of many artists is to paint naked women, most of Danni’s contemporaries (and a great deal of her predecessors) have managed to miss the sublime femininity that seems to come so easily to her. Sensuality and fragility, enacted simultaneously, don’t battle on her arches –they dance. Whether in her watercolors or in her sketches, which encompass both the doe-eyed and the deadly, the graceful lines of her figures boast that most prized of artistic commodity: intuition.
All of the drawings in this show were created specifically for (and published in) the Soft Candy art volume (published by Last Gasp Books, and available for pre-order).
Soft Candy:
The Girls of Danni Shinya Luo
Hardcover, 200 pages
7″ x 7″
$25.00
The first 100 orders will receive a signed, limited edition (1/100) book plate created specifically for this event!
Heather Watts “Tree of Life” in Art Gallery of Calgary group show “Down The Rabbit Hole“
February 10, 2012 to April 7, 2012
The Art Gallery of Calgary
117 – 8 Avenue S.W.
Calgary, Alberta Canada T2P 1B4
24-hour Information Line: 403.770.1350
info@artgallerycalgary.org
The AGC presents its Winter 2012 exhibition, Down The Rabbit Hole. This contemporary group show features artists Eric Louie, Pilar Mehlis, Landon-Jon Ference and Heather Watts and probes the world of Pop Surrealism. For more information read their online catalogue.
“Tree of Life” details
Tonight I’ll be cutting the vinyl for the first two Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited albums “Lost TV Themes” and “The Fluid Soundbox.” Both were originally released on Mai Tai Records in the ’90s. Dionysus reissued the albums on CD and digital only after Mai Tai ceased operations.
Our artist pal Shag recently resurrected the cover art for Dionysus and this evening, both albums will be cut at History of Recorded Sound in Culver City, CA – where all Dionysus / Bacchus Archives vinyl has been cut since 1992. The albums should be out byTiki Oasis 12 – perfect timing for the Spy Themed event this year!!
I’m going to try and live-stream part of the cutting session via Stream Junkie TV – here’s the link (or watch it on this post if the embed works properly) http://www.streamjunkie.tv/channel/view/leejoseph-546 – tune in around 8:30 Pacific and we’ll see if this thing works!!
Orchestra Superstring is performing at the Del Monte Speakeasy in Venice, CA – Sunday February 12th at 9:30 pm.
The group will be playing their special mix of Latin inspired jazz and exotica with DJ Bonebrake on vibes, Mike Bolger on trumpet + keyboards, Danny Frankel & Debra Dobkin on percussion, Woody Jackson on guitar, and Paul Eckman on bass.
The Speakeasy is located underneath the historic “Townhouse” at 52 Windward Ave,Venice, CA, 90291.
One set only!
Come down to the beach and enjoy the evening Orchestra Superstring!
www.orchestrasuperstring.com/
Matthew Bone Paradise Lost
Soey Milk Malus Sieversii
Bonni Reid Cartes De Visite
Christine Wu Shhh…
February 3 – February 26
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3rd, 8-11 pm
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
www.laluzdejesus.com
info@laluzdejesus.com
Matthew Bone Paradise Lost
Raised on a diet of comic books, horror movies, and pornography, Matthew Bone injects a distinctive voice into his painting: pride, lust, vengeance, the lurid underbelly of humanity, and the allegories that illustrate the consequences of its revelation has long been the focus of Bone’s oil, acrylic and panel works. By utilizing the conventions of pop culture, and its willingness to embrace the artifice as the sincere, Bone is able to create a reinvisioned modern mythology.
“Come with me and join the Darkside.” the ventilated voice said as it’s owner’s gloved hand extended towards the hero. In my story, he accepted and a new world was opened up to him, breaching the inner sanctum of the old. Growing up a latchkey kid in the 80’s, my unattended viewing and reading habits slowly migrated towards the adult at far too early of an age. While I still had the rich, innocent imaginary life of a boy who could defeat an alien invasion or help save the city from his archnemesis, the shadow of a different interior world was cast. In my newest body of work the icons and visual cliches of two seemingly disparate spheres collide (comics, Star Wars, toys vs. Hustler, Chic, Juggs) finally forming what has long brewed in my head into a tangible visual language for the first time” states Bone (who lives with his ol’ lady and menagerie of pets at the bottom of a wishing well in downtown Los Angeles) about “Paradise Lost.”
Soey Milk Malus Sieversii
Soey Milk depicts lone women in romance, she gifts the ladies with symbols of pleasure and agony.
Often enriched with subtle oddity or darkness, her delicate oil on paper works tell stories of tender and sensitive shared encounters. She is in love with lily specialists. “Malus Sieversii” is Milk’s very first feature exhibition, but her work has been featured in Blue Canvas Magazine, on the High Fructose Blog, and the artist herself has been the subject of much internet forum discussion. Her debut signals the start of a new era of classical painting, in a very contemporary package.
“I throw the apple at you, and if you are willing to love me, take it and share your girlhood with me; but if your thoughts are what I pray they are not, even then take it, and consider how short-lived is beauty.”
-Plato, Epigram VII www.milkbomb.blogspot.com
Bonni Reid Cartes de Visite
Cartes de Visite: Noun, French. 1. Small photographs, traditionally mounted on card stock, for mailing and trading purposes. Used during the Victorian era. Having a professional career in creating Saturday morning cartoons, Bonni Reid wanted to break from this candy-coated world in order to depict another side of childhood, one that is much darker, haunting or just plain weird — to evoke a time before we child-proofed everything. By utilizing old photographs of family, friends and found images, this collection portrays the alter ego that resides in all of us — the real inner child which isn’t always what we as adults want it to be.
Reid lives in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work has appeared in various galleries throughout North America. Aside from brewing her own visual concoctions, she is an illustrator, graphic designer and an animation colour designer. www.bonnireid.com
Christine Wu Shhh…
Christine Wu‘s “Shhh…” is an exploration on the power of things left unsaid… Wu is a certified practitioner of the arts and general awesome maker. Stylistically, her oil and panel work is multi-layered with creepy and sexual undertones. She often depicts people in flux and captures the vulnerability of growing up. She is rather fond of making a ruckus. www.misschristinewu.com
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