pweny

Swerve: A group show curated by Sophia Allison

2012-01-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

ShoeboxLA is back in 2012 with a group show!

Swerve: A group show curated by Sophia Allison

Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 3-7pm

Kabab Way – Glendale

919 S. Glendale Ave. Glendale, CA 91205

Swerve: Professional wrestling terminology that describes an unexpected action or event that takes the audience by surprise.

ShoeboxLA is pleased to present its first group show, Swerve, curated by gallery co-founder Sophia Allison. Artists Amparo Jelsma, Melissa Manfull, Julio Panisello, Carl Smith, and Jaime Ursic primarily work in the two-dimensional realm (painting, drawing, printmaking); for this exhibition, however, each artist was asked to create a work of sculpture. Beyond size restrictions, no other instructions or requirements were provided. While it is not unusual for artists to work in both painting and sculpture simultaneously, it can be a challenge to move fluidly between these mediums. The resulting work may or may not be a translation of the artists’ primary practice but it will be exciting to view the results. Join us for this special event.

ShoeboxLA gives Los Angeles artists an opportunity to do one-day, site-specific exhibitions outside the traditional gallery setting. Founders Sophia Allison and Paul W. Evans provide an intimate space that challenges artists' and viewers' expectations of size and scale. Locations change for each show but the space remains the same.

Email: shoeboxla@gmail.com for more info or press images.

Website: www.shoeboxla.blogspot.com – private appointments are welcome.

(Kabab Way is an eclectic mix of flavors from Middle Eastern, Armenian & Mediterranean cuisines with American standards of service. When you want food that is tasty and healthy, fresh and fast, excellent and affordable, Kabab Way is the only way to go: www.kababway.com )

LA: Shit Porn Dumpster

2011-10-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

ShoeboxLA in the EastsiderLA

2011-10-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

Sculpture by Kim Tucker

Art show rolls into Eagle Rock bowling alley

Friday, October 14, 2011

By Becky Koppenhaver

Pop-up art gallery Shoebox L.A. will present the sculpture of Kim Tucker this Saturday, Oct. 15 for a three-hour long exhibit at All Star Lanes bowling alley in Eagle Rock. Not used to going to a bowling alley to view art? Shoebox L.A. seeks to challenge the traditional expectations of what a gallery is. Founders Paul W. Evans and Sophia Allison say they are drawn to spaces that “are not spaces one would initially connect with art.” and have room for their portable gallery, a box with moveable walls that is barely big enough (24”x18”x8”) to hold a few pairs of bowling shoes.

“Both Shoebox and Kim love All Star Lanes,” said Evans, referring to the Eagle Rock bowling center that has hosted numerous bands. “We also try to focus on places that people may not know of or have maybe gotten off the radar. And then we hope business owners will allow us three hours of viewing time.”

What will be tucked into the Shoebox gallery on Saturday? Here are the details about the Kim Tucker: Unquiet Slumber show:

Tucker’s Unquiet Slumber is a sculptural expedition into the wild and woolly world of the unconscious. Hidden desires, complications, filtered memories and primal impulses mix together in the bold world of the inner mind. Within the exhibition, a central female figure represents the human experience as all and nothing. She is the imperfect Eden where impulses prevail and thoughts run freely. The surrounding figures are manifestations of her unfettered mind, primal creatures, pitiful ghosts and human dummies. Unquiet Slumber is a challenge to the rules and boundaries of the conscious world; it is simply a place where the mind can freely experience impulse and wild abandon.

Shoebox L.A. last show was at the Little Tokyo Galleria. “It was great fun and the artist did work that was inspired by mall architecture,” Evans said.

A New Gallery in Los Angeles...

2011-08-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Hoping to see you all at ShoeboxLA, a new gallery project I started with fellow artist Sophia Allison. We launch on Sept. 17 with Amy Maloof at the Little Tokyo Galleria, my favorite mall in Los Angeles. We'll be on the second floor from 4-7pm. There's free parking with validation, a karaoke place, video arcade, sushi, a Hello Kitty store and the best darn Japanese supermarket ever!

ShoeboxLA presents Amy Maloof's Grave Architecture
Saturday, Sept. 17 from 4-7pm
Little Tokyo Galleria
333 S. Alameda St. (at 3rd)
Los Angeles, CA 90013

We'll be doing lots of monthly, one day events that feature really great artists doing site-specific stuff especially for us. Nice. It's our labor of love and we really hope to see you there. Visit us on Facebook, check out our custom made videos on the YouTube or simply visit our blog at http://www.shoeboxla.blogspot.com/ to keep yourself up to date as to our whereabouts.

Good Things Still Come in the Mail...

2011-07-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

This came in the mail from artist Laura Sharp Wilson. German Siamese twins...

My New Friend

2011-06-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Me with my new Kim Tucker!

Tagging for the Lord: Hollywood & Mariposa

2011-06-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Best Mural Ever at Hollywood & Normandie!

2011-06-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Update (June 21): The jerks painted over my favorite mural...It's gone...What's the point in living now?

A few years back the LA Weekly ran a contest and this mural was voted among the worst in LA...I'm not seeing it, but what do I know? What I do know is this mural (and new wave architectural gem) is located up my street in beautiful Little Armenia/Thai Town/East Hollywood/Los Feliz adjacent/Shitsville. I bought toilet paper there once.

New Jersey is for Lovers: Robert McCormack

2011-05-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

Anyone know where Teaneck, NJ is? I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure it's sandwiched between Cheesequake and Nutley. Robert McCormack is somewhere in New Jersey but he should be in Hollywood, Southern California. He'd hate it here, but I'd have someone to have lunch with and make fun of the lame-ass, idiot actorers who inhabit this shittin' town. We'd go thrift shopping and read porn mags at Circus of Books. He'd take Scientology I.Q. tests while I look for has-been stars shopping for fashions at Ross Dress-For-Less.

Robert McCormack makes art that reminds me of the men my father used to drink with. They lived on our block and were always drunk. Their sons were mean dirt-bags and their daughters were lovely Breck girls who sat around putting mascara and rouge on while listening to the Eagles. I remember one summer our neighbor's house burned down and one of the daughters cried 'cause all her makeup was destroyed in the fire. I don't drink now but I can't help but feel tipsy when I look at Robert's stuff. He makes a lot of work and it's all different and all good. I like artists who don't care about every single thing looking all the same but who know what they're doing and are not afraid to reach out and bad touch you.

Robert has a art show at Blast Gallery in Teaneck. Figure out how to get there. I'm guessing you'd have to get on the New Jersey Transit and look for all the dirty birds getting off at Teaneck to attend his opening on June 4. Buy something, dear, and send it to your grandma:

Nothing's Natural

June 4–July 5, 2011

Opening reception June 4, 6-9 pm

http://www.blastgallery.com/

All About Small: Kim Tucker

2011-05-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

I love Kim Tucker's work. She's prolific and a nice person and loves Dolly Parton and probably should be art-world famous by now and her studio is just up the street from me. I always imagine I'm going to visit her with cash in my pocket and I'll come home with a wicked little Kim Tucker. She always let's me over and I never have cash and I'm always knocked out by her heartbreaking sculptures. I love heartbreaking art so when I see it I get all funny. Kinda funny bad and funny good. Kim's work is totally funny good/funny bad. Funny good because they're fucking funny and funny bad because her outcast numskulls call out for hugs they're never gonna get.

When I was at her studio a couple of months back I spotted a little gem that almost made me cry. I've been thinking about it ever since. It's small and there's yellow . I don't even know the title.

Kim's having a show at L2Kontemporary in Chinatown May 28-June 25 called Loudmouth Ghosts and Reckless Sweethearts. There's a reception on Saturday May 28 from 7-10pm. Meet me there, ok? www.L2kontemporary.com

Super Friend Blog #1: Craftivore

2011-05-05T10:49:00.001-07:00

I love Craftivore. Not because it's my friend Misa Erder's blog...But...Wait...I do love it because it's Misa Erder's blog! I also love it because for about a week, 3 years ago, I thought I could knit. I bought needles, some yarn and called a friend to teach me. She graciously sat down for about an hour and did her best Annie Sullivan to my Helen Keller. Me and knitting lasted about...One hour. My brain could not grasp whatever it was I thought would be the easiest thing in the world.

Misa and I shared a studio in the Meatpacking District of New York Fuckin' City a few years back when that area stunk of many things, differently than what it stinks of now. We sure had fun and Misa made some crazy sculptures she would cut, sew, hang and scatter around her little cubicle space.

Craftivore is the perfect blog for the closet knitter. I'll never knit and I'm ok with that. When I want to see what Misa is doing, I visit her blog and it makes me happy to know she's making great creations and seriously loving it. She sure is talented. I also love how she hangs her creations on bushes to take pictures. I wish I lived in a place that required fingerless winter gloves or Joseph Albers scarves.

www.craftivore.blogspot.com

Cries & Whispers at Sam Lee Gallery - April 23

2011-04-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Sam Lee and I curated this show which opens Saturday, April 23. It's been a great pleasure to work with Sam and to bring artists I've been thinking about to his space, in a true collaborative venture. It is also a great honor to have such talented artists be part of the show:

Cries & Whispers
April 23 – June 4, 2011
Reception for the Artists: Saturday, April 23, 6 – 9 pm
990 N. Hill St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(323) 227-0275

www.samleegallery.com

Los Angeles, CA - Sam Lee Gallery and co-curator Paul W. Evans are pleased to present Cries & Whispers, a group exhibition of 15 diverse artists whose practice centers on abstraction. Included in the exhibition are Jakob Christmas, William Conger, Jeff Gambill, Glenn Goldberg, Joanne Greenbaum, Hadley Holliday, Andy Kolar, Andrew Masullo, Douglas Melini, Robin Mitchell, John Pearson, Carl Smith, Andrew Spence, Misato Suzuki, and Laura Sharp Wilson. The gallery will host a reception for the artists on Saturday, April 23, from 6 to 9 pm.

What makes painting a cry and what makes painting a whisper? Or could a painting be both? Cries and Whispers—not a survey show by any means—probes these questions and looks at abstraction from a multi-faceted perspective, exploring the different ways in which visual devices are employed. The utilization of line, color, content and form is paramount. Each artist brings his or her own signature method to this genre through various strategies and ideas. Such notions intersect throughout the show, creating an engaging dialogue among the pieces. These works honor the solitary journey of art-making and the longing for communication.

Jakob Christmas distills imagery to its essence by making straightforward paintings that strip away the superfluous to focus on the mystery of meaning.

William Conger has devoted himself to the exploration of form and matter with the subconscious, utilizing the techniques of pure abstraction to convey psychological metaphors.

Jeff Gambill’s Zen-like paintings stem from the intangible and the peripheral, gently conveying the transience of such moments as a fading memory or a reflection in a pond.

Glenn Goldberg’s pointillist, floral shapes dance in a Morse-like code of brightly-colored voltage on the picture plane.

Joanne Greenbaum’s wild, witty and wicked paintings celebrate the self at its idiosyncratic best, unabashedly pushing the limits of painting with her signature style of frenetic lines and psychedelic colors.

Hadley Holliday uses graceful gestures and sophisticated palette to create light washes on canvas that are at once quiet and grand.

Andy Kolar’s intimate, painted cardboard floor sculptures elevate banal materials and lure the viewer with sensual colors and biomorphic, Play-Doh-like shapes.

Andrew Masullo’s humorous works wink at the viewer but are unapologetically steeped in painting’s rich history, wildly combining brash color with the artist’s library of iconic forms.

Douglas Melini’s hard edge paintings are graphic, deliberate and alluring where colors and shapes are used for psychologically dizzying effect.

Robin Mitchell’s intricate gouache paintings on paper emanate great energy and light; they explode with radiant forms that are abstract yet referential, metaphorically portraying the artist as the illuminated self.

John Pearson’s seductive, painted sculptures/sculptural paintings convey a serene beauty while touching on the fragility of existence through his careful employment of color and line.

Carl Smith combines intricate lines with soft colors to create spiraling diagrams that make the unknown immanent and map the quest for spirtual spaces.

Andrew Spence’s sly, hard edge paintings question traditional perceptions of perspective by challenging 2 dimensional surfaces with 3 dimensional illusions.

Misato Suzuki’s acrylic paintings depict a world that oscillates between the representational and the abstract, in which repetition of lines and shapes exude an appearance of complexity and expansion.

Laura Sharp Wilson crafts complex, apocalyptic visions by interweaving cartoon, calligraphy and cartography into an explosive mixture of personal landscapes and dark narratives.

www.samleegallery.com

Karen Frimkess Wolff and Me at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, April 16

2011-04-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Karen Frimkess Wolff invited me to participate in her vision for the ICI's series 100/10∆4 (100 days, 10 visions). We're both excited and hope to see you there.

A reception and curator’s talk will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 4 to 6 p.m.

For this fourth iteration of the Institute of Cultural Inquiry’s ambitious project 100/10 (100 days/10 visions), curator-artist Karen Frimkess Wolff and artist Paul W. Evans invite us to “Consider A Path (passing fragments, as much as human understanding may grasp).” Enriched by the ICI’s extensive collection of books and ephemera for the blind and inflected by Frimkess Wolff’s experience teaching art and art history at the Los Angeles Braille Institute, the pair presents a protean, phantasmic landscape of sight, touch, and sound that traverses personal intention and public participations, knowing and acting, thinking and willing. How do we apprehend and convey ourselves through worlds, real and imagined?

From a single sheet of iron-on eyes once destined for foster-child dolls, Evans has multiplied the eye images, lifting them onto structures that evoke seeing and seers, scenarios of watchers and watching. Multiple calls to myriad visions—a dense tangle of potential sight lines—confound the classic white gallery space’s imperative of legible display. A laboratory space probes visitors’ sense of touch against the resonant backdrop of Frimkess Wolff’s interactive bell lines.

Beginning January 31, 2011 and running for 100 consecutive business days, the ICI site and its archives will undergo a multitude of interpretations. ICI has invited ten researchers—artists, writers, and visual thinkers—to set into play ideas that blend contemporary visual practices with aspects of the ICI Earth Cabinet, Ephemera Kabinett, and a 2,500+ volume library along with the nooks and crannies of the eclectic, historically layered ICI space. With just two weeks to conceive of their vision, curators will work in a designated laboratory modeled upon the transparent workspaces of 19th-century natural history museums. Each curator will conceptualize a new trajectory through ICI’s body, transforming the ICI display by the end of their residency.

Visits to the ICI space are by reservation (available on the website). A $5 fee is suggested but not required.

Karen Frimkess Wolff is a Los Angeles-born artist whose drawings, constructions, and sound installations have been exhibited extensively in California, throughout the United States and in Germany. A recipient of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Grant in 1991, she was also one of thirty Americans nominated for the 1976 Paris Bienniele. Recent shows include a solo show at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, Minnesota; a solo show at Happy, Los Feliz, California; current representation at District Art Gallery, Park City, Utah; a public installation in West Hollywood and at the American Jewish University (both collaborations with Dori Atlantis). She received her Bachelor’s in Painting and Drawing from University of California, Los Angeles, and her Master’s in Art History from California State University, Northridge.

Paul W. Evans [www.pweny.com] has exhibited widely throughout the United States and in England at such venues as Artists Space, New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Gasworks, London. Re-placing found images in specific painted environments, his work explores the tension between originality and reproduction, the infinitely reproducible photocopy and the singular act of painting. He received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Since 1991, the Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) has explored the role of visuality in imagining, perpetrating and perpetuating the intangible and ever-changing phenomena known as “culture.” The ICI sponsors displays, symposia, workshops, performances and provides numerous opportunities for both the artist fabricator and the curious spectator of visual culture. The non-profit organization also maintains an active publishing program, releasing the critically acclaimed Searching for Sebald: Photography After W. G. Sebald in 2007. 100/10 is the first project conceptualized within the 2011-12 ICI study theme of Phantom Worlds.

(310) 273-7181
info@culturalinquiry.org
www.culturalinquiry.org

Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Benefit: April 17

2011-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Come and support CFAE and their great mission! I'll have this piece up for auction. Check out the Center's great space and landmark building in beautiful Eagle Rock and get your hands on some art:

www.centerartseaglerock.org

SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 23 at SAM LEE GALLERY

2011-03-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

Sam Lee and I curated this show which opens April 23. Please come!
www.samleegallery.com

Misguided Shopper Alert: VLAD the Retailer

2011-02-22T11:59:00.001-08:00

My favorite store for nothing and everything is Vlad the Retailer on Melrose, just west of Heliotrope (Wait! Vlad moved to Heliotrope, see below). I'm not saying you should drop by there after Scoops, but really, there needs to be more to do on Heliotrope than Scoops and here is your golden opportunity to break free from the shackles of Brown Bread and Mayor Tai Kim.

I could ramble on about the benefits of Vlad but just go there and see for yourself...Vlad, himself, is uncommonly smart. He'll promise you anything you ask for and you'll most likely never get it but this is the land of false promises and Vlad is one of those business owners who doesn't run away when you ask a stupid question. He has art too...Most of it sucks but some of it is really good. Ask him to show you the soon-to-be-has-been Click Mort. His stuff is so good it hurts.

I love you Vlad.

Vlad The Retailer
704 Heliotrope Dr.
Los Angeles, CA
90029
(323) 668-0177

Art in North Hollywood

2011-02-11T10:48:00.001-08:00

Black is Beautiful: Results

2011-02-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

I just received word from Sophia Allison the piece she made for me is done and ready. This is part of her Art for $25 Project that I gleefully submitted to. I'm happy to report the reaction and participation to the project has been overwhelming. (There's even talk of an exhibit documenting the process.) All I know is I'm really excited to get my hands on this small wonder.

All About Small: Joshua Levine

2011-01-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

Seriously small and seriously good limited edition, bronze figurines by Joshua Levine are now on-view at Koplin Del Rio Gallery in sunny Culver City. His mutant trophies have an almost ancient feel that contradicts their pint-sized stature. Some are prancing, cocky showoffs, others proudly stand firm while many simply suffer quietly. One hitchhiking freak almost steals the show. Get over to the west side and see which little guy gives you the time of day. When it happens, take it home and play nice. They make perfect Valentine's Day gifts. Through February 19!

Again?

2011-01-20T12:23:00.001-08:00

Sunset near Normandie...If the need ever strikes you.

Coming Soon - All About Small: Violet

2011-01-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

All About Small: Sophia Allison

2011-01-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

Just gave my 25 smackers to artist Sophia Allison's new project. Can't wait to see what I get. Sophia's a sculptor who explores, exploits and explodes "paper". Check her out, send her $25 and get some art:

sophiaallison.blogspot.com

Los Angeles: Balloonland

2011-01-11T09:44:00.001-08:00

all pics by me except first and last by Michael Slimmer. Thanks Slimmer!

Sept. Study

2010-09-20T09:50:00.001-07:00

July Painting #3

2010-07-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

July Painting #2

2010-07-02T11:06:00.001-07:00

July Painting

2010-07-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Steppin' Out at Artillery & Ammo, Sat. April 10

2010-04-06T13:26:00.001-07:00

Small March Dark

2010-03-13T10:11:00.001-08:00

More PDA Show

2010-03-07T23:11:00.001-08:00

My piece for the PDA Show, alongside elin o'hara slavick and Paul Valadez:

http://www.thepdashow.blogspot.com/

Check out PDA artist Michael Lease's blog too:

http://michaelklease.blogspot.com/

Yellow

2010-03-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

Dark March Painting

2010-03-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

PDA Piece #2 - Entitlement Takes a Holiday...

2010-01-25T21:51:00.000-08:00

Artists respond to the detention of a same sex couple for showing affection on LDS property and or the idea of public display of affection. The exhibition will open Friday February 19 and run through March 14 in Salt Lake City at NoBrow Coffee, the Utah Pride Center, Ken Sanders Rare Books, Alchemy Coffee and Kayo Gallery:
http://www.thepdashow.blogspot.com/

PDA Show Piece

2010-01-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

Hope Springs Eternal (Gay is Good) is my gut reaction to the curatorial proposal suggested by artist Laura Sharp Wilson for The PDA Show (http://www.thepdashow.blogspot.com/), opening in various locations in Salt Lake City, UT on February 19. Simply, it’s my visual desire for gays and lesbians to be completely accepted for no good reason and to live simply and honorably anywhere. “Gay is Good” is a slogan created by Frank Kameny, one of the first modern-day American gay activists, whose groundbreaking and tireless work should be better known to us all:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Kameny

December Drawing

2009-12-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Late September Drawings

2009-09-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

A Painting for Monday

2009-09-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

3 September Drawings

2009-09-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

September Study for PDA Show

2009-09-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

Quick August Drawing

2009-08-28T20:56:00.001-07:00

New Blue August Painting

2009-08-20T14:55:00.001-07:00

August Painting 2

2009-08-18T11:13:00.001-07:00

August Painting

2009-08-03T11:39:00.001-07:00

Large July Painting

2009-07-22T13:33:00.001-07:00

July Paintings

2009-07-13T20:59:00.001-07:00

July Drawings

2009-07-12T19:45:00.001-07:00