All posts by butterfly

Los Angeles: Josie Morway – Remediators

May 5, 2019 butterfly

In parallel to the Lucky 13 Group show (covered), Corey Helford Gallery is also hosting a solo exhibit ‘The Remediators’ by Boston-based painter and designer Josie Morway. Combining technical influences of oil paintings from Dutch Masters and religious icon paintings with hyper-modern color and design elements, Josie Morway portrays surrealist paintings of wildlife and flora that are both politically charged and ethereally poetic.
Inspired by research into processes of bioremediation – by which plants, animals or microorganisms break down contamination in soil or water, the artworks present a new system by which nature might respond to crisis.

Josie Morway – Remediators
Until 11 May 2019
Corey Helford Gallery
571 S Anderson St
Los Angeles, CA 90033

Los Angeles, Shows

Los Angeles: Ben Frost – Pure Sugar

May 1, 2019 butterfly

Australian artist, Ben Frost is currently featured at Corey Helford Gallery with an explosive exhibition of over 70 new works, entitled “Pure Sugar.”

Ben Frost, who is coming off a recent collaboration with fashion designer Jeremy Scott for his Winter 2018 Moschino line, is known for his kaleidoscopic Pop Art, mash-up paintings that take inspiration from areas as diverse as graffiti, collage, photo-realism and sign-writing. “PURE SUGAR” is a playful and often confronting exploration of the nature of “excess” within our contemporary society. Using colorful and dynamic pop art motifs, the artist presents a series of satirical and provocative observations of western culture that is as sour as it is sweet.

The exhibition consists of over 70 new paintings, from large scale acrylic and spray paint stencils on canvas, to tiny hand painted “found” packages such as McDonald fry boxes, pharmaceutical packages, fashion bags and cereal boxes. Both a celebration and critique of consumerist culture, Frost’s work is paradoxically a love/hate affair with the colors, icons and logos of the advertising world that we are obsessively immersed within.

Ben Frost – Pure Sugar
Until 11 May 2019
Corey Helford Gallery
571 S Anderson St
Los Angeles, CA 90033

Uncategorized

London: Banksy new artwork supporting Extinction Rebellion protests

April 26, 2019 butterfly

A new Banksy mural appeared in Marble Arch, London to mark the end of the 10 days of climate change protests by Extinction Rebellion activists.

The environmental artwork sprung up on a wall in Marble Arch around the time the demonstrators gathered nearby to celebrate the closing of their spell of disruption in central London. On Sunday Great Thunberg addressed the crowd and the Parliament on climate change issues. Massive Attack also played a concert on the Extinction Rebellion stage.

Although unconfirmed yet, the artwork bears all the marks (location, style and message). The multilayered stencil of the little girl has been used previously by Banksy in his Walled Off Hotel (covered here)

In her hand she is holding the logo of the Extinction Rebellion activists.

A slogan next to her reads “From This Moment Despair Ends And Tactics Begin”.

Los Angeles, Shows

Los Angeles: Lucky 13 at Corey Helford Gallery

April 23, 2019 butterfly

Corey Helford Gallery is currently celebrating its 13th Anniversary with a group show co-curated by graffiti artist Kelly (RISK) Graval : LUCKY 13- FINE ART OF STREET & GRAFFITI

When Corey Helford opened in Culver City in 2006 and street art and graffiti was still seen as marginalized or criminal back then. But they continued to champion and support artists from the urban art movement and pop surrealism that went to become internationally acclaimed artists.

Participating artists include: Ron English, Miss Van, Buff Monster, D* Face, Eine , Hush , Risk , Pure Evil , Herakut , Logan Hicks, Okuda San Miguel , Lauren YS , Ramiro Davaro-Comas , Jillian Evelyn , Angela Ho “Ahoy” , Bisco Smith , seenaeme , La Belle Epoque , Faith XLVII , Cryptik , Jecks , Aspire , Zlism , Senna , Hoxxoh , Estevan Oriol , Defer , Bio Tats Cru , Sel , CES , TAZ , Candybird , Caratoes , Mauy , Messy Desk , Starman , Bates , RISK x HOXXOH , Kwest , Barlo , Simple Bao , Seen , Og Abel , Quick , Skeme , Sever , kaNO

View full set of pics here

Lucky 13 Anniversary
Until 11 May 2019
Corey Helford Gallery
571 S Anderson St
Los Angeles, CA 90033

Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Takashi Murakami – GYATEI2

April 7, 2019 butterfly

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is currently showing a new exhibition entitled GYATEI² at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.

The exhibition title comes from the Buddhist Hannya Shingyo (Heart Sutra), an incantation often chanted by Zen groups before or after a meditation and translates roughly to “gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, enlightenment, svāhā.”

GYATEI² reveals myriad variations of interconnected imagery, each permutation and combination generating new meaning.

Murakami’s first character, Mr. DOB—a whimsical, sharp-toothed Mickey Mouse–like character—reappears in different forms, as does the ubiquitous rainbow flower.

Elsewhere, images of doorways, graffiti of the word “viral,” and a self-portrait of the artist and his dog are overlaid onto dense graphic patterns.

A Statue of Flower Parent and Child (2019), cast in bronze and covered in gold leaf, stands sixteen feet tall and shows an enormous flower character with its flower offspring. Similarly, the rabbit like Kaikai and three-eyed, smiling Kiki (both 2019) are rendered in cast bronze covered in platinum leaf, the cute yet imposing characters illustrating Murakami’s interest in paradox, as kikikaikai describes something that is dangerous yet appealing.

The seventeen-panel Qinghua (2019) reinterprets a motif originally painted on a vase from the Chinese Yuan Dynasty (c. 1206–1368), whose imagery mingled in Murakami’s memory with childhood trips to the riverside with his father, where fishers would haul enormous carp. At almost eight feet high and fifty-eight feet wide, the image proceeds panel by panel, like an enormous storyboard, or a vase that has been unrolled like a long scroll along the gallery’s walls.