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We are huge fans of photographer and publisher Rankin, more so now that he has a gallery in the heart of our fair city that we take every opportunity to visit. Known worldwide for his provocative images and his first magazine Dazed & Confused, Rankin is launching a new biannual glossy entitled The Hunger. Each [...]
Each December, we make a roadmap of things we plan on accomplishing in the year to come. And this year, due to the humiliation we cause ourselves and others when we attempt to take a photo (we’re better with words than pictures), we’ve decided it’s time to really learn how to take a decent shot. We plan on doing this in a few ways: 1. Make more money so we can buy a camera that didn’t come from the check-out aisle at Sam’s Club. 2: Take some type of photography class. 3. Harass someone who knows what they’re doing for real world experience running around town with a camera.
Where do we plan on finding people to harass, you ask? On the finalist roster of Smashbox Studios’s 16th annual Face Off photography contest, of course.
The L.A.-based creative studio has been asking budding photographers and videographers to submit their work all autumn long. And on Thursday night, they’re hosting a soiree at their West Hollywood location showcasing 50 photo and 25 video finalists whose work is in the running to be showcased at Photo LA before traveling to the W Hotel Los Angeles — Westwood.
Judging the crop of finalists are the likes of Quixote Studios creative director Dee deLara, artist Kimberly Brooks and Complex magazine photo director Greg Garry, as well as partygoers who will get to interactively choose their favorite works.
Thursday’s opening night reception kicks off with a judging panel discussion from 7 to 8 p.m. followed by the sounds of DJ Jake Ross, a photobooth and free booze courtesy of Kanon Organic Vodka. And of course, there will be some pretty pictures on hand, too (we’ll be taking mental notes).
Can’t make it? The finalist exhibition runs through January 12.
We fully expect to develop our shutterbug skills in time for next year’s contest. Or, probably more realistically, endure slightly less embarrassment from poor-quality Facebook photos in 2012.
Thursday, December 8. 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. panel discussion, party 8 p.m. Smashbox Studios. 1011 N Fuller Ave., West Hollywood. smashboxstudios.com. RSVP here.
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Photo: “LA River” by Garret Suhrie, winner of last year’s Face Off Photo Assistants Choice Prize.
Fashion photographer Rankin and provocative Young British Artist Damien Hirst have teamed up on a forthcoming photo exhibit entitled “Myths, Monsters & Legends.” The project explores mythological creatures such as Cerberus, a three-headed hound that guards the Underworld and prevents others from escaping, and Medusa, who famously turns onlookers to stone. In the exhibit, launching [...]
This Thursday, Mono LA Gallery in Venice Beach is hosting an opening night reception for surf artist Heather Brown. The artist, whose vividly colored paintings make us want to hop on a plane for the big island right this second, is a California transplant to Oahu who derives inspiration from her surroundings. At the exhibit, [...]
My relationship with punctuality is a rocky one. Case in point: while in Vegas covering Magic last week, I showed up for a Black Keys concert just in time for the middle of the after party. Today, I was fifteen minutes late for a meeting. This morning, I had to push a conference call back an hour because it, uh, took me longer than expected to respond to my alarm. You get the idea.
Which is why I’m befuddled as to why last evening, after arriving right on time for the opening of the Nomad Two Worlds art exhibit in Santa Monica, I somehow managed to miss Barbara Streisand’s arrival (which I’d kind of been looking forward to all day).
I was able to view the exhibit’s collection of massive collaborative paintings by fashion photographer Russell James and Australian, Haitian and American Indian artists. I was able to hit up the bar — twice — and enjoy a small mushroom tart topped with a green-hued mousse of some sort. I had time to marvel at the antique Czechoslovakian bead work that adorned a James-shot portrait of Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas. I had no problem waiting for a friend by the bathroom. And I even had time to absorb styling details of the various tribal-themed shoes, scarves and accessories currently on sale at ARCADE in West Hollywood in honor of the exhibit.
But I couldn’t manage to correctly time my departure, thus missing Funny Girl herself, Barbara Streisand.
It seems that sometime between the didgeridoo stylings of Wayne Nelson and his Intertribal Bird Singers and my first bite of an all-beef patty from In-N-Out (which is where I was rushing to be when I left the party, obviously), Babs arrived to support her good friend Donna Karan, who hosted last evening’s soiree (while dodging anti-fur activists who called her a “bunny butcher” from just outside the front door).
So yeah, I saw some art, enjoyed a burger but missed an icon. Luckily, I can gaze at the above photo of Donna, Russell James and Babs to remind me just how important timing really is (and that the lure of good fast food is the devil in disguise).
Catch the exhibit for yourselves, sans Streisand as well: Pier 59 Studios West, 2415 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. Entrance is free 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Photo by Alexandra Lyman, Wireimage.
Those not partying it up in Miami for Art Basel this week needn’t feel left out. It seems that PAPER Magazine has entered into a content share agreement with AOL on artbasel.aol.com, a portal that will cover the week in full force.
Expect the usual coverage from these types of events: Parties, private and public gallery showings, street style galleries and interviews with notable scenesters and gallerists. And for the particularly well connected who happen to be down south this week, Pharrell Williams and Shepard Fairey will host PAPER‘s opening night bash tomorrow evening — the coverage of will, no doubt, be on the site.
The artbasel.aol.com microsite is minimalist and well designed with live-streaming social media updates and blog posts. Looks pretty cool. We’ll be checking it throughout the week to see what we’re missing.
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By the time you reach your mid-twenties, it is fairly unacceptable to have frameless posters tacked up on your wall (lets be honest — that is fairly unacceptable in college as well, though we won’t hold it against anyone. At least to their face). Unfortunately it’s hard to budget for a Hirst and the framed art aisle at Bed Bath and Beyond is just gross.
Enter ExhibitionA.com, a cool new website that features exclusive editions from important contemporary artists including Richard Phillips, Nate Lowman and Terrence Koh for $500 and under. Unheard of pricing for such big names.
The site was started by Bill Powers, who you may know as Purple Magazine’s current editor-at-large, former EIC of BlackBook and a judge on Bravo’s Work of Art. Powers also owns Half Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and happens to be married to darling Chicago-born designer Cynthia Rowley, who is also involved in the site.
According to a statement, the site aims to “foster the next generation of collectors — the young and culturally-savvy who are interested in contemporary art and collecting but hereto have had no accessible options.”
We are currently figuring out options on how to pay for both a visit to the dentist and new brake pads on our car. But we love pretty things —especially ones painted by Richard Phillips that we could totally envision hanging in our otherwise dreary stairwell.
Very cool concept. Cavities be damned — we’ll be back to buy as soon as we can.
Photo: Der Bodensee by Richard Phillips, $250. PS to our loved ones that are reading — Chanukah starts in, like, a day. Just FYI.
Fifteen-year-old New Image Art Gallery, run by Marsea Goldberg, is an L.A. institution that has shown some of the most interesting artists around (Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Neckface, Bäst and Kime Buzzelli among them). It specializes in street, skate, fine art and pieces with a surf- inspired bent (it’s no surprise that Marsea herself is [...]
Last night, my lady and I decided to peep the action at Downtown’s long-running Art Walk and had a blast. The walk-able fest happens every second Thursday of the month in the city’s revamped core — and the streets along Gallery Row are jammed with art students, fixed gear denizens (that look set for Crank [...]
The opening reception for Subliminal Projects’ new group exhibition, Pattern Recognition — which featured works by Seonna Hong, Nikki McClure, Richard Colman, Dalek, and Souther Salazar — was packed with art-savvy Angelinos and hipsters of all stripes. (For the uninitiated, Subliminal Projects is operated by street artist-turned-art world phenom Shepard Fairey — and it always [...]
