In her paintings and sculptures, Schulnik’s lurching, world-weary figures mingle with feline memorials among landscapes teeming with over-ripe blooms – densely painted and hand-molded visions entreating woolgathering and sympathy. “My fixation on these characters is not intended to exploit deficiencies, but to find valor in adversity. Hobo clowns, misshapen animals or alien beasts, they are typically built upon a human frame, drawing from film and dance. I like to blend earthly fact, blatant fiction and lots of oil paint to form a stage of tragedy, farce, and raw, ominous beauty -- at times capturing otherworld buffoonery, and other times presenting a simple earthly dignified moment.”
Video for "Ready, Able," from Grizzly Bear's 'Veckatimest.' Directed by Allison Schulnik.
Old friend, NYC fashion photographer Bradford Gregory, emailed over a few photos he's been shooting of the Occupy Wall Street protest that's been doing on there in NYC... These young people on Wall Street are giving voice to many of the problems that working people in America have been confronting over the last several years.
SF based Kim Cogan has been oil painting SF street scenes for years. Now, for his 3rd solo show at the NYC gallery, Gallery Henoch, he also explores city scenes of that city as well. Amazing skill with oil paint and mood. The show opens tonight (6-8pm) and runs through Oct 15th.
On the way to work, I recall along the way passing by a beautiful cherry red bicycle locked outside a store. Having passed by the bicycle twice a day to and from work, I assumed the owner lived or worked nearby and didn't pay much attention. It wasn't until one day I noticed that the seat had been stolen and a week later, the wheels were missing. Over a time period of a month, the thieves much like vultures, slowly picked away at the remains piece by piece until all that was left was a dented, rusty old frame which remained for several years chained to the parking meter.
Whenever I pass by bicycles with handlebars missing, or oddly warping wheels that look as though it is melting to the ground like from a Salvador Dali painting, I have often thought to document the slow transformation I had previously observed. I found plenty of subjects to choose from while walking around the streets of New York. -Kim Cogan
This Los Angeles, a gallery from LA, will be presenting an exhibition of work by a group of hardworking artists whose work we admire, and they're having a party at ACE Hotel as well - open to everyone, free and 21+ with some booze provided. ~Check the FaceingBook
Hope Street Wednesday, 27 July 2011 /// Written by Trippe
David Shillinglaw who blogs it up for Fecal Face in London from time to time was State side recently and did a little mural work while he was in Brooklyn.
San Francisco based Mario Martinez (Mars-1) is in NYC preparing for his show Afterglow which opens tomorrow (5/26) at Jonathan Levine Gallery. Looking good. If you're in that part of the world, get to the show. It's going to be amazing.
Mars-1 working on a massive painting... Remember this one?!
Undercity Monday, 21 March 2011 /// Written by Trippe
This is a film I made after some adventures underground with Steve Duncan (undercity.org) last summer. -Andrew Wonder
Andrew McClintock of Ever Gold Gallery here in San Francisco was out in NYC last week for the art fair maddness and has been blogging it up for Fecal Face. This round he covers the Volta Fair. Below are his words and photos.
Andrew McClintock of Ever Gold Gallery here in San Francisco was out in NYC last week for the art fair maddness and will be blogging up his experience here on Fecal Face over the next few days. We would have gotten his posts up earlier, but we were in mid gallery move.
Below are his words and photos from the Armory Show preview last Thursday in two parts. Below is Part 2 and we'll post part 3 tomorrow.
Andrew McClintock of Ever Gold Gallery here in San Francisco was out in NYC last week for the art fair maddness and will be blogging up his experience here on Fecal Face over the next few days. We would have gotten his posts up earlier, but we were in mid gallery move... Below are his words and photos.
For you NYC peoples, Max Fish will stay open for another year after the landlord raised the rent as the neighborhood fancy-fies... We enjoyed quite a few drinks there many years back. That neighborhood has gotten way silly though. It's like the Gas Light dist in San Diego... In any case, Max Fish is a good jam. Here's to another year (pretend drink raised in the air).
Manuel visits the Brooklyn studio of street artist (also w/ intense oil painting skills) Dan Witz whose show, WTF, just opened on Saturday @White Walls here in SF. ~CHECK IT.
On a calm day in New York City, hundreds of pigeons can be seen flying together over the rooftops of certain neighborhoods - a tornado of birds. For many who participate in the sport it is a salvation from daily life and the distractions of the streets. To me it is a remnant of a city’s past and a culturally dynamic sport. Some of the things my photos focus on are the relationship between these men and their animals, the aesthetic of the birds and the coops, and the act of flying the birds.
Many Thanks to Black, Papo, Soto, Junior, Vinnie, Pedro, Gill, Chase, JC, luis and Sugar
“One morning I woke up and found my favorite pigeon, Julius, had died. I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honor him. I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher. I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand and he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard.” -Mike Tyson
I've been a fan of his art since the early 00's. I remember the first drawings I saw; characters resembling something from Jim Hanson or The Never Ending Story rendered on a plain sheets of printer paper, tacked to the wall, and very reasonably priced. His drawings are kitschy and illustrative often rendered using some sort of low-end paper and a fresh set of sharpened colored pencils. The images are recognizable yet distorted, but not abstracting the themes within his whimsical portraits. If you're around our age, a Grimlin riding a bicycle is nostalgic and comical. He is obviously an 80's baby considering the imagery and themes within his work and I see traces of many characters - Muppet Babies, Darth Vader, E.T., Falcore, etc. - that molded my childhood. Hmm, maybe that is why I am so drawn to his art? He recently opened a solo show at Giant Robot New York. Here's some pics from that. Often mimicked but never matched, presenting new work by a notorious Fecal friend, Matt Furie. -Julian Duron
Here's some words Matt sent me regarding his new work:
"for the show i made a series of characters. Themes include mythology, anthropomorphism, star wars, underwater life, the gay community, sports, gothic chicks, exercise, food, medieval weapons, soul caliber, video games, muppets, in-n-out, latino E.T., ducks, and horror movie references."
Benjamin Edmiston Thursday, 22 July 2010 /// Written by Julian Duron
When I first encountered Brooklyn artist Benjamin Edmiston's work it was truly refreshing. I'm immediately drawn to his use of flattened space, characters, finish and palette. I notice similarities of my own studio practice within the paintings so I also feel a connection to the artist's process.
Whether or not it is intentional, I also notice traces from some of my other favorite artists like Matthew Palladino, Richard Coleman and a few others, but Ben's work is definitely unique in its own right. The paintings are stunning in person and his latest collection at The Infantree titled, Talking Shop, marks his first solo exhibition.
I don't think at this point it needs to be written since the last update to Fecal Face was a long time ago, but...
I, John Trippe, have put this baby Fecal Face to bed. I'm now focusing my efforts on running ECommerce at DLX which I'm very excited about... I guess you can't take skateboarding out of a skateboarder.
It was a great 15 years, and most of that effort can still be found within the site. Click around. There's a lot of content to explore.
Hit me up if you have any ECommerce related questions. - trippe.io
I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.
SF skateboarding icons Jake Phelps, Mickey Reyes, and Tommy Guerrero with the 3 SF Giants World Series Trophies
When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.
Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading
"Six Degrees" opens tonight, Friday Jan 16th (7-10pm) at FFDG in San Francisco. ~Group show featuring: Brett Amory, John Felix Arnold III, Mario Ayala, Mariel Bayona, Ryan Beavers, Jud Bergeron, Chris Burch, Ryan De La Hoz, Martin Machado, Jess Mudgett, Meryl Pataky, Lucien Shapiro, Mike Shine, Minka Sicklinger, Nicomi Nix Turner, and Alex Ziv.
"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on
As we work on our changes, we're leaving Squarespace and coming back to the old server. Updates are en route.
The content that was on the site between May '14 and today is history... Whatever, wasn't interesting anyway. All the good stuff from the last 10 years is here anyway.
Opening tonight, Friday May 23rd (7-10pm) at Park Life in the Inner Richmond (220 Clement St) is Again Home Again featuring works from the duo Jacob Mcgraw-Mikelson & Rachell Sumpter who split time living in Sacramento and a tiny island at the top of Pudget Sound with their children.
Jacob Magraw will be showing embroidery pieces on cloth along with painted, gouache works on paper --- Rachell Sumpter paints scenes of colored splendor dropped into scenes of desolate wilderness. ~show details
NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?
The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.
Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON
Los Angeles based Alison Blickle who showed here in San Francisco at Eleanor Harwood last year (PHOTOS) recently showed new paintings in New York at Kravets Wehby Gallery. Lovely works.
We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...
If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.
Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.
Nate Milton emailed over this great short Gator Skater which is a follow-up to his Dog Skateboard he emailed to us back in 2011... Any relation to this Gator Skater?
Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.
In a filmmaker's thinking, we wish more videos were done in this style. Too much editing and music with a lacking in actual content. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.
FFDG is pleased to announce an exclusive online show with San Francisco based Ferris Plock opening on Friday, April 25th (12pm Pacific Time) featuring 5 new medium sized acrylic paintings on wood.
Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.
San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.
Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.
Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.
The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.
With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding
I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle
While walking our way across San Francisco on Saturday we swung through the opening receptions for Kirk Maxson and Alexis Mackenzie at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in the Mission.
Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.
Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.
For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.
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