I am breaking all the rules for Sam Lubicz. By that I mean featuring both his collage work and photography IN THE SAME POST. Why? Because they’re both good and because I believe a dialogue exists between the two. Despite being two different modes of expression, Lubicz’s collage work and photographs share a certain playful moodiness that emphasizes the relationship between the two mediums. Like maybe one’s a pug and one’s a schnauzer but they’re both dogs. I love dogs.

UROGENITAL FOLDS

UROGENITAL FOLDS

Pinar Yoldas is a designer, artist, architect, and organic chemistry enthusiast. Her work is a reflection of her interests in neuroscience, evolution, gender studies and science fiction. In her work she explores new materials and new production tools in order to blend conventional media with digital media. I remember seeing these sculpture/organisms (often resembling the female anatomy) at the UCLA Design | Media Arts (both of our alma maters) 2nd Year grad show Exit Strategies. I was significantly and equal parts titillated and fascinated at these creatures, seemingly inanimate yet surreal-y possessing life like qualities. We’re also throwing a fundraiser party for her injuries and medical bills from multiple biking related accidents tonight in Echo Park (come come!). Check out the flyer after the jump!

Pinar’s piece in the show was titled FABULA and contained 17 glass petri dishes, which were at the beginning of this post. There were also kinetic sculptures that caged 6 specimens in the most elegant way. Materials included 6 glass containers, air pumps, various tubings & fittings, a servo motor, latex, polymer clay, LED lights, chemicals.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

And now the details of her party! You can see me & the veejay group Collabo I’m performing in, wee!

Video artist Ben Bigelow is curating an event “Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite” video screening/gallery opening tonight at 7pm (with screenings at 9 and 11pm) @ Synchronicity Gallery in LA: Deep-space excursions that reveal the dark matter of pop culture, absurdist mythologies that transcend into tear jerking dramas…all can be found in “Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite.” This forthcoming show at Synchronicity Space opens on July 31st with a video screening including 19 unique artists. 2-D and 3-D artifacts from the videos will accompany the screening and be on display throughout August. Those looking to travel through a black hole and keep your boots on: look no further. Check out more of his work after the jump.

Forged out of the post apocalyptic wasteland following the Great Tidal Wave, Los Angeles born artist Ben Bigelow seeks to analyze our culture’s reality through bizarre and immersive creations of fantasy. He is currently working on a series that compares different natural disasters to our emotional, cultural and spiritual states. Phantasmagoria exudes out of multimedia installations and videos, where a unique aesthetic follows radical content. Above all the artist is concerned with the immediate experience of art, and what emotional associations this experience lets loose. Having studied video art with Suzie Silver, electronics with Osman Khan, and robotic sculpture with Ken Rindalo, Ben Bigelow is able to realize a concept no matter the challenges. He has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and lives and works in Los Angeles.

Synchronicity Space is pleased to present, “The Sensual World”, opening Saturday July 11th (tomorrow!) at 7pm at Synchronicity Gallery: a celebration of the life & work of Kate Bush curated by Joseph Gillette. For decades, Kate Bush has been considered an icon in music and art, constantly pushing boundaries and defying expectations. Unafraid to branch out experimentally, her music can be as grotesque as it is graceful, showing us that beauty is multi-faceted and mysterious. The selection of artists in this exhibition recreate the eclectic feel of her music, and explore the vivid setting she creates, aiming to bring the user into the Sensual World.

Running until July 25th, Saturday’s opening will kick-off the celebration with a reception for the artists at 7pm and a live musical tribute at 10pm. The next day, Sunday at 8pm: we will be screening of a film written, directed by, and starring Kate Bush along with special interviews, videos, and documentary footage.

Artists include:
Greg Carideo, Eric T. Carlson (who has a spread in our next book, preview here!), Ryan S. Carr, Allegra M. Denton, Katelyn Reece Farstad, Isa Newby Gagarin, Joseph Lunders, Nathan Meagher, Raychel Steinbach

C E R A S O L I  gallery is pleased to present a pair of exhibitions by two artists producing graphically bold works that blur the distinctions between the natural and synthetic worlds: David O’Brien: ‘Explosions in a Mental Sky’ in Gallery One and Tofer Chin: ‘Double Dip’ in Gallery Two.

Opens March 14, 2009, and remains on view through April 15, 2009.  Opening reception is Saturday, March 14, from 6 – 9pm.  

David O’Brien, a Los Angeles based artist who trained as an architect with the legendary Frank Gehry, creates large-scale, highly intellectual ink and color pencil paintings.  O’Brien’s background in architecture is evident within his work, where abstract compositions seem to crystallize into patterns that are ordered with mathematical rigidity while seeming to flow with the serendipity of a constellation or school of fish.  With an interest in cultivating intuition and freedom more than knowledge, O’Brien strives to integrate his own highly personalized, hand crafted language with more universal forms and landscapes.  From a distance, O’Brien’s patterns are expansive, giving the beautiful illusion of a moonscape clustered with geometric stalagmites, astro dust floating through space.  Approaching his work, however, we experience an incremental shift in our perspective, as one pushed for light years through a wormhole to get a closer look at the world and our place in it.  ’Love is in a little crystal,’ O’Brien states, ‘some glowing pixels…’ It’s in the edges of the explosion where O’Brien best reveals us to ourselves.

 Evoking the aesthetics of Op art, Tofer Chin’s ‘Double Dip’ is a continuation of his latest body of work. Focused on sensory perception, he continues to explore ‘a world of electronic psycho sexual energy.’  For this show, Chin perseverates on LSD; its psychological and spiritual impact, as well as its entertainment and allure. The result – three, large format paintings; bear the trademark of inspired hallucination. As modified rainbow apparitions pop out of 2-dimensional surfaces and sharp colors seem to glide from glassy canvas onto the gallery wall, a line is blurred between the real and the illusory. Chin ultimately completes his trip with cause and effect: a limited-edition print on blotter paper, resembling perforated acid tabs and a photograph of an unadulterated rainbow. Mirroring the experience from which it came, ‘Double Dip’ is an enigmatic exhibition, intimate and communal; fleeting and impossible to duplicate. Tofer Chin, a Los Angeles native, continues to exhibit, in both gallery and museum, in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Australia. Past works appear in The Los Angeles Times, Flaunt, Nylon, Trace, Big, Vice, Rojo, and Idn. In 2006, Rojo published his first book of photography, entitled ‘Finger Bang’, and in 2008, published his highly anticipated follow-up, entitled ‘Vacation Standards’.

C E R A S O L I  g a l l e r y

8530-B Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232

Hours:  Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm