Jonathan went out to LA last month and while he was there, he made it just in time to see the last days of Turning in Circles, JEFF SOTO’s exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum. Here are some photos for those who missed seeing it in person!… Jeff poses in front of his massive banner... read more
Check out this video interview with Mars-1 (aka Mario Martinez) on Vimby, filmed at his studio while he was painting pieces for his current exhibition Nuclear Mystics: And there’s another great clip on XLR8R, check it out, right here!:
We wanted to share some photos from Shepard Fairey’s Museum exhibition at the Boston ICA with you… The show, entitled SUPPLY & DEMAND opened last week. It is a 20-year (mid-career) survey of Shepard Fairey’s work, and the artist’s first museum exhibition. The work was divided into categories, and the space displayed it accordingly. The... read more
Check out this video of Shepard on the USA Network, he was interviewed after receiving their new Character Approved Award for changing the face of American culture. Shepard, and the other six honorees of the award are all innovators in their field who influence our opinions, style, and view of the world. Each honoree is... read more
J.L. Schnabel wrote a thoughtful critique of our current exhibition Kindling featuring new works by James Jean for Fecal Face. Click below to read full review:
On January 17th 2009, Jonathan LeVine Gallery in association with Choque Cultural Gallery is pleased to present Americana, a group show featuring work by Tara McPherson, Jim Houser, Doze Green, and Adam Wallacavage at Choque Cultural Gallery in São Paulo, Brazil. This will be the first time exhibiting in Brazil for the four artists listed... read more
Howdy friends! As the icy winter weather temps drop lower and lower here in NYC, we find ourselves thinking back to last month, when we were enjoying the warm Miami sunshine during Art Basel week. Just thought we’d share a little re-cap of our December 2008 exhibitions in the Miami art fairs. Take a look!…... read more
Art in Review By KEN JOHNSON Voyeur: New Paintings by SHAG Through Dec. 20, 2008 Jonathan LeVine Gallery 529 West 20th Street, Chelsea A Los Angeles artist who signs his work Shag, Josh Agle has exhibited and sold his work internationally. He has even been the subject of a documentary. But because he is marketed... read more
Check out TEMPORAL, an excellent documentary short film directed by: Bruno Mitih. The 12 minute film made it’s US debut on November 22nd, 2008 during NOVO MUNDO, solo exhibition of new works by Stephen Doitschinoff (aka Calma). ABOUT THE FILM: From 2005—2008, Stephan Doitschinoff traveled throughout the Brazilian countryside of Bahia, painting site-specific murals on... read more
Check out this video interview with Mars-1 (aka Mario Martinez) on Vimby, filmed at his studio while he was painting pieces for his current exhibition Nuclear Mystics:
And there’s another great clip on XLR8R, check it out, right here!:
The show, entitled SUPPLY & DEMAND opened last week. It is a 20-year (mid-career) survey of Shepard Fairey’s work, and the artist’s first museum exhibition.
The work was divided into categories, and the space displayed it accordingly.
The sections were labeled thematically.
Vintage "Andre" images along with more contemporary stylized versions greeted visitors arriving in the first room of the exhibition.
This enormous wall mural was created especially for the museum exhibition.
A wall of framed smaller works stretch out across the wall facing the large mural.
Jim Houser and Jonathan LeVine were in the house!
As was our dear friend, Caleb Neelon.
In other words… "Fight the power!"
This piece was part of Fairey’s 2007 exhibition E Pluribus Venom with us, here in New York.
The Portraiture section included many iconic faces.
This one hardly needs an introduction, Shepard’s ubiquitous Hope image for Barack Obama.
The infamous OBEY manifesto.
A display case full of vintage stencils, stickers, and other ephemera from the early days.
Shepard’s come a long way since that original Andre the Giant stencil!
Stylized works show the evolution of Shepard’s process over the years.
A wall of decks…
Some of Shepard’s finest "Album Cover" pieces…
A wall of rubyliths…
Of course, in recent years, Shepard’s political imagery made strong statements on the Iraq war.
Commanda.
A couple of large works complement eachother this room, powerful in their dramatic scale.
As well as these smaller works, framing the entrance way.
At the press preview, reporters had plenty of questions for the artist.
Which he answered, graciously, one by one.
Pedro Alonzo, curator of the show, assisted Shepard with his Q&A and presentation of the work.
The media was in full attendance for the event.
Meanwhile, museum members and collectors who loaned their works for the exhibition were invited to a special dinner reception in honor of the occasion. On our way to the dinner, we passed one of the many street pieces Shepard and his crew put up while in Boston during the weeks prior to the exhibition.
There was a friendly game of pool while we waited to eat.
Marc and Sara Schiller, of the Wooster Collective, with Dan Flores of Obey.
Nic Bowers, head assistant at Obey, and Spencer Elden (once the baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover, now 17-years old and Shepard Fairey’s intern)!
Check out this video of Shepard on the USA Network, he was interviewed after receiving their new Character Approved Award for changing the face of American culture. Shepard, and the other six honorees of the award are all innovators in their field who influence our opinions, style, and view of the world. Each honoree is bestowed with a $10,000 honorarium that will be donated to the charity of his/her choice.
On January 17th 2009, Jonathan LeVine Gallery in association with Choque Cultural Gallery is pleased to present Americana, a group show featuring work by Tara McPherson, Jim Houser, Doze Green, and Adam Wallacavage at Choque Cultural Gallery in São Paulo, Brazil. This will be the first time exhibiting in Brazil for the four artists listed above.
Continuing our ongoing cross-cultural dialog, which began in January of 2007 with Ruas de São Paulo: A Survey of Brazilian Street Art here in New York, Americana will be the second time Jonathan LeVine Gallery has collaborated with the Brazilian gallery on an exhibition of work by American artists (following Made In America, in January of 2008).
The opening reception will take place on Saturday, January 17th 2009 from 4pm—8pm. The show will run through February 27th, 2009.
For further info, please contact Choque Cultural gallery in São Paulo, Brazil or visit their website : http://www.choquecultural.com.br/
Please click on the image below to view a beautiful set of photographs of the participating artists, their works and installations, shot by Lost Art.
Howdy friends! As the icy winter weather temps drop lower and lower here in NYC, we find ourselves thinking back to last month, when we were enjoying the warm Miami sunshine during Art Basel week. Just thought we’d share a little re-cap of our December 2008 exhibitions in the Miami art fairs. Take a look!…
Every year, pretty much the entire International art world descends upon the city of Miami during Art Basel week. So, you never really know who you might run into. Here’s a pic of Jonathan and Takashi Murakami.
Jonathan LeVine Gallery had booths in two art fairs this year, Aqua Wynwood and Scope. Aqua Wynwood opened it’s doors on December 2nd. Here’s a shot of the exterior of with a great installation by the artist collective Antistrot, painted on the front entry facade.
In booth number 7, we were exhibiting Adam Wallacavage, Ray Caesar, and Xiaoqing Ding.
We also had a new watercolor piece by Mars-1, who will be exhibiting at the gallery this Spring.
In booth number 8, we displayed new works by WK Interact, who will have a solo exhibition at the gallery this Summer.
Other visitors to the booth, artists Gary Baseman and Jeff Soto, are seen above with LeVine Gallery’s own Laura Pinello and Maléna Seldin.
WK took Gary around the corner to show him one of his new street pieces.
On Wednesday, December 3rd, things got started over at Scope, with our solo exhibition of works by Shepard Fairey. Above, Lori Zimmer, Kendal Johnson, and Maléna Seldin strike a pose in front of a large wall piece entitled: Commanda.
There were over 30 pieces which sold out almost immediately, once doors opened to the public.
Three wall murals were placed on the outer walls of the booth, while a variety of smaller sized works were displayed inside.
Jonathan and Phil Penberthy take a turn sitting at the desk.
Amanda Fairey chats with Maléna Seldin and Kendal Johnson.
Z and Dan Flores, of team OBEY.
Mars-1 (aka Mario Martinez) with son, Atlas, stops by to say hello to Shepard and Jonathan.
Friends With You, the artistsic duo, was also exhibiting at Scope this year. Above we find Arturo (Tury) Sandoval, all smiles, with Jonathan.
Samuel (Sam) Borkson, the other half of Friends With You, with Jonathan and Lori Zimmer.
Friends With You created an installation which we thoroughly enjoyed, a giant inflatable rainbow bounce-house.
As Malena, Jonathan, and Lori quickly found out… once you start bouncing, it’s hard to stop!
Meanwhile, Shepard and his street team had been working outdoors on some public mural pieces.
Jonathan stopped by to check out the progress, and fend off the paparazzi.
The crew worked well into the night.
The next day, we were pleased to find the finished piece, just one of several gifts to the city left by Shepard.
The street pieces nicely complimented the work at Scope, but could been seen by any passers by, not just visitors to the fair.
Later on there was a huge OBEY party, where LeVine Gallery’s Kendal Johnson got to catch up with her pal Nic Bowers of OBEY.
A crowd of friends and artists packed in to the bar & lounge such as David Choong Lee, seen above hanging back while watching the kids go crazy on the dancefloor to the tunes of Shepard "DJ Diabetic" Fairey and Z-Trip.
Another night was spent at the Kill Your Idols event, watching a set by one of Jonathan LeVine Gallery’s favorite bands, Matt & Kim.
Jonathan enjoyed the show from a bit of a distance.
The kids in the pit had a blast, crowd-surfing and climbing the rafters.
Another musical performance in Miami this year, was a beach show by French pop artist, Yelle.
And that just about wraps it up. Good times, Miami! Maybe we’ll see ya again next year.
Voyeur: New Paintings by SHAG
Through Dec. 20, 2008
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, Chelsea
A Los Angeles artist who signs his work Shag, Josh Agle has exhibited and sold his work internationally. He has even been the subject of a documentary. But because he is marketed more as an illustrator and designer than as a painter in the Modernist sense of the word, his fame has not extended to the highbrow Chelsea art world.
Mr. Agle’s paintings cannily capture a certain fantasy of the good life in mid-20th-century America — a time before Vietnam, hippies, feminism, race riots and fossil fuel scarcity. On wide panels in neon-candy colors and in a style simulating semiabstract cartoons of the early 1960s, he paints funny, curiously touching suburban pastorals. Modern, mostly glass houses are nestled in bucolic landscapes; suave men in tuxedos and beautiful women in evening dresses and bikinis pose indoors and out in states of perfect composure. The paintings resemble illustrations for Playboy when that publication embodied, for many American men, dreams of ultimate hedonistic fulfillment.
There are amusing stock narratives. In ”The Angry Ex,” a woman in a cat burglar’s outfit lurks outside a sleek house where her ex entertains a few friends. In each of a series of smaller pictures based on the theme of the voyeur, a Peeping Tom ogles a sexy, scantily dressed young woman. The stories, the comical characters and Mr. Agle’s pitch-perfect sense of design make for irresistible meditations on visual, erotic and consumerist desire.
ABOUT THE FILM:
From 2005—2008, Stephan Doitschinoff traveled throughout the Brazilian countryside of Bahia, painting site-specific murals on adobe houses, chapels, and even a cemetery. In the small village of Lençóis, he collaborated with local artisans, and expanded his research into the rich history of Brazilian folklore and the syncretism between Christian theology and African spiritual traditions.
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