The Art of the Mystical Shriner

We were just exposed to Jeff McMillan for the first time yesterday, and we're so glad we were. Shriners arrived in our daily Artist-a-day missive yesterday. Shriners in a supernatural death match. What does this mean? Only that Jeff McMillan is somehow the very definition of Pop Surrealism (if there is one) - pop culture icons (shriners, Yeti-like monsters, skulls) in surreal situations painted in classical style. Well, at least that's one of many definitions. Either way, Mr. McMillan's work is both funny and beautiful at the same time. He recently completed his first solo show, and we're sure many more are to come.

Go to his website and browse for a while. It's a great way to spend an hour.



Jeff McMillan's Official Website

Interview with Saelee Oh at My Love For you...

Wonderful interview with wonderful artist Saelee Oh at wonderful blog My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses. Isn't life... great!



Saelee Oh's Official Website

Saelee Oh Interview at My Love For You...

We LOVE Amy Crehore's Blog...

... and wish we could be just like her. New paintings, sneak previews of future ones, sketches, ukuleles, Hokum music, vintage exotica and erotica, and so much more! It's one of our favorite daily reads, and we just want to share the love.

Here's a new painting Amy just posted. Beautiful.

Amy Crehore's Blog -- Little Hokum Rag

Amy Crehore's Official Site

Street Art as Fine Art

Banksy

Street Art is finally getting its due. First there's the show at the Tate Modern in London, now there's an auction of art by 46 urban artists, including well-known street artists such as Banksy, Nick Walker, Blek le Rat and DBO. In addition to the auction, the auctioneer, Dreweatts, a subsidiary of the Fine Art Auction Group (around since 1759), will be offering two limited addition prints. According to the press release, "The first, by infamous billboard defacer dr.d, shows her iconic 'I don't feel like I fit in here either' image of zebras in a yellow colour wave (25 print edition) and the second a 200 limited edition run, 100 of which will be hand finished and exclusive to the Ultralounge from the Let The Hang Gallery depicting contributions from the artists that have used the associated Screen One print works in Bristol over the past 10 years ‐ including Banksy, Nick Walker, Dicy, Mau Mau, Sickboy, Ziml, Paris, Mudwig, Eco, Will Barras, Xenz, Mr Jago and China Mike."

Again, from the press release, "The works being offered for sale will first be exhibited at the Ultralounge in Selfridges, London from the 23rd May ‐ 1st June. The collection will then be on the move and down to Bristol’s Totterdown creative quarter, at 'The Paintworks' (www.paintworksbristol.co.uk), from the 5th to 10th June, followed by the sale in Shoreditch, London, at ‘Village Underground’ (www.villageunderground.co.uk) on view from 13th to 17th June. The auction will be held at the Village Underground commencing at 6.00 pm on 17 June.

So if you live in London (lucky dog!) and you like street art (sly fox!), get yourself to the auction and score some amazing original art, or at least a brilliant print.


DBO


Urban Art Auction at Dreweatts

Story on Spindeck.com

Sale at Bwana's!

Sorry for the late notice on this, but at Noon PDT TODAY head on over to Bwana Spoons's site for a good ol' fashioned spring cleaning art sale. Looks like Senor Spoons will have over 25 paintings going going gone. Good luck nabbing the one you want!

Meanwhile, Bwana has a bunch of other stuff for sale in his catalog, in case you miss the Spring sale.



Bwana Spoons' Official Site

Bwana's Spring Cleaning Sale

Who Needs Groceries Alert - New Ana Bagayan Prints!!

Ana Bagayan has some new prints available NOW. They go fast, so check it out before it's too late. The price is right -- $45 plus shipping, for gorgeous Giclees in editions of 30. Don't miss out!



Ana Bagayan's Official Website

New Lisa Alisa Works Available May 31st

Going to the Culver City Art Walk this weekend? If you live in L.A. and you like art, you should. Forty galleries will be open from Noon to 6 PM. One of those will be Project:Gallery and one of the artists they will be showing is Lisa Alisa, who PopDrawer just showcased yesterday. She has new works available for sale, and here is a sneak of one.

See you at the Art Walk!



Lisa Alisa's Official Website

Culver City Art Walk

Project:Gallery

Two Great Artists Who Art Great Together! (Props to Reese's Peanut Butter Cup)

Gary Taxali - Amazing visual artist, contributor to the prestigious Whitney Museum, award-winning illustrator, learned lecturer, prolific painter, great peanut-y crunch.

Aimee Mann - Remarkable aural artist, Grammy-winning and Oscar-winning songwriter, rockin' guitarist, ethereal singer, 80s icon and 21st century idol, smooth chocolate-y flavor.

Put these two phenomenal talents together and you get "@#%&! Smilers", Ms. Mann's new CD with 17 new illustrations by Mr. Taxali. All 17 illustrations will be on display at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles on May 31st from 6-9 PM, and both Mr. Taxali and Ms. Mann will be there to sign CDs! This is tone of those can't-miss-events that you, well, can't miss.



@#%&! Smilers CD release party

Gary Taxali's Official Website

Aimee Mann's Official Website

Lisa Alisa - Girls on Canvas

Who here remembers Nagel? No? Okay, who here remembers Duran Duran? Remembers them?! (you might be exclaiming), I saw them in concert last month! Okay, maybe you didn't, but I did. A fact I am somewhat embarrassed and yet very happy to admit. Anyway, the most iconic album cover of Duran Duran's, certainly one that visually represented their 80s style, was the Patrick Nagel cover of the Rio album. Nagel, who also famously did illustrations for Playboy Magazine, was to art in the 80s as Miami Vice was to cop shows -- bold and colorful, outrageously popular, eventually dismissed, and know enjoying a renaissance in the work of later artists. There are a few wonderfully talented, original artists who seem to have been influenced by Nagel but take his influence and built on it beautifully. one of our favorites is Yumiko Kayukawa. We are excited to add to that list the soon-to-be-really-really-famous-and-successful Lisa Alisa.

Don't get us wrong, Lisa Alisa is not a brand spankin' newbee. She's been showing solo since 2004 and has quite a few professional illustrations in publications to her credit. She has shown around the world, including New York, London, Tokyo (Munich, everybody talk about mmm Pop Music... Sorry, the 80s theme -- couldn't stop myself). But in PopDrawer's opinion she is on the verge of breaking really big. Mark our words! Or just see for yourself. Some of her work seems to be available on her website. Just click on the thumbnails and look for the word "AVAILABLE." Buy her works now, before you can't afford to.



Lisa Alisa's Official Website

This Week's Yo Gabba Gabba Video

Ska for toddlers! Penned and performed by GOGO13 (related to the Aquabats), "Pick it Up" is a song about a ska daddy teaching his children to clean up their room, re-defining the classic ska lyric "pick it up." Some very nice ska-style animation here. Watch and enjoy!

Sketch Tuesday - What a Cool Idea!

I have a friend who owns an original Salvador Dali sketch. What's it worth? Hundreds of thousands, for sure. What did it cost? Nothing. Nada, zilch, zippo. See, my friend's grandfather was a world famous cellist, and one day he happened to be at a book store when he saw a coffee table book of Dali's work. He bought the book, and when he was on his way home, he bumped into (yes, hard to believe) DALI! Dali knew of the cellist, and the cellist obviously knew of Dali, so they hugged right there in the street, having never before met but being great fans of the other's work. The cellist then produced the book he had in his shopping bag. Dali grabbed it and drew a sketch on the endpapers. Now my friend owns that book. Nice.

So... tonight (May 27th), 111 Minna Gallery will be the site of Sketch Tuesday, an evening featuring original sketches DRAWN RIGHT ON THE SPOT by a number of San Francisco's most prominent and promising artists. 27 of them, in fact! The artists will be drawing and then selling their pieces from 6-9 PM. Participating artists include Kelly Tunstall, Ferris Plock, and Deth P. Sun. And while you're there, don't miss the awesome Circus exhibition, a collaboration between Kelly and Ferris.

Wish I could be there. Then maybe I would walk away with a very reasonable sketch that someday might sell for hundreds of thousands.



111 Minna Gallery

Camille Rose Garcia Show Now Online! (Finally)

A portion of "The Grand Illusion," Camille Rose Garcia's new show at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Berlin has been posted by re-title.com, an international contemporary art listings guide and directory of artists worldwide. And as expected, the show is outstanding. Go check it out HERE.





Camille Rose Garcia's "The Grand Illusion" at re-title.com

I Buy Art and ivoteforart.com

Pokestuff

ivoteforart.com is the brainchild of Melbourne-based Ben Rowe and the newest place on online to buy fresh art. Here's how ivoteforart.com works: 24 up-and-coming artists display over 70 pieces of art, some original, some limited prints, some open edition prints, all for sale. Visitors to the site rate their favorite works by clicking the thumbs up icons attached to those works, and the pieces with the most votes are featured on the front page of the site. But visitors can also browse the site to see any of the other pieces for sale. The works are very affordable, and listed in Australian dollars (AUD). For a currency converter, visit XE.com.

ivteforart.com is the future of art galleries, using the internet and web 2.0 features to bring original art to collectors and fans around the world. Check out ivoteforart.com to see the future now.

(Artists, if you think your work deserves to be on ivoteforast.com, you can submit your pieces to them.)


Himnofeda!

ivoteforart.com

Jeff Soto's Blog

Okay, we're a few weeks behind on this one, but we couldn't resist when we stumbled on Jeff Soto's blog. His May entry is a wonderful blast from his own past. He gave a talk at his old junior college in Riverside, CA and put together a slide show for the occasion. So he pillaged pictures from his past and thankfully posted them on his blog as well. It's fascinating to see the evolution of an artist, and check out that late 80s haircut! (Full disclosure: I think I had it, too).

At the top is Mr. Soto with his art nearly 20 years ago, and at the bottom is an example of his latest work. Can't wait to see what he does next...



Jeff's Soto's Blog

Jeff Soto's Official Site

Bountee.com - Arty T-Shirts for All

We love Artcotic, with it's limited edition tees by great well-known artists and designers. But we also love Bountee, a more proletarian version. Unlike Artcotic, nothing is limited, and the selection of artists is less well-known. In fact, anyone can submit their tee-shirt designs to Bountee (and make money from their sale). So the selection is pretty wide, and very funky. And every design is available for women, men, and kids. The shirts run in the $20 range, with some cheaper.

Bountee.com

More Alex Prager

Just found some more shots from Alex Prager's Michael Hoppen Contemporary Gallery show "Big Valley." Had to post them. Alfred Hitchcock is clearly a big influence. Gotta love these. Enjoy!



Alex Prager's Official Site

"Big Valley" at Michael Hoppen Contemporary Gallery

The Pink Worlds of Fawn Gehweiler

In this case the "Pink Worlds" in question is the title of Fawn Gehweiler's new show opening tonight at Aftermodern Gallery in San Francisco. The show, also featuring the work of Dana Carlson, is inspired by "Pink Worlds and White Icing," a collection of poems written by a 12 year-old girl in the late 1960s. Nothing could be more appropriate for the eye-popping candy-coated work of Ms. Gehweiler.

According to the Aftermodern website, "Fawn Gehweiler’s aesthetic hinges on a delicate balance of past and present, building obsessive narratives through personal artifacts that reflect the imaginary worlds of little girls, treading the fine line between wide eyed innocence and dark fairy tales." Far better than we could have said. We love the mod-inspired fashion, the pouty big-eyed faces, the Good & Plenty color palette, and we think you will too. Contact the gallery if you're interested in making a purchase.



Fawn Gehweiler's Official Site

"Pink Worlds" at Aftermodern Gallery

More cool phone, iPod and laptop covers

When it comes to protective covers for your phone, iPod and laptop by great artists, Gelaskins is not the only fish in the sea. Skinizi has a great selection as well.

Skinizi has a collection of covers by up-and-coming artists, with established digital artist eBoy leading the way. The laptop skins are about 30 euros (about $47 today), while the phone and iPod skins are around 15 euros (about $23 today).



Skinizi

Oksana Badrak - Moon Over Drifters

Another lovely Oksana Badrak show opens this Saturday. "Moon Over Drifters" opens at the Black Maria Gallery in Glendale, CA on May 31st (reception begins at 7), and is sure to be another knockout from Ms. Badrak, full of lush, gorgeous fanciful landscapes. Some of the works are available for purchase now on the Black Maria website, and we assume more may be soon. Keep checking back.



Oksana Badrak's Official Website

"Moon Over Drifters" at Black Maria Gallery

Street Art Exhibition at the Tate Modern

And Sketchypad brings us another great blog entry today, this one about a street art exhibit at the Tate Modern in London, featuring Os Gemeos and other great artists. It's about time a serious museum takes street art seriously.

Sketchypad

Joe Sorren's Got a Blog!

Joe Sorren is blogging. Not only that, he's blogging, in visual detail, the process of creating a painting. It's downright fascinating.

Thanks to Sketchypad for the heads up on this. Don't miss it.



Joe Sorren's Blog

The Distorted Beauty of Scott G. Brooks

Laugh or cry? You're often not sure what to do when looking at a piece by Scott G. Brooks. The characters in his paintings seem to be raw reflections of the weaknesses of people and society, and are both tragic and comedic at the same time. Take, for instance, the painting below, "Cannibal Cub Scout." It tickles and revolts all at once. And done in Mr. Brooks' inimitable style of distorted faces, outsized limbs, odd proportions, it only disturbs you more.

Mr. Brooks is based in Washington D.C. and in addition to his fine art has illustrated three children's books. He is currently in the middle of a solo show at D.C.'s Long View Gallery. Paintings are still available from the show, titled "Under the Skin."

We may not know whether to laugh or cry, but we always remember to marvel.



Scott G. Brooks' Official Site

"Under the Skin"

Liz McGrath Print Available Now

Yeah, we know we've obsessing on Liz McGrath lately... and here comes some more. Just announced -- Ms. McGrath's limited edition print "Crocodile Tears" from her current Billy Shire Fine Arts show.

"Crocodile Tears" is a giclee in a limited run of 100. The image size is 14" x 11" and is going for $120. Orders will be taken until Thursday May 29th or they sell out, whichever comes first. Here's how to order:
1) Orders will be taken via email only. anniea@billyshirefinearts.com
2) Please include your name, shipping address, city, state, zip
3) Phone number and times when you can be reached.
(We will call you for your credit card information and to confirm that you will be receive a print)
If you don't mind sending your credit card information via email, you may do so, we will run your card and delete the email with your credit card info - please send your billing address.
By sending your card information, this does not guarantee you a print.
4) You will receive a confirmation email that your card has been charged and the number of your print.

Bet they'll go fast!

Elizabeth McGrath's official website

Billy Shire Fine Arts

Gary Baseman doesn't sleep!

Clearly Gary Baseman is hopped-up on caffeine. He must be, judging by the amount of activity coming up at GaryBaseman.com. Starting Wednesday, May 21st at 10 AM PDT, Gary will be offering four books on the site: the limited edition My Hunger for Venison, Ppaper (featuring the "Dumb Luck in Asia show), Dumb Luck (the fantastic Baseman retrospective, and Strong Stuff (the wonderful children's book Gary did for the Getty Museum in Los Angeles).

Then, on June 9th at 10 AM PDT, Baseman.com will start selling Black HotChaChaCha with a giclee print, both signed by Gary. This is a limited run with only 50 available. And in August, a new Baseman book featuring Gary's "I Melt in Your Presence" called Dying of Thirst will also be available.

Meanwhile, Gary is feverishly preparing for his solo show in Barcelona at Iguapop Gallery. Perfect for a weekend trip!

All Gary all the time...



Gary Baseman's Official Site

Margaret Kilgallen at Sketchypad

Check out Sketchypad for a very nice post on The Luggage Store's project in honor of the late great Margaret Kilgallen. It's a great story.

Sketchypad

Margaret Kilgallen on Wikipedia

The Luggage Store

Michael Caines - When Animals Almost Attack

We here at PopDrawer have always been a little obsessed with animal attacks. Don't know why. It's not unnatural -- as a species, human beings have no natural defenses any longer, other than our big brains, which just seem to be getting us in a lot of trouble these days. But lacking claws, sharp teeth, or fast legs, we're just sort of sitting ducks. Not sure if there's any connection here to Toronto-based Michael Caines, but his disturbing yet beautifully drawn visuals conjure up (at least in our imaginations) the moment just before a group of animals take down their sad human prey. There is little more disturbing than seeing a group of animals come together unnaturally, and Mr. Caines' art is swimming in packs of dogs, colonies of rats, sleuths of bears, murders of crows... well, you get the gnarly idea.

Enjoy these beautiful works from Mr. Caines' show at Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects in Toronto, Canada. And buy one! It looks like a few are available.



Michael Caines' Official Site

Michael Caines at Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects

Yo Gabba Gabba Video of the Week

"Mika's Marshmallow Ride" is a lovely claymation-style dream journey produced by PandaPanther, "a New York-based animation studio headed up by Jonathan Garin, Naomi Nishimura and Lydia Holness." [From their website]. The music is by Tahiti 80, and it's a ethereal two-minute break from your all-too-real day. Relax and enjoy.

Seonna Hong - Viscery Loves Company

Well now, don't we feel stupid. We adore Seonna Hong (she even painted a commissioned family portrait for us -- our most prizaed possession), and yet we neglected to blog about her new show at Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki Gallery that opened in Tokyo a few weeks ago. Could it be because Tokyo is so far from us? Lame excuse, at best. So we prostrate ourselves before the gods of Pop Surrealism and apologize profusely, and now present for your visual enjoyment -- Seonna Hong's Viscery Loves Company. We also wish to thank the awesome art blog Supertouch for posting a great story about the opening.



Seonna Hong's Official Site

"Viscery Loves Company" at Kaikai Kiki Gallery

The Crazy Beautiful Landscapes of Ronald Kurniawan

Get ready for Ronald Kurniawan, yet another graduate of L.A.’s local genius factory, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Mr. Kurniawan has been showing up in a lot places lately, including covers of the L.A. Weekly. Combining surreal images of gigantic creatures (often enormous letter-monsters) in classic landscapes that remind us of the Naturalism and Realism movements in 19th century American. The result is eye-popping, lush, and often very funny.

Unfortunately I have not seen Mr. Kurniawan’s work for sale many places (he had a piece in a recent group show at Billy’s Shire’s trend-setting La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles), but we hope to see more soon. We’ll let you know right away if he has a show!


Ronald Kurniawan's Official Site