Andrea Aversa at Sloan Fine Art - Tiny Masterpieces

Regular PopDrawer readers may deduced that we love miniatures. Don't know why. We never liked dollhouses. In fact, we hate them. One time we took a day trip to the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures in Los Angeles, and we were completely freaked out. We had to get out as soon as the hyperventilating set in. But there's something about miniatures set in elaborate tableaus to create situations and scenes that would be nearly impossible to create full scale that seems very cinematic and grand, and we love that. (Check out, for instance, PopDrawer posts about London street artist Slinkachu, or magicians of the snow globe Martin & Munoz, or master of disaster Lori Nix.)

This is why we're so glad to find the phenomenal work of Andrea Aversa of Milan, whose newest show opens at the most excellent Sloan Fine Art Gallery on Rivington St. in New York this Wednesday, May 14th, at 7 PM. Mr. Aversa creates intricate dioramas and then photographs them in an effort to explore (as the press release for his now show puts it) "both his own psyche and the complicated relationships we humans establish with our surroundings." If you can't make it to the show, you can still see the works at the Sloan Fine Art site, and contact the gallery if you wish to purchase one. Or two. Or all of them.

Meanwhile, the project room at Sloan Fine Art will feature the work of Diane Barcelowsky. See some of her work here.



Andrea Aversa at Sloan Fine Art

Andrea Aversa's Official Site

New Talent - Archan Nair (CORRECTION)

Here at PopDrawer, we generally focus on art that can be readily purchased. What can we say -- we're very acquisitive folks. But sometimes we like to showcase a new talent that doesn't necessarily have anything for sale yet, someone who is clawing their way up the fine art or illustration world. Today, that bright young star is Archan Nair, an illustrator/artist out of New Delhi, India.

According to Artist-a-Day, where we first saw Nair, the artist "specializes in interactive design, branding & identity, graphic and photo illustration, art direction, fine arts and progressive solutions." We can see this artist has an extremely promising future in illustration and advertising, but here's hoping for a future of fine art as well, because we know we'd love to hang a Nair work on our wall.

CORRECTION: The above photograph is a collaboration between New York-based photographer and Parris Whittingham and Archan Nair. Parris Whittingham took the photo, while Archan Nair drew the illustration. The work is part of a project called "The Dream Collaborative" that will feature rising talent in the design world and will be showing in Soho later this summer.



Archan Nair's Official Website

Uncommon Gardens at Thinkspace

Caia Koopman

Thinkspace opens an interesting new show tonight (Friday, May 9th) called Uncommon Gardens featuring the works of four very talented up and coming artists in the Pop Surrealism world. Caia Koopman, Kelly Vivanco, Lilly Piri, and Catherine Brooks all have a number of new paintings in the show at the Los Angeles gallery.

As usual, all Thinkspace pieces are available on their website, and as usual the works are very affordable, running the gamut from $150 to $2800. Here's the preview. Enjoy!


Kelly Vivanco


Lilly Piri


Catherine Brooks


Uncommon Gardens at Thinkspace

Caia Koopman's Official Site

Kelly Vivanco's Official Site

Lilly Piri's Official Site

Catherine Brooks' Official Site

The Mind-Blowing World of Yoko d'Holbachie

Out of Japan comes another amazing rising talent in the world of Pop Surrealism, one who would feel very at home in Takashi Murakami's Superflat world. Her name is Yoko d'Holbachie, and she has been pounding the freelance illustrator pavement for about 10 years, doing work for books, magazine, even videogames. She lives in Yokohama, but teaches art in Tokyo frequently.

Featuring psychedelic candy-colored creatures that are both adorable and the stuff of nightmares, Ms. d'Holbachie's work is just as stunning in oils or pixels, both of which are mediums in which she excels. We're waiting on word of an American exhibition, but there is one way you can own her work right away. She was recently contracted by Gelaskins to create skins for iPods, laptops (both Mac and PC), iPhones, and more. We have no doubt that we will be seeing A LOT of Ms. d'Holbachie in the near future.

(Much thanks to reader Barry Friedland for help with this post).




Yoko d'Holbachie's Official Site

Ms. d'Holbachie's Gelaskins

Greg Lamarche's Collages

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Here at PopDrawer, we're writers, not visual artists. Visual Art is something we never could do. Except collage. Somewhere in our parents' attic sits collages we created that were cherished, and then soon forgotten. And then we look at Greg Lamarche's collages and suddenly realize... crap, we can't do collage either. Because Mr. Lamarche's precise, artful collages are a thing of beauty and wonder. Painstakingly ordered and alive with movement, they are somehow folk art and fine art all at once. And since they are made mostly of letters, the writer in us falls in love with them at first sight.

According to an interview with Mr. Lamarche (AKA SP One, graffiti artist) in Juztapoz Magazine last year, he spends weeks cutting letters from all kinds of sources, piles them high in his studio, and then begins to lay them out to match designs that are percolating in his head and sometimes sketched in advance. The result is 12-25 pieces for a show like "Things I Picked up Along the Way" now up at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco. The show, which opened April 19th, may still have some pieces available (they run from as little as $250 to $2200). Check it out and stare in wonder while you still can.



Greg Lamarche's official site

"Things I Picked up Along the Way" at White Walls Gallery

Paul Chatem at The Shooting Gallery

Camille Rose Garcia during Prohibition. That's what we think of when we see the feverish, nightmare paintings of Paul Chatem. Painted in sepia tones and featuring bootleggers, drunks, multi-limbed villains, Mr. Chatem's vivid works seem to have their own imaginary soundtrack of blues playing under them. And his latest show, "Runnin' on Empty" is running out of time at San Francisco's The Shooting Gallery, so check it out before it's gone (either in person or online).

According to Mr. Chatem's bio on his MySpace page, he has worked in the entertainment industry while developing his unique style (according to IMDB, he worked in art departments, natch). He has had solo shows around the West Coast, and been included in group shows all over North America. Mr. Chatem draws inspiration "from storytellers of all genres including painters, musicians, novelists, comic book artists, film makers, liars, pitchmen and con artists."

He has a few prints available in his online store for a mere $40. We don't know if any of his originals are still available at The Shooting Gallery, but they run the gamut from $500 to $4000, and if you're interested after checking them out online, you should contact the gallery directly.



Paul Chatem's official site

"Runnin' on Empty" at The Shooting Gallery

Noferin - Magical Mysterious Australian Art Duo

There is some amazing Pop Surrealism art coming out of Australia -- >Nathan J (aka Nathan Jurevicious) leaps to mind. Add to that list the team known as Noferin. And their newest solo exhibition (is it a solo exhibition if the solo artist is actually two people?) is closing this weekend at Copro/Nason Gallery in Santa Monica, California. Titled "The start; or where we begin" is full of richly-detailed fantastical paintings starring Noferin's trademark pill-shaped animals in beautiful woodland settings on fictional Carrara Island. See the show here.

According to their website, Noferin is the collaboration of Candy and Nicho (no last names allowed in modern Australian art, apparently). One is a graphic designer, the other an environmental scientist (!). Together, they create the art (and stories) of Carrara Island. They sell prints in their online store, but currently they are all sold out. Keep checking back for new ones.

However, their show of originals at Copro/Nason is not completely sold out! There are still a few pieces, ranging from $1900 to $3800, and sculptures too! Grab them now before they disappear to Carrara Island forever.



Noferin's official site

"The start; or where we begin" show at Copro/Nason

Jeremiah Ketner at M Modern Gallery - Hooray!

PopDrawer has just stumbled on the work of Chicago-based artist Jeremiah Ketner, and boy do we feel dumb. What took us so long?! If you like Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara (and we DO!), you'll like Mr. Ketner. His work certainly is original and unique and stands on its own, but the aesthetic is similar enough to know that a fan of one will most likely be a fan of the other.

According to the bio on his website, "Ketner draws inspiration from Japanese aesthetics, packaging design, magazine ads and urban graffiti... Jeremiah's paintings are an assemblage of muted tones, non-dimensional forms, flower like shapes, and charming little creatures navigating through a sort of candy-land world. The paintings are created with no preliminary drawing; a composition is formed haphazardly and then outlined through the building process of layers."

And now you have a chance to hang one of his sugar-coated masterpieces in your home, as he has a solo show opening at M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs Saturday, April 19th titled "Another Tomorrow." But no matter where you live you can see the paintings here, and buy them by phone (or perhaps online). The paintings run from $450 (cheap!) to $4000, and will knock your eyes out.

If originals are too rich for your blood, prints and t-shirts are available in his online store. Prices start as low as $15!



Jeremiah Ketner's official site

"Another Tomorrow" at M Modern Gallery

Won't you play me, the jazz hot maybe -- Robert Pokorny

M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs has lined up another great show, this time with artist Robert Pokorny. The show, titled "Transitions" is described in the press release this way: "Transactions explores an abstraction of the figure, drawing on inspiration from Jazz Album Covers, Modern to Post Modern Art and contemporary culture. Time, movement and a state of transition are embodied in Pokorny’s sophisticated character driven pieces."

Mr. Pokorny's illustrations have been featured in magazines, newspapers and on CDs, and he has created band posters for a long list of rock luminaries, including Sonic Youth, Damien Rice, Rilo Kiley, Jack Johnson, and many others. In fact, you can purchase many of them in his online store. He also has other great merchandise in his store, including t-shirts, throw pillows, and birthday cards.

The show opens April 19th, from 7 to 10, and Mr. Pokorny will be in attendance. Can't make it to sunny Palm Springs? You can still purchase the works from the gallery. They run from $900 to $1500 and can be seen here.




Robert Pokorny's official site

Transitions at M Modern Gallery

Alex Lukas' Explosions

We wish we knew more about Alex Lukas. We plan to find out more. Meanwhile, we just goggle at his beautiful art. Mr. Lukas has a 2-person show coming up at PARK LIFE in San Francisco beginning May 9th, and has had numerous solo and group shows in the past few years. And PopDrawer is going on record to predict that he will have many more shows in the coming years.

Here is what we learned from Pike Modern Art Gallery in Milford, Pennsylvania. "While a Rhode Island School of Design student in 2001, Lukas founded Cantab Publishing, which specializes in low run, hand made artists' 'zines. Since that time he has released more than 20 titles, including over 1,500 copies made by hand. In 2005, Lukas was crowned the "King of Zine" by Tokion Magazine. Lukas has contributed both artwork and writing to Swindle Magazine, Apenest and The Drama Magazine."

Here's what we know from just enjoying his art. He likes drawing fire and smoke. His work often focuses on buildings, factories, etc. with a frightening but beautiful plume of fire and smoke emitting from them, as if an explosion has just taken place. (At PopDrawer we understand this fascination -- as the brilliant Harry Shearer once said "Fire -- man's first entertainment, man's best entertainment.) And some of his newer works show floods overtaking similar landscapes. Fascinating and horrifying all at once. PopDrawer will be following his career closely.



Alex Lukas' official site

We're back! In the Year of the Rat...

Dan-ah Kim


PopDrawer has been out of commission for a couple of weeks, but we're back, and want to blog about a show that opened in our absence. GR2 (an outlet of Giant Robot), is currently hosting a show entitled "The Year of the Rat" at their LA outpost, and there are still some affordable works available. The show runs through April 16th and is a group art show celebrating year 4706 on the lunar calendar. Pieces include oils, pencils, prints, sculpture, and other media all dedicated to the first sign on the Chinese zodiac cycle. Contributors include, among other, Gary Baseman, Deth P. Sun, Dan-ah Kim, Martin Cendreda, and a host of other great artists. Go down to Sawtelle to check it out, or to this link if you can't make it in person.



Andrew Holder




Stephanie Leung


The Year of the Rat

Fake movie posters -- better than the real thing

Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham have a flair for the cinematic and dramatic, and we get to benefit from it. The two have run a site called Fleet Street Scandal since 2006. Here's the "story" behind the site and the gorgeous artwork on it:

"In 1967, the Fleet Street Art Gallery in London was robbed of its entire collection of priceless paintings. No clues were left. No motives were determined. No suspects were apprehended. The only thing known is the thief had exquisite taste. The incident became known as the Fleet Street Scandal.

Fast-forward to 2006 - Scotland Yard uncovers a hidden vault containing the entire cache of paintings. Upon hearing about the discovery, two young entrepreneurs from the American Northwest traveled to London and purchased the paintings at auction. They decided that instead of keeping the art to themselves they would make prints available to the masses so they could be enjoyed for generations to come."

Mssrs. Dart Turnham make these hidden treasures available on their site at extremely reasonable prices (in the $20 range!). The prints run from faux movie posters to travel posters, all done in gorgeous mid-century style. We're going to go out on a limb and suggest that Mssrs. Dart and Turnham are creating these posters themselves. We sure hope so, because then the Scotland Yard vault has no chance of running out of these lovely prints.

And don't forget their great new book!



Fleet Street Scandal - www.FleetStreetScandal.com

New Show from Jen Stark, Master of Paper

Op Art is alive and well, and being reinvented by artist Jen Stark. Ms. Stark, who describes her mind-blowing three dimensional paper cut-out works of art as mathematically-organic, color paper explosions has had her work featured in Wired, Wallpaper, and Ready Made, among other magazines. And this weekend her new show (shared with artist Diem Chau) opens at OKOK Gallery in Seattle.

Check out the preview to see another series of gorgeous, impossible paper sculptures, along with some of Ms. Stark’s lovely felt-tip pen works. Sadly, her sculptures are all sold out already, but some of the other works are still available. But sign up for updates on her website, and you might get an early shot next time she has a show. And don’t forget to read her blog.


Jen Stark - www.jenstark.com
OKOK Gallery - okokgallery.com

Aesthetic Apparatus Update - Get your posters now!

In an early post we waxed rhapsodic about the postermaking duo Aesthetic Apparatus. Now we hear that if you’re lucky enough to live in Minneapolis (where the current temperature is 12 degrees) and you own three coats, then you need to throw them on this Saturday night and shiver over to Grumpy’s Bar City Club Room (where you spend most of your Saturday nights anyway) from 6 PM to 11:30 PM for The 2nd Annual Aesthetic Apparatus Kindling & Litter-Box-Liner Sale (sponsored by OX-OP Arts (Minneapolis’ awesome gallery). Grumpy’s/OX-OP will be offering “slightly damaged or misprinted posters (most people can’t tell what’s wrong with them) for the AMAZINGLY STUPID low price of FIVE AMERICAN DOLLARS!” According to the announcement, full price prints will also be available along with art prints, t-shirts & random trinkets produced by Aesthetic Apparatus.



Aesthetic Apparatus - http://www.aestheticapparatus.com/
OX-OP Arts - http://www.ox-op.com/

If You Like... Number #3 - Stephan Britt (AKA S. Britt)

We now present the third entry in our ongoing series, “If You Like...” In this series, PopDrawer will profile an emerging artist by crassly comparing them to two other possibly more well-known artists. So, if you like A and B, we bet you’ll like...

Today’s If You Like -- If you like Charles Addams (creator of legendary comic The Addams Family) and Golden Books, you’ll probably like Stephan Britt, AKA S. Britt.

PopDrawer likes to check in with Mr. Britt’s website and blog every so often to see what this very funny, very talented artist has up his sleeve, whether it be new illustrations for Target, a new t-shirt (get ‘em before they disappear!), or just a new entertaining blog post. Mr. Britt’s influences are for the most part cartoonists of the mid-century, and his work is nostalgic and sweet.

And if you’re looking for great, inexpensive tees (like, say $14), Mr. Britt never disappoints! Just click on his store and buy, buy, buy!




S. Britt - www.sbritt.com

Beyond Pop Surrealism - Number 1

Julia Christe

PopDrawer sometimes hears from casual readers who say that while they are interested in new art, Pop Surrealism doesn’t interest them much. One such person this week referred to Pop Surrealism as “scary.” Okay, we get it. Big eyes, strange creatures, robots/monsters. Pop Surrealism isn’t for everyone. The truth is that Pop Surrealism is such an enormous tent, that it’s difficult to know exactly who should be gathered inside. Many artists often associated with Pop Surrealism would claim that their art should not be categorized as such, and others who wear the mantle of Pop Surrealism seems far from the “norm” of the movement. In fact, maybe there is no norm. Maybe Pop Surrealism is simply an umbrella term that includes any art with one of a number of common traits, e.g. cartoonish humans or animals, vivid surreal landscapes, or pop culture references. Again, this is far at once both too limiting and too broad. But enough of the pseudo art-school BS. What’s the point of this?

The point is that PopDrawer will be frequently showcasing artists whose work might not be considered Pop Surrealism, and might appeal to a broader audience, but may very well appeal to the collectors and lovers of Pop Surrealism as well. In other words, artists PopDrawer loves. Period. So without further ado, the first in a hopefully long series of “Beyond Pop Surrealism” artists, today brought to you, dear reader (yes you, the one solitary discerning sole reading this blog on a regular basis), with the help of LUMAS, a gallery and online store dealing mostly in photography, but also in fine art.

In the words of founders Stefanie Harig & Marc Ullrich, LUMAS was created “with the hope of making the art market more accessible and stirring our passion for photography in a new generation of collectors.” Add the words “fine art and merchandise” to this statement, and you have PopDrawers mission statement as well. LUMAS’ plan is described this way: “We offer selected works by these artists as hand-signed original photographs. These editions normally range from 75 to 150 prints, some being available even in full-wall sizes. This allows us to make high quality art photographs affordable to everyone.” And they ain’t kidding. The photos and art in the LUMAS collection are extraordinary. But PopDrawer’s favorite section is the “Young Art” section, where we can find up and coming artists at great prices.

Two such artists under the Young Art heading are photographer Julia Christe and digital artist Joshua Davis. Their works are available on the LUMAS site both in large format highly limited editions in the $1400 range (and we’re talking LARGE, about 4 feet by 5 feet), and smaller sizes (but larger editions) in the $350 range. This post is long already, so we’re just going to let the images speak for themselves. Be sure to go to the site to see the large shots of Ms. Christe’s work, because the scale here does not do them justice.

Joshua Davis

LUMAS - http://www.lumas.com/
Julie Christe - http://www.juliachriste.de/
Joshua Davis - http://www.joshuadavis.com/

Think inexpensive art: Thinkspace

Alex Garcia

If anyone is answering the promise of bringing new artists to the public at affordable prices, it’s the team being Los Angeles gallery Thinkspace. According the website “Established in November of 2005, Thinkspace is a joint venture between Cannibal Flower and Sour Harvest and is headed up by the husband and wife duo of Andrew and Shawn Hosner (Sour Harvest) and L. Croskey (Cannibal Flower founder/curator).” By offering up works by emerging artists at shockingly reasonable prices for original art, Thinkspace is helping to create a new generation of collectors and advance the careers of a new generation of talented artists.

The gallery has two shows up at any time, in a main gallery and a project room, and offers any unsold art on their website. It’s best to check in as soon as a new show opens to get the best selection, but there is a remarkably rich collection of unsold works on their site at any given time. Sure, many many of the works still show the immaturity of very new artists, but there are lots of diamonds in the rough, and plenty of polished diamonds as well. Something for everyone, as the saying goes. And the prices range from $100 to $1000, for the most part. Thinkspace also offers limited editions of it’s most popular pieces at an even lower rate. Right now - RIGHT NOW -- there are a number of very nice pieces for sale by mail (which is becoming a very common way for major galleries to sell their pieces). Thinking of starting a collection? Start small but smart at Thinkspace.

Jennybird Alcantara

Thinkspace Gallery -- http://www.sourharvest.com/thinkspace/index.php
Thinkspace unsold works - http://www.sourharvest.com/thinkspace/n_avail.php

Luc Latulippe's Awesome T-shirts

There’s a great collective of illustrator/artists in Vancouver who team up for various projects and sometimes show their work together, and among them there is Luc Latulippe, a fantastic illustrator and artist who seems to specialize in hip 50s and 60s style characters, and wonderful monsters. And lucky for us, he prints some of them as t-shirts, including my favorite character Maneki Neko, the famous Japanese lucky cat. The shirts are less than $18, and made of nice t-shirt material. I know, because I wear my Lucky Cat shirt all the time. Go to Bountee.com to claim yours.




Luc Latulippe t-shirts on Bountee.com - http://www.bountee.com/members/design/viewdesigner.jsp?id=10800

Luc Latulippe’s official website and blog - http://www.luclatulippe.com/

Cool Hunting's Top 5 Photographers of 2007

Lori Nix

Thanks to Jesse Alexander for this link. Cool Hunting is one of my favorite blogs, since materialism is one of my favorite pastimes. But I missed this post earlier this year. Cool Hunting named its favorite 5 photographers of 2007. I am especially impressed with Lori Nix and Thomas Allen, who fashion tiny dioramas and photograph them in cinematic lighting to create grand dramas. Check them out.

Thomas Allen

Lori Nix - www.lorinix.net
Thomas Allen at Foley Gallery - http://www.foleygallery.com/artists/artist_ins.php3?artist=8

If you like... number 2. Ronald Kurniawan

If you like Jeff Soto, then you’re sure to like 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 site - http://www.ronaldkurniawan.com/new%20frameset/frameset.htm