LOOK INTO MY OWL

The Brooklynite Gallery is opening in grand style with a print exhibition from BAST. The show, “Nose Candy”, offers new works exploring the theme of jewelry. BAST has a love for confusion, his foray into bling will be utter chaos. I can’t wait.
BAST doesn’t offer preview images for his shows. The image above, “Video 8″ silkscreen embellished with spray paint, is representative of recent work.
This is the inaugural exhibit for the Brooklynite. The new building was designed by the gallery’s director, Rae McGrath. The manifesto for this new space gave me the impression that the folks in charge have seen enough art to be certain when something works.

BAST
10 June - 12 July
Brooklynite Gallery
334 Malcolm X Blvd.
Brooklyn, NY

I woke up lacking energy looking for something to snap me out of it. Then I remembered this De La Doom track. Hard to beat this master flow. The crowd must have been psyched to see De La Soul and then out walks the metal face. You gotta love how CDilly says “Rock Co. Flow”.

Occasionally video installations can produce effects that are indistinguishable from magic. Peter Sarkisian accomplishes this feat time and again with each new piece. His current show at the I-20 in Chelsea promises to amaze.

Peter Sarkisian
9 May - 26 July
I-20 Gallery
NYC

Jet-Set Graffiti has put together this great video of classic KAWS. I’m still coming to grips with the fact that 1997 was more than a decade ago. Ugh. The video shows KAWS roaming NYC placing some of his first ads there.

Luke Chueh’s “She’s My Heroine” is on view at Copro Nason in Santa Monica through May 31. These paintings exemplify Chueh’s recurring theme, the struggle with addiction. His characters all seem to be manipulated by the external, things… and others. There is one piece in this body of new work that feels like a way out. “Mermade” (below) depicts a creature that has adapted to a new environment with the ability to repair herself.

Luke Chueh
She’s My Heroine
10 May - 31 May
Copro Nason

The master of “stuff”, Tom Friedman is about to descend on London. The Gagosian Gallery is playing host to Friedman’s show, “Monsters and Stuff” opening May 30th. As I write this there is only the above image “Green Demon” to ponder on the Gagosian website. Friedman is a living master. If you don’t know the man, check his work.

From Tom Friedman:
I titled this exhibition “Monsters and Stuff” both to create a conceptual backdrop, and to keep it open-ended. From a figurative standpoint, “monsters” represents the abnormal, which is open-ended, whereas “and stuff” states an unresolved conclusion.

Tom Friedman
Monsters and Stuff
30 May - 25 July
Gagosian Gallery
London

The sculpture pictured above is a typical example of how Stefano Cagol intends on playing with his auduence. Stefano is interested in our search for the better and how the global society seems content to ignore the potential risks involved in a quest without end. We see the disasters all the time from sterile corn to the lead paint in childrens toys.
In his latest show “Guinea Pig” at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art Stefano Cagol shows us that it is easy to be fooled into overlooking important information that lies under the surface. The piece above is a dirty trick indeed. On first glance one thinks, chocolates, yum, and then you realize that they are rats. This fact may put you off, but then they become desirable as the mind settles on the point that these rats would taste like chocolate. So you’ve decided to go for it, they are kind of cute rats anyway. Your first bite may be your last as the sweets here have been laced with rat poison!

Stefano Cagol
GUINEA PIG
A Mixed Media Project
April 10 - June 7, 2008

BLU has done it again with perhaps his most ambitious wall painted animation to date. MUTO spans 2007-08 and was conceived in Baden and Buenos Aires. It just goes on and on, everytime that you think that it must be over, something bigger happens. This one is a masterpiece. I can’t wait for someone to produce a DVD with all of BLU’s amazing videos in one place. Muto translated from Italian is “Dumb”.

This Saturday May 17th marks the opening of “Cyberdine” at the Last Rites Gallery in NYC. The show features works from painter Fred Harper (below) and sculptor Christopher Conte (above). I can’t wait to see how the show plays out in the space. It’s always fun to watch mediums mingling. If anyone gets any photos, please let me know via the FEED MY OWL link.

Cyberdine
Fred Harper . Christopher Conte
May 17, - June 29th 2008
Last Rites Gallery

Estelle Hanania has just wrapped up her show, “Roam the Lands”, at the Fat Galerie in Paris. The exhibition may be finished but you may check out the bizarre images at the artist’s web site. Hanania claims that her photos are “…islands, indepedent territories, lost in the middle of the ocean.”

Seattle based Scott Musgrove has released some beautiful prints. You won’t find them at his website, you’ll have to check the blog. All of the prints available are from editions of only 50. I like the “Dwarf Basket Horse”.

On May 16th, Laurie Simmons opens a new show of her early black and white photography. “Around the House” is a remembrance of the years 1976-78 in the life of the artist. The photo shown above, “Woman/Kitchen/Sitting”, is a strong example of the stereotype examination on which Laurie Simmons has based her career. The show runs through the end of June, more info at Carolina Nitch.