Wednesday, 13 November 2013 10:47 Written by Trippe
Every have one of those mornings where you start following links and the next thing you know you're watching a news reel clip of the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 that was held on the brand new man-made Treasure Island?
The fair was intended to celebrate the opening of two bridges, the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge.
Tiffany Bozic's solo show Sense of Wonder is in its final week at San Francisco's FFDG. Before this wonderful show comes to a close, we wanted to ask Bozic about her methodology, lifestyle, influences and generally what makes her tick.
Felidae -
acrylic on maple panel, 2013 -
18" x 24" -
pricing & availability: info(at)ffdg.net
You normally work in a much larger scale. Why did you choose the smaller size for the works?
I decided to make these small paintings for two main reasons. The first reason was to explore things I've always wanted to try but never quite fit into the larger paintings. The second reason was to just sit down and make a painting every 2-3 days of whatever I was interested in at the time. It felt very fun and liberating.
Goldfish & Tadpoles -
acrylic on maple panel, 2013 -
8" x 8"
Calligraphy -
acrylic on maple panel, 2013 -
20" x 14"
Obviously your work reflects a skewed and creative reflection of the natural world. How do you come up with your creatures and pairings?
I don't really know where the ideas come from. I've always had an immense appetite for exploring and discovering new things to paint. I really try to go back to being a kid with no inhibitions, to be self unaware and happily captivated by whatever I'm doodling.
When I was younger I spent a lot of time alone outdoors constantly turning stones to discover something cool to draw. Later I would bring that critter back to my studio and make a drawing of it. I suppose I am still doing that. I'm still that little kid at the kitchen table with a pad of paper letting the pencil carry me away into another world.
Strigiformes -
acrylic on maple panel, 2013 -
12" x 16"
Chiroptera -
acrylic on maple panel, 2013 -
6" x 6"
You recently moved up to Marin with your family. How has the transition been from city to a more relaxed surrounding?
I've always wanted to be able to complain about the deer eating every plant I put in the ground, and now I can finally do that!
We moved into a cottage under the redwood trees at the foot of Mt. Tamalpais. From outside our door there are 5 miles of open space until it drops into the ocean. I feel like I am already becoming part of the land and I enjoy all the diverse organisms living around my house. I notice the grand change of seasons and the tiny changes that silently move along like the banana slugs that I pick up and move off the trail when I go for hikes. For the first time in my life I feel humbled and grateful to have finally found my home.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013 11:44 Written by Rachel Ralph
The John Berggruen gallery is beautiful. With floor-to-ceiling windows and a view to downtown, the Thursday night opening of NYC's Julian Lethbridge's new show Paintings was unmistakably a fancy affair. While these incredibly expensive paintings didn't do much for me, I was pleasantly surprised that I caught the Chuck Close show upstairs.
Chuck Close's show has works on paper that Close made in the last forty years, spanning his long and illustrious career. Because of the opening downstairs, I got to be alone with Close's works and really engage with them. However, I would guess that you too could spend some alone time with these wonderful paintings and drawings, a great escape if you're downtown doing any holiday shopping. The serenity of the gallery might just help you get through the holidays without killing any other shoppers, so go ahead and stop by.
For random additional reading, read about the time that painter Lethbridge and his girlfriend, millionaire Anne Bass, were held captive and injected with mystery liquid by fired employee in ransom bid HERE
Words & Photos: Rachel Ralph - rachel(at)fecalface.com
Julian Lethbridge
Julian Lethbridge
Chuck Close
Chuck Close, Self Portrait/Maquette, 1977, Gelatin silver print with graphite, ink, and tape mounted on foamcore, 20" x 16"
Cartagena takes photographs in Monterrey, Mexico, documenting parts of everyday life there that he sees as depicting "a global issue from a local perspective." In a town that has a relatively new, booming construction market, Cartagena decided to document a side of the day laborers' lives that might not often be seen: the commute to and from work at various construction sites.
Got an email from Emanuele Pizzolorusso, a Helsinki based industrial designer, yesterday to let us know about his latest project Lucetta: a smart set of two small magnetic bicycle lights. Never seen them in person. Have no idea if they're worth a hoot or not, but the concept is pretty interesting and simple. Looks like a great idea to us.
We had no idea what the hell Cosplay was when we first saw these images. Had a feeling it had something to do with Comic Con people who are really into their D&D/ mythical/ cartoon/ video game/ comic book characters and really enjoy playing dress up and getting into some serious role playing action... An extension of Furry fandom? In any event the Cosplay costumes can get very involved/ boobie.
These portraits of Cosplayers in their homes are taken by Klaus Pitchler and are part of his series Just the Two of Us. Below are just a few of our favorites. For more, be sure to check his site HERE.
COPENHAGEN --- US graffiti/ street artist/ letter/ design artist, Steve Powers just completed a mural project for the US Embassy in Copenhagen on a 55-meter long temporary wooden construction wall. Henrik brings us PHOTOS of Powers and his helpers working on the mural from the other day. PHOTOS
We wanted to do something different. The long, grey temporary construction wall in front of the Embassy building site provided us with a perfect opportunity, and V1 Gallery helped us identify just the right artist. With his mural, Steve pays tribute to a Danish icon, Hans Christian Andersen, whose stories many Americans grew up with, myself included" says Emily Ronek, Cultural Attaché, at the U.S. Embassy. "I am really excited about this, and I hope the thousands of Copenhageners who pass by the Embassy every day will enjoy this as a token of the great friendship between Denmark and the U.S. ~read on
I don't think at this point it needs to be written since the last update to Fecal Face was a long time ago, but...
I, John Trippe, have put this baby Fecal Face to bed. I'm now focusing my efforts on running ECommerce at DLX which I'm very excited about... I guess you can't take skateboarding out of a skateboarder.
It was a great 15 years, and most of that effort can still be found within the site. Click around. There's a lot of content to explore.
Hit me up if you have any ECommerce related questions. - trippe.io
I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.
SF skateboarding icons Jake Phelps, Mickey Reyes, and Tommy Guerrero with the 3 SF Giants World Series Trophies
When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.
Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading
"Six Degrees" opens tonight, Friday Jan 16th (7-10pm) at FFDG in San Francisco. ~Group show featuring: Brett Amory, John Felix Arnold III, Mario Ayala, Mariel Bayona, Ryan Beavers, Jud Bergeron, Chris Burch, Ryan De La Hoz, Martin Machado, Jess Mudgett, Meryl Pataky, Lucien Shapiro, Mike Shine, Minka Sicklinger, Nicomi Nix Turner, and Alex Ziv.
"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on
As we work on our changes, we're leaving Squarespace and coming back to the old server. Updates are en route.
The content that was on the site between May '14 and today is history... Whatever, wasn't interesting anyway. All the good stuff from the last 10 years is here anyway.
Opening tonight, Friday May 23rd (7-10pm) at Park Life in the Inner Richmond (220 Clement St) is Again Home Again featuring works from the duo Jacob Mcgraw-Mikelson & Rachell Sumpter who split time living in Sacramento and a tiny island at the top of Pudget Sound with their children.
Jacob Magraw will be showing embroidery pieces on cloth along with painted, gouache works on paper --- Rachell Sumpter paints scenes of colored splendor dropped into scenes of desolate wilderness. ~show details
NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?
The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.
Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON
Los Angeles based Alison Blickle who showed here in San Francisco at Eleanor Harwood last year (PHOTOS) recently showed new paintings in New York at Kravets Wehby Gallery. Lovely works.
We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...
If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.
Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.
Nate Milton emailed over this great short Gator Skater which is a follow-up to his Dog Skateboard he emailed to us back in 2011... Any relation to this Gator Skater?
Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.
In a filmmaker's thinking, we wish more videos were done in this style. Too much editing and music with a lacking in actual content. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.
FFDG is pleased to announce an exclusive online show with San Francisco based Ferris Plock opening on Friday, April 25th (12pm Pacific Time) featuring 5 new medium sized acrylic paintings on wood.
Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.
San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.
Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.
Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.
The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.
With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding
I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle
While walking our way across San Francisco on Saturday we swung through the opening receptions for Kirk Maxson and Alexis Mackenzie at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in the Mission.
Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.
Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.
For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.
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