THESE Friends 2 Opening Night
On Friday, February 4th, THIS Los Angeles celebrated its one-year anniversary with an opening night party for the 2nd annual ‘THESE FRIENDS’ group show. Featuring the works of more than 113 contributing artists, the show brought together roughly 600 friends, fans and art aficionados for a night of shoulder-to-shoulder gawking, slippery BBQ, Phucket beer, sketchy tunes, and weirdly delicious Box Water. From beginning to end, the gallery was packed with more laughter, disbelief, and overcrowded chaos that you can rightly imagine. Was it a good time? View our Flickr set of the show how much of a good time.
For the event we again made 100 limited edition tote bags, (five of which we’re giving away via this here events blog today). The totes will go to the first five people to correctly spell the slang name of the decade we’re currently living in. Hint. Leave a comment on this blog post to enter.
Good luck!
PS. To the guy who stole the one-of-a-kind Polaroid of Dennis Hopper, please return it. THIS la is a community-supported art space. You likely attended the opening because you had friends with work in the show. On a scale of 1-to-10, stealing from your friends rates pretty lame. Thank you.
THIS Visits: Machine Histories
L.A.’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood is home to the studio of Jason Pilarski and Steve Joyner, the duo behind the design collaborative Machine Histories.
THIS Visits takes a look into the work and driving forces behind Machine Histories.
THIS Visits: Machine Histories
L.A.’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood is home to the studio of Jason Pilarski and Steve Joyner, the duo behind the design collaborative Machine Histories.
Just what is Machine Histories? Pilarski and Joyner explore forms by humanizing technology, working with new methods to create an array of spaces, furniture, products, and more. They treat tech in a way that doesn’t try to get the most resolution out of it, but instead breaks the resolution down.
Their website says it all, “The thread that links everything together is our belief in process and production, regardless of the medium or venue. Our comprehension or even aversion to a given process is what drives the production.”
THIS Visits takes a look into the work and driving forces behind Machine Histories.
Kudos and thanks to Noe Montes , who helped interview and shoot video for this visit.
THIS Visits: Eddy Sykes
Eddy Sykes is a man of many fascinations. THIS met up with Eddy at his studio in the Frog Town section of LA, where he melds architecture, sculpture, assembly, industrial design and whimsy to craft complex kinetic chandeliers that are as beautiful as they are inspiring. Some of his past projects include house plants and ashtrays carved out of bowling balls, sculptures built entirely from ostrich eggshells, a kinetic bacon and eggs… you get the drift.
THIS Visits: Danger
The 3rd video in the THIS Visits series features collage artist Danger. He refuses to participate with the world around him and has a general disdain for humanity. That said, he is mildly obsessed with Lady Gaga and has a real fondness for Roxy Music and Ladytron.
Incase at Art Basel, Miami Beach
We partnered with Surface magazine to sponsor its VIP lounge for the duration of Miami Art Basel, one of the most anticipated and exciting art shows in the US.
Surface magazine, in association with the Gansevoort South Hotel, present the Surface Lounge at Gansevoort South, a three-day event during the famed Art Basel Miami Beach. Eighteen stories above the ocean, the hotel’s Plunge rooftop is a tropical playground featuring a 110-foot-long pool on a 26,000-square-foot, palm-fringed Brazilian Ipe deck. (Can it get any better?)
During the day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Surface Lounge will host a 5,000-square-foot VIP area illuminated and furnished by Gandia Blasco, offering respite and refreshment for Art Basel participants scurrying to events and galleries. We will be providing the WiFi-ready Media Lounge complimented by a montage of short films featuring the artists from our Curated by Arkitip series, including KRINK, Parra, Steven Harrington, HunterGatherer and André.
Interview magazine will also be setting up shop, but this year at the Mondrian Hotel. In celebration of the magazine’s 40th birthday, they’ve taken over the hotel’s luxury Semi-Automatic vending machine to feature their Anniversary Collection, a curated installment of fascinating items such as archive Interview issues signed by Andy Warhol, tickets to the Paris Couture shows, a private jet, commissioned artwork by emerging young artists Asher Penn, Megan Plunkett and Luke Barber Smith, and product from the most recent Curated by Arkitip installment featuring André, signed by the artist himself. All are available for purchase.
Fingers crossed the weather holds out and Miami lives up to its vibrant, showy and sunny reputation. We’ll have more to share straight from the shows and celebrations, South Beach style. Stay tuned.
HIGHMATH
I finally received the latest Arkitip issue today. No. 0044 HIGHMATH. This time around, the magazine handed over all design responsibilities to Wood Wood, a Danish design collective. “Produced on the occasion of exhibition,” the issue also served as a working catalog for the self titled show being held in Berlin featuring an incredible group of creatives.
I’ve always been impressed with Arkitip’s ability to create a refreshingly new experience with each of their issues. For issue 0044, each magazine is packaged in a custom box commemorating the show in Berlin along with a 3D viewer and 3 image reels containing work from the exhibition.
Also featured in this issue is my latest ad showcasing our Nylon Backpack.
Be sure to check out more pics from the event in Berlin on the Arkitip Intelligence blog. Stay tuned…
Photo Sculptures
Check out the amazing work of Gwon Osang, who takes pictures of objects and reconstructs them with photos (via Make).
The Beck Guero Cover Artist
Marcel Dzama is an amazing Illustrator. Check out this BBC Collective interview and some of his work at Richard Heller Gallery.
