In anticipation of Suicide Machine opening this Saturday, August 8th

Interview by Gallery Three

Bryan Schnelle is concerned about the world. He depicts the flawless beauties of our time as we might find them in magazine spreads or on the big screen, but don’t take this as an affirming gesture. By masking the faces of America’s stars, Bryan highlights the lies being fed through our televisions and computer screens. His work advertises the imperfect nature of our aesthetic heroes, but if you blink, you might miss it.

Born and raised in Long Beach, California, Bryan is a lighthearted and amiable guy. He wears the demeanor of a California carefree spirit, yet he is sensitive to Hollywood’s contaminating hold on society. Bryan isn’t afraid to tell it as it is, and we are ready to hear it.

Read more »

Joshua Petker‘s paintings ring of high fashion and good taste, so it’s no surprise that he has joined forces with designer, Jared Gold, to produce a unique line. Tonight at Hollywood’s Club Social, a runway show will launch the highly anticipated Gold vs. Petker collaboration. We chatted with Joshua about the project:

“I draw a lot of influence from fashion photography and I’ve always been very interested in fashion design.  When I came across the work of Jared Gold a few years back I felt an immediate connection to his vision and to the world he creates for his runway shows, and realized I needed to reach out to him. Luckily for me he was familiar with my paintings and was immediately interested in combining our visions in some way and we became friends from afar, communicating via email from time to time.

A few years later he and I discussed developing a line, initially of really simple designs, but which has developed into something far beyond my expectations. It is a fascinating experience seeing someone develop a line of clothes based off something I produced on a canvas.  There are butterflies, ribbons, neon acid-washed outfits, and girls with pink hair and yellow and blue eye-shadow.  Jared calls our collaboration a ‘colored-gore-explosion’ and that pretty much sums it up.  I’m excited for the runway show this evening and hopeful everyone enjoys this experiment and the outcome.”

Erik Otto has one of the best artist blogs we’ve come across with high scores in frequency of updates, quality of images, and quality of content. He is always up to something, and he loves to share it his many fans. We picked up several great preview shots for Erik’s upcoming show, shown in black and white to keep up the suspense. Erik expands:

“I have now decided that every Friday I will update you with the progress of my upcoming show, Terrestrial Syndrome at The Shooting Gallery. I figure some order to the madness might be better for those who are interested in following along. Things are off to a good start, but as always, it will be a fight till the end as the real struggle is finding the time to dedicate to the craft. With less than 2 months to pull it off, I plan to create an all new body of work for this show that will hopefully even impress myself.”

See more at http://erikotto.com/blog/

Also check out Erik’s post about the current Fabric 8 shows featuring works by David Choong Lee, Damon Soule, Kelly Tunstall, Brett Amory and more.

Few people would say that The Great Recession has positively impacted their livelihood, but good news is finally here for San Francisco artists. In light of increasing storefront vacancies plaguing the city this year, the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development have put their heads together. They couldn’t have come up with a better solution: why not call on local artists to beautify these dark, empty spaces?

For the “Arts in Storefronts” program, a small stipend will be allotted to local artists to install their work in vacant storefronts of Taylor Street, Third Street, Central Market, and Lower 24th Street Corridors.

In the words of Luis R. Cancel, Director of Cultural Affairs for San Francisco: “This initiative is important for two reasons: it transforms vacant storefronts into attractive exhibition spaces and provides greater visibility to the creative community that calls San Francisco their home. Art in Storefronts recognizes the role that artists can play in promoting economic and community vibrancy.”

This is the kind of program that has potential to launch local artists’ careers and bring a bit of hope to the neighborhoods that need it most. We are especially excited to pass by the coming storefront installations in our beloved Tenderloin. With so many talented artists living in this district, the displays are bound to be impressive.

If you are an artist interested in this program, apply here: http://www.sfartscommission.org/

No matter what your usual style, this is your chance to get down with classic car culture. This means pinups, tattoos, tikis, pin striping, hot rods, and most importantly: vintage. Anything and everything retro will fly, so take a stroll back to the 40s, 50s and 60s for inspiration.

Donated artwork will be auctioned off to benefit the Bay Area Women’s & Children’s Center. On the evening of the event, September 26, all art will be hung in White Walls Gallery. Read more »

Next Tuesday, July 28th, marks the 2nd Annual Stars of San Francisco event put on by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This event celebrates the hard work of MDA volunteers that have been raising money to provide healthcare, durable equipment, research and summer activities for Bay Area children living with Muscle Disease.

The fundraising goal was set high at $2,400 per volunteer, and all who reached this impressive dollar amount will be interviewed by Fox Channel 2 at Tuesday’s event. In addition, all who helped to raise money big or small will receive a “goodie bag” of gifts from MDA’s sponsors. Donations can be made at the event through cash and check.

The Top Star who raises the most money by July 28th, 2024 will win a two night stay at The Fairmont hotel and a Nordstrom Spa package.

The Fairmont hotel is throwing this event, details below:

Penthouse Suite- The Fairmont San Francisco hotel

July 28th, 2024

5-8pm

RSVP by this Friday, July 24th.

To learn more about the many activities and programs of MDA, flip through Quest Magazine online or browse http://www.mda.org/

Photo source: MDA

The Shooting Gallery is proud to present “Terrestrial Syndrome” new works by Erik Otto and Kevin E. Taylor this September. This exhibit will include new works from ambitious paintings to delicate sketches with an installation that serves as the cornerstone for the show. Please join us for the opening reception on September 12th, 2024 from 7-11pm.

Together Otto and Taylor bring a surreal and vulnerable collection of art that explores innate human desires and fears. Although aesthetically different they share a common vision for “Terrestrial Syndrome”. Read more »

Creepmachine did a nice little write up on Mike Maxwell and Paul Chatem‘s current show, Until the Whistle Blows. If you haven’t already, top by The Shooting Gallery to see what all the hype is about.

This past weekend, July 11th at the Shooting Gallery was “Until the Whistle Blows” with new works from Paul Chatem and Mike Maxwell. This is the second time I have seen the two artists shown at the gallery and was very excited to see the new work they came up with. I knew I would be impressed, but I had no idea how much I would have missed out had I not gone to the reception. I was able to get around 40 photos of the paintings, and even made a little video showing the way that Paul Chatem’s painting work, (Paul Chatem Video). Hit the “read more” link for the rest of the photos are well as an extended write-up.

Mike Maxwell did wall paintings to go along with the acrylic on wood pieces. I talked with him a bit about what inspires him as well as his working process. His paintings are inspired by vintage photography, he uses the images as a starting ground for the works and feels that the older methods of photography gave the photos gave something special to them. Something people can identify with, even though these photos are often over a century old. The paintings are create in the opposite fashion of what I imagined. He starts with the textures using thin washes of acrylic, and then builds up the figures from there.

One of the things I always enjoy about Paul Chatem’s shows, are how all the paintings tie into an overall theme much like a comic does. The theme of these works were the Industrial Revolution, with many of the characters also taking on more animal forms. All of the paintings had this amazing aged quality to them, the metal parts were rusted, the color palette looked weathered and the most noticeable additions was gears and cogs added to the larger works and making up the bulk of some of the smaller ones. For this set of works Paul said that he got a few books on clock making and basically learned how to put it all together while making the paintings. In the end Paul had made works that are not only exciting to look at, but are designed for interactivity. Spin the wheels on these paintings and they jump to life as seen in the video linked above. It’s such an amazing idea and I do hope that more artists push themselves to try something new like this. We are accustomed to keeping our paws off the art we see in galleries, no matter how much we may want to handle them, so it’s a very odd experience and one could see the apprehension that most patrons in the gallery had. It took them a moment to feel comfortable touching the art, but once they gave it a try you could see the excitement each person felt at being an active participant in this exhibition. -Creepmachine

KMNDZ is on the books for The Shooting Gallery‘s group show coming up this October. While doing some research for KMNDZ’s press kit, we stumbled upon this video of him at work in the studio. We love seeing murals come to life, and KMNDZ’s broad sweeping strokes are a bit hypnotizing. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a Tenderloin mural during KMNDZ’s stay in San Francisco this October.

We were so excited when Juxtapoz invited our publicist, Jillian Mackintosh, to contribute a guest blog to their site. Since then she provided Jux readers with an inside look into White Walls, The Shooting Gallery, and Gallery Three, as well as the SF urban art scene.

In celebration of Lafe Eaves’ faun and flaura mural adorning the stairs to Gallery Three, Jillian created the following video. Check Jillian’s blog here for further updates and insight.