The Paintings of Hiro Kurata

Kurata's paintings translate his thoughts and experiences of growing up in America

Art4d.Asia has posted some new paintings by Hiro Kurata. Hiro has recently produced a beautiful series of paintings for his show "Home Field Disadvantage" at MotusFort Tokyo.

hiro kurata in studio

“As I was walking a ribbon of highway, I saw above me an endless skyway. I saw below me a golden valley. This land was made for you and me,” This Land Is Your Land, Woody Guthrie (1940). Hiro Kurata's recent series of paintings, “This Land Was Your Land,” reference the popular Woody Guthrie song in title and notions of self-identity amplified by living on foreign shores in imagery. Kurata, a Japanese born artist currently living and working in New York City, described that, for him, the song “was supposed to be a song about appreciating America, but as I started to grow up I realized that the land really belonged to someone else, rather than people there now...some things used to belong to someone, and now it belongs to someone else, and in the future it will be owned by another someone. Nothing will stay the same, it is all temporary, and therefore makes it precious.” The final stanza of Guthrie's lyrical take on America mirror Kurata's hesitations, stating “In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple, near the relief office - I see my people, and some are grumblin', and some are wonderin', if this land's still made for you and me.” Read More @ Art4d.Asia

Hiro Kurata "This Land Was Your Land" from Ivory & Black on Vimeo.

Holton Rower Pour Paintings Book

Pour Paintings limited edition art catalog by Holton Rower

Holton Rower's pour paintings are something that needs to be witnessed live prior to appreciating the final artworks.

This limited edition art book features the entire exhibition of Rower's work at the Hole. The art book highlights gallery installs, studio photos and texts by David Carrino and Kathy Grayson.

More Info / Purchase

Holton_Rower-Pour_Paintings1

Javier Péres - One of Ours - Art Book

Artist book & catalog for Perés' show at Grimmuseum

We are please to announce the release of a new artist book produced for Javier Perés' show "One of Ours" at Grimmuseum in Berlin.

This colour catalog showcases the artwork in the exhibition and is hand bound with a screenprinted jacket.

PURCHASE • Edition of 100 • 3 panel fold out serigraph cover (Exterior metallic silver / Interior Blue), deckled edge, archival printmaking paper. • 20 Colour pp. on white and metallic stock. • 28 x 23 cm • Published 2012

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Related Articles:

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH JAVIER PERES

By ANA FINEL HONIGMAN

As a gallerist in Berlin and Los Angeles, Javier Perés assembled and nurtured a roster of hard-partying art stars. He has offered a perfect platform for seminal work by Terence Koh, Joe Bradley, Dan Colen, Dash Snow, Agathe Snow, Kirstine Roepstorff, among others. And all along, the Havana-born former entertainment lawyer's own creativity was unmistakably the gallery's guiding spirit—his vision quite possibly defines the early 2000's art world. Continue reading at Interview Magazine

Check out Javier Perés’ fist solo show at the Grimmuseum in Berlin

by Jamie Martinez

It’s about time we get to see Javier Perés’ own art! Everyone in the art world is talking about it! The Grimmuseum, Berlin, presents “One of ours”, the first solo exhibition of the Berlin/Los Angles based, Cuban born artist, gallerist and writer, Javier Perés.  If anyone knows contemporary art it’s Perés, a man already highly respected in the industry for his ability to make superstars of the artists he chooses to represent. His artist roster includes or has included among others, assume vivid astro focus, Terence Koh, Kirstine Roepstorff, Dan Colen, Joe Bradley, Mark Titchner, Agathe Snow, Mark Flood and the late Dash Snow. Continue reading at ARTEFUSE

Javier Peres to Show at Grimmuseum

by PADDY JOHNSON

Famed art dealer Javier Peres – of Peres Projects – will cast his net a little wider in 2012, now venturing into the world of exhibiting art makers. Slated to open January 12th at Grimmuseum in Berlin, Peres’s work focus on the theme of collective and personal memory; in this case, realist paintings of River Phoenix. The 23-year-old Hollywood heartthrob died of a drug overdose in 1993. Continue reading at Art Fag City.

Hildebrand - Peepshow & Long Drop Book Launch

Dil Hildebrand : Peepshow & Long Drop Book Launch

9 septembre - 16 octobre 2010 /  9 September - 16 October 2010

Opening: Thursday, September 9th from 5:00 - 7:00 pm (the artist will be in attendance) Vernissage : le jeudi 9 septembre de 17h00 à 19h00 (en présence de l'artiste)

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Peepshow

"This is a process of seeing which invites the spectator to become an 'optical producer' as well as spectator - creating a theater for contemplation upon the act of seeing and the mechanics of representation.  This interactive drama plays out what is essential to all radical pictorial art, not the formulation of frozen iconic emblems that 'illustrate' ideas, but the active recognition...in the mind's eye during the contemplation of pictorial art of our own comparative experiences of the visual complexity of everyday life."

- Ian Wallace, from Corner of the Studio (1993) and El Taller (1993):  A Description and Reflection Upon Two Recent Works

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to present Peepshow, the latest solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Dil Hildebrand. For this, his third solo exhibition at the gallery, Hildebrand meditates on the theme of the artist's studio.  What results in Peepshow is a further negotiation of the opposing forces of space and surface within painting.  In characteristic fashion, a host of references converge in these new works; film, theatre, historical painting and documentary photography are all consciously evoked and explored here, revealing their influence throughout the exhibition.

Peepshow is, in one sense, a hall of funny mirrors, distorting the artist's studio and absurdly reflecting it as an alter ego of the gallery.  Deep and seductive, this new suite of paintings beckons all to come inside to the world inhabited by the now-absent artist, inviting them to consider their own relation to its artistic production.  Hildebrand gives us a veil of colour through which to peer into this private setting, and thereby renders us into dormant observers standing at the threshold.  While a theme of "transparent surface" is apparent in the paintings, this device seems rather to demonstrate how impervious the canvases truly are; from behind curtains of florid colour the paintings lure yet refuse to reflect.  In all, Peepshow may be regarded as a contemplation of the aesthetic, technical and hierarchical relations that exist between painting, drawing and photography.  By reversing the photographic image into the background, it is as though figure and ground have been inverted.  In this drama, the fore-grounded paint is no longer cast in its familiar role as ground but is thrown forward into a role playing itself, as a figure upon the stage.

In a new series of charcoal drawings, Hildebrand takes a different view of the studio.  Cast in dramatic lighting and framed in letterbox, these delicate drawings are quiet peeks into dark places within the workspace, as though gleaned from an imagined film noir. While appearing to be drawn from photographs, they are in fact drawn from life and lit from the artist's imagination.  One suspects just how filmic the imagination has become, considering the fidelity to photographic appearance that is evident in this work.

Dil Hildebrand was born in 1974 in Winnipeg, Canada. He obtained his MFA at Concordia University, Montreal in 2008. In 2006 he won the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and has since participated in many exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States and abroad.  In October 2010 he will exhibit new work at the 4th Beijing International Art Biennale 2010 in Beijing, China.  Upcoming exhibitions include a solo show at YYZ Artists' Outlet, Toronto, in Fall 2011.  He lives and works in Montreal.

The artist would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

All works being presented will be available for viewing on our web site during the vernissage (Thursday, September 9th at 5:00 pm)

BOOK LAUNCH

Saturday, September 25 at 2:30 pm (as part of Les journées de la culture)

Long Drop: The Paintings of Dil Hildebrand featuring essays by Louise Déry and Richard Rhodes, and an interview by Christine Redfern

Join us at the gallery for the Montreal launch of the new artist's monograph Long Drop: The Paintings of Dil Hildebrand published by Anteism Publishing and distibuted by the RCAAQ. Featuring a roundtable discussion with Hildebrand and Harley Smart (Anteism) on the challenges of publishing an artist's monograph.

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Peepshow

« Ceci est un processus du regard qui invite le regardeur à devenir ''producteur optique'' aussi bien que spectateur, créant de la sorte un théâtre de contemplation pour l'acte de regarder et la mécanique de la représentation. Ce drame interactif met en scène ce qui est essentiel à tout art pictural radical; non pas la formulation d'emblèmes iconiques statiques qui ''illustrent'' des idées, mais plutôt la reconnaissance active... au yeux de l'esprit, durant la contemplation de l'art pictural, de nos propres expériences comparatives de la complexité visuelle de la vie quotidienne. »

- Ian Wallace, Corner of the Studio (1993) and El Taller (1993):A Description and Reflection Upon Two Recent Works

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain (PFOAC) a le plaisir de présenter Peepshow, la plus récente exposition personnelle de peintures et de dessins de Dil Hildebrand. Pour sa troisième exposition personnelle à la galerie PFOAC, Hildebrand a choisi de méditer sur le thème de l'atelier d'artiste. Il en résulte un dialogue entre les forces opposées d'espace et de surface propres à la peinture. Typiques de l'approche de cet artiste, une variété de références convergent dans ces nouvelles œuvres : le cinéma, le théâtre, la peinture d'histoire et la photographie documentaire y sont tous sciemment évoqués et explorés, révélant leurs influences respectives dans l'ensemble de l'exposition.

Peepshow est une sorte de labyrinthe de miroirs, déformant l'atelier de l'artiste et le reflétant, de manière absurde, en tant qu'alter ego de la galerie. Séduisante et profonde, cette nouvelle suite de peintures nous invite à pénétrer dans l'univers d'un artiste désormais absent, nous invite à songer à notre propre relation à la production artistique qui y est présentée. Hildebrand nous offre un voile de couleur au travers duquel nous contemplons ce décor intime; nous devenons des observateurs passifs se tenant au seuil... d'un monde. Bien que les peintures révèlent aisément la « transparence » de leurs surfaces, ce thème, ou ce dispositif, semble plutôt démontrer la véritable imperméabilité des toiles; derrière leurs rideaux de couleurs flamboyantes, les peintures attisent, mais refusent de refléter. En somme, Peepshow peut être envisagée comme une contemplation des relations esthétiques, techniques et hiérarchiques existant entre la peinture, le dessin et la photographie. L'assignation de l'image photographique à l'arrière-plan crée une impression d'inversion de la figure et du fond. Dans ce drame pictural, la peinture d'avant-plan ne joue plus son rôle familier de fond, mais est propulsée en avant-scène, où elle incarne son propre rôle, en tant que figure scénique.

Dans une nouvelle série de dessins au fusain, Hildebrand adopte une approche différente pour sonder l'espace-atelier. Bénéficiant d'un éclairage dramatique et cadrés en mode LetterBox, ces dessins délicats sont des aperçus tranquilles de coins obscurs d'un espace de travail, un peu comme s'ils avaient été glanés d'un film noir imaginaire. Bien que donnant l'impression d'avoir été créés à partir de photographies, ils ont en fait été réalisés d'après nature et sont éclairés par l'imaginaire de l'artiste. L'on envisage d'ailleurs sans peine à quel point cet imaginaire est devenu filmique, vu la fidélité « photographique » des œuvres.

Dil Hildebrand est né en 1974 à Winnipeg, Canada. Il est titulaire, depuis 2008, d'une maîtrise en beaux-arts de l'Université Concordia, Montréal. En 2006, il a remporté le prix du Concours de peintures canadiennes RBC, et a depuis participé à plusieurs expositions au Canada, aux Etats-Unis et à l'étranger. En Octobre 2010, il présentera des œuvres inédites à la 4e Biennale internationale d'art de Pékin, en Chine. Son travail sera également présenté à l'occasion d'une exposition personnelle à YYZ Artists' Outlet, à Toronto, à l'automne 2011. Dil Hildebrand vit et travaille à Montréal.

L'artiste souhaite remercier le Conseil des Arts du Canada et le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

L'ensemble des oeuvres présentées seront disponibles sur notre site web lors du vernissage (le jeudi 9 septembre à 17h00).

LANCEMENT DE MONOGRAPHIE

le samedi 25 septembre à 14h30 (dans le cadre des Journées de la culture)

Long Drop : Les peintures de Dil Hildebrand avec des textes de Louise Déry et Richard Rhodes, et une entrevue de Christine Redfern

Joignez-nous à la galerie pour le lancement montréalais de la nouvelle monographie Long Drop : Les peintures de Dil Hildebrand publiée par Anteism Publishing distribuée par le RCAAQ. Il y aura un pannel de discussion avec Hildebrand et Harley Smart (Anteism) sur les défis de produire une monographie.

Long Drop: The Paintings of Dil Hildebrand

LONG DROP: THE PAINTINGS OF DIL HILDEBRAND.

A book featuring Hildebrand’s paintings from 2006-2009

In only a few years since Hildebrand has emerged onto the Canadian art scene, he has produced an impressive oeuvre of paintings and drawings, composed of complex spatial environments and nods to historical painting, including trompe l'oeil, romantic landscape painting and surrealism.

Dil Hildebrand received his Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montréal in 2008, won the Royal Bank of Canada Painting competition in 2006, and is now represented by Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montreal. He currently lives and works in Montréal.

This lavishly illustrated book represents the first comprehensive survey of Hildebrand's oeuvre, including works from 2006-present. Featuring an introduction by Richard Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art Magazine, a critical essay by Louise Déry from Galerie de l'UQAM, and an interview with Dil Hildebrand by Christine Redfern.

View Online Shop | Purchase Book

Woodpile Collective - The Mend is Very Near.

Boucherat Gallery has created a great video of the Woodpile Collective's most recent exhibition "Knew". The video includes an interview with the crew's Sean McLaughlin, Blythe Hailey, and Shawn O'Keefe. The show included an amazing module art shack, made from found materials, screen prints, West Coast aboriginal influenced wooden masks and Woodpile's well known large collaborative paintings. Traditionally trained sign painters Chris and Stu Dobell contributed some amazing hand painted signage, while Darren Heise set the mood with a funny but sometimes spooky animation which played in the background on a big old wood framed T.V. Knew: Works by the Woodpile Collective

Other / Troy Lovegates Art & Prints For Sale

Artist known as "Other" aka. Troy Lovegates has some beautiful original artworks and hand printed linocuts for sale through his Flickr site. Check them out. If you can't reach him give us a shout and and we'll forward his email.

hello everyone.... i am sending you all some new images printed this summer and a couple of paintings i have made...to raise funds to pay my wonderful printer who i printed linoleums with all summer in boiling hot manhattan..... there are thirty prints of each different image available and three original paintings on wood here is a price list of the images.

Aaron Noble - Rebuilding a Super Heroe

Aaron Noble's paintings look like super heroes deflating like a balloon and zig-zagging across the universe. Aaaron uses images found in 90's comics (most notably published by IMAGE). Theses abstracts are instantly recognizable as comic like to some, but comic readers will see the image as a mashup of characters. These characters have been brilliantly transformed to erase the branding and identity that has been painstakingly designed into the series.

Nobles's paintings brought to mind Jeff Koons series EasyFun-Ethereal although much more abstract. Koons does not abstract his imagery as much as crop and collage but it is the use of certain parts to create the new which is similar. Whether we've eaten a"Pop Tart" or not our generation will identitfy and the same goes for comics. These super human characters seem to have lost their extraordinary powers due to the lack of human muscle structure, but gained god like status.

James Kirkpatrick - Foolish Mortals

James Kirkpatrick has a show coming up at Studio 21 entitled "Foolish Mortals" which is a series of new paintings. Check out James' collaborative work with Peter Thompson in our newly released book Brain Trust.

"I have recently revisited science fiction and adventure comics of the 50's, 60's, and my childhood in the 80’s. This return to what originally gave me the urge to create art has sparked in me the initiative to once again make my own comics, and to create figures with possible identities and histories.

Looking at my collection of old graphic novels, I was reminded of my attraction to the quickly done line work and mistaken colour placement that appears on less important characters in the background of older comic panels. I would watch for errors and often correct or alter the comic with pen and pencil crayon, as if these mistakes gave me permission to participate with the author. In my mind I was helping out—putting on the finishing touches and completing the visual language of the story. The majority of the paintings for Foolish Mortals began with drawings based on figures and characters from my own comics, new and old. In the painted representations of these characters I have purposely worked in a manner that copies the imperfect colouring and loose-yet-confident line work I would often consider accidental. In these paintings I have also created marks using pencil and pencil crayon to fill in the details of the figures in a fashion similar to that which I would use in "fixing" comics from my own collection.

Whereas figures and shapes in my previous paintings were defined by allowing the colours and lines to develop through a process of layering and editing, the work in Foolish Mortals gets much more directly to the point with new deliberate colour placement, detailing, and line work. "

-James Kirkpatrick

James Kirkpatrick was born in London, Ontario, and graduated with a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2002. He has taken part in many exhibitions as both artist and curator, nationally and internationally from Ontario to Quebec and California to New York. His work is in numerous private and public collections, and commissions include: Buck 65: Synethesia, Album cover art, Endemic Music, Halifax, NS., Interior Mural, P.R.S. DJ Services, London, ON., and Lower Haight Banner Project, Upper Playground, San Francisco, CA. His most recent achievement is an artist residency that will take place at Struts Gallery in New Brunswick.

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun's strategy is to document and promote change in contemporary Indigenous history through large scale acrylic on canvas pieces with brush and/or a palette knife. He makes use of vivid colours and his work presents a positive aesthetic impression as well as expression of content that is often bi-cultural. In his work Yuxweluptun uses Coast Salish cosmology, Northwest Coast formal design elements, and the Western landscape tradition. His painted works explore political, environmental, and cultural issues. His personal and socio-political experiences enhance this practice of documentation. Yuxweluptun's work has been included in numerous international group and solo exhibitions, such as INDIGENA: Contemporary Native Perspectives in 1992. He was the recipient of the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts (VIVA) award in 1998.

Much of the content of his work is derived from contemporary Native social and political issues. His father at one time was President of the North American Indian Brotherhood and his mother was Executive Director of the Indian Homemakers Association.

Erik Volet : Painted Heads

Erik Volet currently has a show at the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. The show is called Painted Heads and is a collection of new oil paintings. The show is only up for a brief time so make your way down the CAC quick! January 1-7th Sat/Sun 12noon -4pm

G6 1001 Douglas Street - Victoria.

In case you don't get a chance to checkout the show here are some snapshots.

Dave Kinsey - New Works

Some amazing new artwork by Dave Kinsey posted over at Fecal Face. (As well as some trip photos)

Mizaru Kikizaru Iwazaru (Three Monkeys), 2008, acrylic, spray paint and ink on canvas, 46 x 34 inches

CollÔªøin van der sluijs

CollÔªøin van der sluijs is a telented painter from the Netherlands. Since 2004 Collin has collaborated on various national and international projects with illustrator and painter Rutger Termohlen. Both artists share the same vision on life and work which results in collaboration canvasses and installations, stories about daily life and questioning the consumption society we live in. A reaction in visuals combined with text, who make eachother stronger or can break eachother down, depending on the subject that is painted. The work from Rutger Termohlen and Collin van der Sluijs is published in international magazines and showed in galleries ( individual shows and collaboration projects) in: Berlin, Barcelona, Florence, Amsterdam, Maastricht, Gent, Paris, Antwerp, Rotterdam, New York, to name a few.

The Artwork & Illustrations of Luke Best

Luke Best's cut out bits of paper, fragmneted drawings and other elements are used to create work that celebrates the unseen and find magic in the everyday

By avoiding a specific way of working Lukes output takes on a diverse range of formats including video,animation, self published books, designing t-shirts and making home-made spacesuits

Since Grauduating from the RCA Luke has worked in a Music video directing patnership known as Rosco & Best, a freelance Illustrator represented in London and New York by Heart Agency and is part of the Illustration Collective Peepshow

© Luke Best - Swimmer

Howie Tsui - Of Shunga and Monsters

Howie Tsui has a new series of painting/drawings up on his site. I had a chance to see Howie's band The Acorn play with Obijou the other night. They are currently on a North American tour heading down through the states. If your into folky indie rock go see them , they put on a good show. Check out Howie Tsui's art in the book theMAKE.

Robert Bateman - Not a Pretty Picture

I can't stand the not in my back yard attitude. Everyone consumes oil but no one wants the waste in their eyesight. I changed my mind when I realized that there has been a ban on oil tankers for the last 35 years why risk catastrophe now!

For over 35 years the coastal waters of BC have been protected from oil tanker traffic. This ban on tankers is now under threat. Plans to build pipelines and a supertanker port in Kitimat by Enbridge are moving forward with support from the BC and Canadian governments. But there is still time to save our coast.

Join the successive generations that have successfully kept oil tankers out of BC waters for over thirty years. The first step is signing the petition.

Steve Kim - Painting Process

Steve Kim is a painter residing in Los Angeles, currently attending Claremont Graduate University. I'm a sucker for a chance to see other artists process. Steve Kim has documented his painting process of a current painting he is working on.

Painting process slideshow.

Andrew Brandou - Childrens Books & LSD

I could look at the illustrations of Andrew Brandou all day long. Andrew's work is inspired by children’s books and LSD, Charles Manson, and opium dens. Hovering skulls,flowers and storm troopers are recurring images as well as the cute little animals carrying weapons that you find hard to believe could be deadly. Maybe there are no orange bands on the barrel of those rifles for a reason.

"After Audubon" is a series of paintings featuring the work of John Audubon revisited to include Harajuku fashion, vinyl toys and other pop culture icons. Andrew's seamless integration of these pop culture icons is both impressive and hilarious.

Check out more artwork by Andrew Bradou through his online portfolio. If your in or around Portland stop by the allways awesome GrassHut gallery to view some of Andrew's work in person at his current show "From the Funk Drawer"

Mitchell Wiebe - Imagination Nation

Mitchell Wiebe is a painter and musician based in Halifax. Check out more of his current exhibition at Gallery Page and Strange.

Charlotte Cynthia Walton - Givers

If your in Vancouver you definitely have to check out "Givers" an art show displaying the work of Charlotte Cynthia Walton. The show runs from July 26 through till Sept 01, 2008 at El Kartel on Robson Street in Vancouver.

This show is all about the givers in my life the ones who have kept me strong and sentimental, the people who give constantly and don't ask for anything in return, bless your hearts this is a celebration for you!  Each of us brings inspiration and guidance to this beautiful world. We are all brilliant as brilliant as we want to shine. Much love has gone into making this for you, and I hope much love will continue to inspire others to do just things in this life. The more you practice your ideals the easier it will be for you to become them. For me it is being sincere, creative, and taking care to give more than I take from this earth.