HalfAChicken.com - 10/3/14 - Adventure Time show creator quits

Originally published on 10/3/14 at HalfAChicken.com
https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/103

If you’ve never heard of Adventure Time before, just know that it’s the closest thing to an acid trip that the FCC will allow on a child-focused television network. It is generally described as a “surreal post-apocalyptic animated saga” as well as “the trippiest show on TV” (Strauss 2014), but really, words don’t do it justice. The bright color palettes, quirky and memorable characters, and juvenile-level antics and adventures can make you almost overlook the copious amounts of erratic and nonsensical shit that takes place. Almost.

Think of Adventure Time as a G-rated version of Ren & Stimpy…I use the term “G-rated” loosely here.

There’s really no way to properly describe Adventure Time to someone who has never seen the show. Everything from dimensional travel, parallel realities, convoluted plotlines, and the cast of characters’ deep-seated origin stories are explored the series’ 176 episodes, each of which is only 11 minutes long. It is the sort of sensory ass-kicking that needs to be experienced in order to be understood. It’s not like there’s any drugs or sex in the program, mind you. This is a show focused towards kids, after all. But with that in mind, the content can get pretty outlandish and downright disturbing at times.

…seriously, what the fuck is wrong with that bird?

In fact, the show delivers such a strong, well-written subliminal mindfuck that you would think its creator Pendleton Ward, who recently left the show, would have been forcibly checked into the nearest mental hospital due to a severe schizophrenic breakdown before he would leave (calm and collected) of his own accord.

But alas, none of that actually happened. The story is much simpler (and far less exciting) than that. Ward, who is mellow and introverted and just about the farthest thing from a psychopath as you can get, cited stress and exhaustion from trying to keep up with the growing magnitude of the show’s popularity as his cause for departure.

And who can blame him? Adventure Time is HUGE right now. “It’s a beast of a show,” Ward told Rolling Stone. “And the more popular it gets, the more the ancillary things – like the merchandise and games and everything – keeps getting bigger.” (Strauss 2014).

Sometimes merchandising can be a good thing though…=3

Tom Kenny, who voices the bubbly titular character on Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants and the misguided and narcissistic Ice King in Adventure Time, noted Ward’s weariness, which is particularly reflected in the character of the Ice King. “The way the Ice King feels [is] like he’s going mad and things are spinning out of his control,” Kenny tells Rolling Stone. “I’m sure Pen [Ward] has felt like he’s losing his grip on reality because he’s the arbiter of everything.” (Strauss 2014).

Ward himself seems to echo these sentiments. “[Like the Ice King, I have] a craving to be social and hang out with nice people and have them think I’m nice, which doesn’t make any sense to me.” (Strauss 2014).

A chest kick from Finn still doesn’t hurt as much as a chest kick from life.

However, fans of Ward’s work need not fret, for the ambitious animator still has plenty of projects up his sleeve, including writing an Adventure Time movie and creating an original video game, as well as dabbling in some cooperative projects with his friends in the form of a short called Animation Pals. Above all, though, Ward looks to do something that he will enjoy and get excited about without exceeding “the confines of what [his] brain can handle.” (Strauss 2014).

After overseeing the birth of nearly 200 episodes of kid-friendly, over-the-top mindfuckery, his brain has definitely earned a break.

This is your brain on Adventure Time. Literally.

SOURCES

Strauss, Neil. “’Adventure Time’: The Trippiest Show on Television.” 2 Oct. 2014. Rolling Stone. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

Adventure Time cast of characters image – http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/177f08ad24bd8552db7c49d0cb15da44/200549717/2468603-38304-adventure-time-adventure-time-characters.png

Ren & Stimpy GIF – http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E2uMuAXi4yo/UaIKSmVkrJI/AAAAAAAAAgk/4qNADG1e9n4/s1600/mansbestfriendgif.gif

Adventure Time bird image – http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NljxtaJv-68/hqdefault.jpg

Adventure Time girls image – http://cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/thumbs/adventure-time-styles.jpeg

Finn and Ice King image – http://www.gamrreview.com/media/images/adventuretime05-02049458617268569528109134959050.jpg

Brain Beast image – http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110727224727/adventuretimewithfinnandjake/images/c/c1/S1e4_Brain_Beast.png

HalfAChicken.com - 10/2/14 - Has Cirque du Soleil lost its touch?

Originally published on 10/2/14 at HalfAChicken.com
https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/102

The Spell is Broken: Has Cirque du Soleil lost its touch?

With its penchant for death-defying acrobatic routines, grandiose visual flair, and overall vibe of whimsy and mystery, the famed fantastical French-Canadian feature of the Vegas stage known as Cirque du Soleil is truly a unique offering. I’ve watched quite a few Cirque shows now, and each show brings its own flavor to the table, from the oriental fire-themed Ka to the sensual and sexy Zumanity. Just about every major hotel on The Strip houses its own Cirque soiree, and you can literally spend all week watching all of them and never run out of things to see.

Or you can just watch Zumanity over and over again. Your call.

HOWEVER! It is inevitable that all good things must come to an end. Sure, you probably won’t feel it at first. You’ll hit the sublime Cirque show trifecta of KA, O, and Mystere and still be giddy as a schoolgirl. Zumanity will probably continue to titillate you for a few cold nights after you see it. Heck, maybe you’ll dust off the shiny glove and black jacket and get reacquainted with Michael Jackson at ONE…in a platonic, respectable way, of course. *AHEM*

C’mon Cirque, the trial was almost 10 years ago. LET IT GO.

But like every TV show you loved and watched, eventually it starts to get stale. Sooner or later, you’ll sit down to a more recently-released Cirque show and walk out thinking to yourself, Huh, that was just…okay. It will lack the “pop” and polish of the earlier shows you’ve seen. Or worse, it will leave you with a feeling of disappointed repulsion, kind of like the sequels to The Matrix (which many people, including myself, still deny the existence of).

Yeah, watching the sequels to The Matrix kinda feels like that. Only in your balls.

Let’s take a look at the last Cirque show I saw: Michael Jackson ONE. I’ve been a fan of MJ’s career since my dad showed his music to me back in the 90’s, and I’ll admit to trying to learn how to moonwalk because it looked so cool in the videos. However, I felt that ONE was a complete miss on Cirque’s part. It’s not that the show didn’t have its moments; the neon-lit suits dancing to “Billy Jean” in the shadows and the people moonwalking up and down the walls of the theater were actually pretty cool. But overall, there was nothing really making it more defined or memorable compared to other shows, unless you count the fact that they turned the lights down every time an acrobatic or dance routine started and attempted to use strobes and special effect lighting as their sole source of illumination.

Oh hey, the lights came back–…uh, I’d like them back off please.

ONE is an example of a disappointing plague of “not trying hard enough anymore” that seems to have spread rampantly among the showrunners of Cirque. While it is true that each show still has its own theme and sense of aesthetics, there are some that are clearly more creative and thought-out than others.

When you look at shows like O or Ka, they have this “big” feeling about them. The scenes fully encompass their themes of water and fire, respectively, and everything is done on a grand scale, from the giant complex acrobatics to the clever incorporation of their elements into the outfits and settings. You can tell that the people who made those shows knew exactly what they wanted and executed it beautifully.

In contrast, the newer shows don’t feel as polished. ONE felt like a hodgepodge of MJ music video clips that attempted to cover and sum up the King of Pop’s illustrious career, but instead came off as an elementary school art collage cobbled together by people who were never in the same room at the same time as each other. Zarkana’s aesthetic of “trippy magical circus” seemed a little redundant, since just about every other Cirque show is already inherently representative of a magical carnival-esque occasion while still having their own unique themes on top of that. (Although maybe Zarkana’s lack of a real theme is a theme itself, in which case bravo to the writers for actually being clever). And when watching the classical cinema-themed Iris, one can’t help but think that they took the entirety of their special effects and acrobatic equipment budget and put it towards making costumes via cobbling vintage outfits and spare camera parts together, the results of which should never have even left the concept art stage of production.

Plus, the stage design for Iris was H.P. Lovecraft-level horrifying.

I can’t tell if I should be laughing or frightened.

I know I sound like an old fart for saying all this, but the Cirque that I grew up loving had enchanted and awed me with its creativity and brilliance. Whoever is running the show nowadays has clearly tried to make things too hip, too current, too contemporary, and as a result, the Circus Under the Sun has trapped itself within a perpetual eclipse of mediocrity. Luckily for them, the solution is simple. Cirque can reclaim the magic it once had by going back to what it does best: embracing the story they’re trying to tell, doing it big, doing it epic, and never forgetting the whimsy and mystery that drew people to the show in the first place. I still hold on to the hope that my beloved Cirque will find its way once again, but until then, I’ll enjoy re-watching the 3 or 4 shows I actually do like.

Next article: the top 5 ways to keep those annoying brats off your lawn.

Sources

Zumanity image – http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/6I_rxW7iVUM/hqdefault.jpg

Matrix Revolutions image – http://cdn3.whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/001.jpg

Michael Jackson ONE images -
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/07/29/business/29jackson2/29jackson2-popup.jpg
http://lasvegas.showtickets.com/cdn/site/582x270-3.jpg

Iris image - http://www.seeing-stars.com/Images/Places/Iris-Stage.jpg

Clint Eastwood image – http://www.quickmeme.com/img/e4/e4e28c2873829c59f3d5f554ca7f7e3ec07018daf7fdb433d11d9a7585836590.jpg

HalfAChicken.com - 10/1/14 - Kimbra at The Bootleg Theater, Silver Lake, CA

Originally published on 10/1/14 at HalfAChicken.com
https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/100

Hearing the name “Kimbra” probably won’t register anything of note in your head, unless you actually paid attention to the colorful and trip-tastic video for Gotye’s (one) hit song “Somebody that I Used to Know.” She was the decidedly less-freaky-looking one in this disconcerting still art come to life.

Remember when this song was actually a thing? Yeah, neither do I.

But regardless of whether or not Kimbra makes any blips on your musical radar, one thing we can all agree on is that there’s nothing better than a free show, and having even one sort-of-familiar-sounding artist on the bill is a very welcomed bonus. I got the opportunity to see Kimbra for free at the humble and hipstery hole-in-the-wall known as The Bootleg Theater this past weekend. This show marked the end of her residency at The Bootleg, and would feature songs from her latest album, The Golden Echo, which was released back in August.

To be honest, I walked into this show completely blind. I had no prior knowledge of what Kimbra’s music sounded like, and other than my rather presumptuous hypothesis that all her stuff would emulate that one Gotye song in some way, I had no real expectations for what I would hear. Still, this is why I go to local shows. LA is a rich cornucopia of art and culture; there’s always something to discover, good or bad. Chance favors the bold, and serendipity had thus far been a very rewarding mistress to me when it came to hitting up random venues to see bands I barely knew.

Well, as it turned out, my Gotye hypothesis was partially right, in the sense that just like watching Gotye’s freaky video, watching Kimbra perform was a sensory mindfuck from beginning to end.

If your idea of décor involves Technicolor skulls and bad TV reception…you just might be an indie artist.

Kimbra’s music is generally described as “jazz-inspired electropop” with influence drawn from Imogen Heap, Prince, Rufus Wainwright, and Mike Patton, among others. A very good playlist indeed, and seemingly nothing out of the ordinary about it. One of my concert compatriots even mentioned hearing her previous album Vows and saying that it sounded like “normal music,” whatever that means.

What we heard at this show, however, was a total “fuck-it-all” to any notions of radio-friendly commercial normalcy, delving into a realm of aural oddities and ambient white noise that threw us for a complete loop. For those looking for a crash course into the musical direction Kimbra took in The Golden Echo, the best way I can describe it is to imagine a vinyl player churning out psychedelic(er) remixes of Bjork songs down an empty sewer tunnel, with a cat providing accompaniment by blindly pawing at the keys of a broken grand piano. That’s sort of what it sounded like while Kimbra was playing. I don’t know if that was intentional or if the sound guy was mixing it badly or what. All I know is that whether it was out of mesmerized curiosity or flabbergasted confusion, Kimbra held my attention, which was probably the point anyways.

Actually, seeing this at the show would have been a huge improvement.

That’s not to say that it was completely unbearable to listen to. Actually, I found it to be quite the opposite; the layering of all the different sounds made for an interesting and developed “sound world” that really filled up the meager space of The Bootleg’s “Space Jam” theater, and Kimbra’s scatty and yipping vocalizations matched the playful energy she radiated as she skipped and danced around the stage. The crazy visual projections you see in the pictures above really helped to pull the performance together as well, turning the stage into a “living music video” of sorts, where the audience was not only witness to the experience, but a central part of the experience as well. All in all, it was surprisingly entertaining for what it was.

Looking back at it, the real crux of the concert’s shortcomings fell mainly upon our musical palettes. Most of the people in the audience were used to these sort of off-beat noise experiments, indicative of an underground scene that was known and enjoyed by only a select few. For them, this music was pure magic, filling them up with a strange primal energy that, combined with a little alcohol- and cannabis-induced inspiration, moved them to sway and dance and clap and get lost in Kimbra’s freeform, unstructured ambience.

These folks should start a club.

However, to us, the decidedly “mainstream-adjusted” listeners, this music was a little too “out there.” The lack of typical song elements such as structure and refrain made it hard to really attach ourselves to any particular moment in the set, and everything blended together into a continuous cacophony of unintelligible sound. The seemingly random noisemaking coming from Kimbra and her backing instrumentals hovered somewhere between sonically interesting and utterly pointless at times, and were it not for her physicality on stage, it would have been a very monotonous affair to sit through after your eyes adjusted to the LSD-like effect of the stage’s aesthetics.

Hey, illusory dragons have feelings too…

Overall, I would say that Kimbra’s performance was a triumph in regards to being original and making something that expressed nothing less than her own creativity, passion, and joy. After all, that is the essence of what makes an artist successful, and Kimbra succeeds flawlessly at this. I will caution anyone who is stepping into Kimbra’s world for the first time that she definitely not for everyone, and that her brief appearance in Gotye’s song does not do justice to the unique sound and experience that is her art. Neophytes would do well to enter this with a very open mind and forget everything they thought they knew about music. If you can get over the quirky and unconventional nuances of her sound and dig into the “experience” that is a Kimbra show, you’ll no doubt be tuned into one of the most promising and remarkable artists present in today’s underground music scene, a true diamond in the rough.

For the rest of us, we’ll content ourselves with that overplayed Gotye song. At least there’s a chorus we can sing along with.

Pop culture overload? Definitely. Funny? Debatable.

SOURCES

Gotye video pic – http://www.lucillezimmerman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Gotye-Somebody-That-I-Used-to-Know-660x469_png_630x469_q85.jpg

Kimbra live show photos courtesy of Justin La Torre

Piano cat meme – https://catmacros.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/piano_cat.jpg

iTunes pic – http://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/filestorage/feel-profound-connection-workplace-ecard-someecards.jpg LSD cat meme – http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/no-i-havent-seen-your-lsd.jpg

Gotye Kanye meme – http://cdn1.smosh.com/sites/default/files/bloguploads/gotye-funny-kanye-cut-off.jpg

HalfAChicken.com - 9/17/14 - Everything is Ending

Originally published on 9/16/14 at HalfAChicken.com
https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/93

VIDEO: Everything is Ending

Photo by sdbab at lol-smile.com

All I can say is WOW. Described as “an outdoor graphic intervention,” Everything is Ending is the collaborative art effort of Barcelona-based group 3D Neighbors and artists Javier Jabalera, Pol Trias, and Julia Rosich. Not only was this a clever and intensive project involving ludicrous amounts of meticulous planning and hole-poking, if the implications of the picture above are any indication, it made for a very bold and striking statement on the concepts of mortality, materialism, and the age-old belief that 2012 would be the year of our end.

The real clincher of this piece is how simple the mediums are, and how they come together in such a way that the end product seems to transcend the sum of its parts. A humble perforated canvas and matchsticks suddenly emerges from a phoenix-like eruption into a vivid and tangible reminder that everything we know and hold dear eventually returns to the blank nothing that it started from. It is tragically beautiful and tinged with a harrowing yet sobering reality.

You can watch the full video at the link below. The ending is imminent from the start, but it is spectacular and poignant nonetheless.

Everything is ending – http://vimeo.com/61164822

Sources

http://www.lol-smile.com/everything-is-ending-video/

http://javierjabalera.com/?p=1461

HalfAChicken.com - 9/16/14 - Robert Mapplethorpe

Originally published on 9/16/14 at HalfAChicken.com
https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/87

Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio: Obscene? Yes. Kinky? Just a little bit. But is it art?

If you’ve never heard of American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe before, here’s a quick primer: 1) he’s dead, and 2) his work made waves during the pretentiously-titled “Culture Wars” of the 1980’s (LACMA 2013). Mapplethorpe represented the perfect bad boy blend of student, transgressor, and pioneer of the art world in the 20th Century. Never one to let the critics breathe easy, the X Portfolio was his attempt to document hardcore homosexual sadomasochism as art (Bunyan 2013). At the time, it was considered a highly subversive commentary on American culture, as well as a test of human gag reflexes. The shock value of the collection could resuscitate an elderly woman with a pacemaker. And possibly rattle her back to death again.

We’ve come a long way from frilly bloomers and exposed ankles, Grandma.

In fact, the series was so raw and uninhibited that even today the Mapplethorpe Foundation omits much of that collection from its website, choosing only a few tame pieces for inclusion.

Don’t believe me? Take a look: http://www.mapplethorpe.org/exhibitions/2012-10-21_los-angeles-county-museum-of-art/.

Suggestive, yet tasteful, right? No signs of anal fisting or dildos being inserted into places that never see the light of day. However, any in-depth research of Mapplethorpe’s work will reveal far more graphic instances of cringe-worthy imagery that make up the true X Portfolio. The controversial power of his work is apparent from the first image you see. Here is but a small sampling:

(WARNING: NOT SAFE FOR WORK. DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU.)

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/robert-mapplethorpe-x-portfolio-4576015-details.aspx?intObjectID=4576015

Frankly, even that selection is tame compared to other pieces from the portfolio. The point is, this collection of family-friendly photographs was a real tour de force for its ability to disgust and intrigue, evoke and provoke. As if that weren’t enough, Mapplethorpe also had the appearance of a younger, more angst-ridden version of James Dean, making him a visual double-threat both behind and in front of the camera.

Not pictured: his Jussi Award for his role in the movie East of Eden.

However, his reputation and legacy aside, can Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio be considered art? On one hand, his photography has been compared to paintings by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Soutine, and some claim that they seem to pull back the metaphorical foreskin (meta-foreskin?) of his abstractist predecessors, revealing a naked and throbbing “documentary truth” hued in sepia and grayscale.

Ironically, despite his best efforts to break away from “photographic purity” (Knight 2012), Mapplethorpe’s contemporary work actually harkens back to a historical tradition of tantalizing pictorials dating all the way back to the 5th Century B.C. This was a time when Greek vases were often painted with images so sensuous that Alexander the Great surely whacked off to them between conquests to relieve tension.

In this sense, Mapplethorpe wasn’t doing anything entirely new; he just did it bolder and with more rubber dildos.

Remember, it’s only awkward if you make eye contact.

On the other hand, how many pictures of testicles bound and stretched in a vice can you go through before you start questioning where the line is and at what point was it crossed? (I wish I was being rhetorical in this case). Nowadays, people are critical of movies like Saw and Hostel, which are infamous for being so gory that even their own actors can’t bear to watch it.

Case in point: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/horror-film-saw-so-gory-even-star-costas-mandylor-cant-watch/story-e6frfmvr-1225783609471.

“I want to play a game…it’s called ‘Ventriloquist’…and you get to be the dummy…”

By comparison, the X Portfolio is way more graphic than either of these films. There is no doubt that the issue of content versus intent and how these forces interact and even oppose each other is especially present Mapplethorpe’s work. Sure, the message is there, buried somewhere underneath all the sex toys and human hand-puppetry, but does the raw carnality actually hurt the medium? Are we so transfixed on the disturbing imagery that we fail to see the point behind it all? Is there even a point, or is it just shocking for shock’s sake? Or is the offensiveness itself “the point”?

I’m of the belief that extreme acts of expression such as Mapplethorpe’s operate on the “Just Fucking Crazy Enough to Work” principle, and in this case there’s enough ingenuity and balls for it to actually work. How else could you display pictures of explicit sounding (and we’re talking the Urban Dictionary definition here) in a public gallery and somehow violently straddle that wave of controversy to become one of the most popular posthumously talked-about photographers of back then and today?

That certain je ne sais quoi about Mapplethorpe’s work that landed him stints in LACMA and Perth in the past few years must still be shining through somehow since it’s been about 30-something years and we’re not yet done talking about him. It’s like he knew his brazenness was all he needed to keep us looking at his favorite dick pics for decades to come. I won’t go so far as to call Mapplethorpe the original SnapChat dick pic guy, but I do applaud him for unapologetically doing what most other artists are too scared to do, and actually succeeding at it. Arguably, because of work like Mapplethorpe’s, we are beginning to embrace the counterculture and find acceptance and even beauty in what we previously thought to be vile and unspeakable.

It’s either that, or we as a culture have loosened our morals enough to entertain the idea of butt plugs and bondage gear as just another way to kill an afternoon.

You know, maybe Quentin Tarantino was onto something in Pulp Fiction…

Sources

Bunyan, Dr. Marcus. “Exhibition: ‘Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ.’” http://artblart.com/2013/03/17/exhibition-robert-mapplethorpe-xyz-at-the-los-angeles-county-museum-of-art-lacma/

LACMA. “Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ.” http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/robert-mapplethorpe-xyz

Knight, Christopher. “Review: LACMA’s ‘XYZ’ on Robert Mapplethorpe: Gay artist vs. straight tradition.” http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/04/entertainment/la-et-cm-mapplethorpe-review-20121104

Mapplethorpe Foundation – http://www.mapplethorpe.org/exhibitions/2012-10-21_los-angeles-county-museum-of-art/

Greek vase painting – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_erotic_depictions#mediaviewer/File:Erotic_scenes_Louvre_G13_n4.jpg

Pulp Fiction scene still – http://toscanoirriverente.tumblr.com/post/1610451140/iwdrm-bring-out-the-gimp-pulp-fiction

Robert Mapplethorpe portrait – http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/AR/AR00225_10.jpg

Robert Mapplethorpe X Portfolio sample – http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/LargeImage.aspx?image=http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d45760/d4576015x.jpg

Saw Jigsaw scene still – http://cdn.tss.uproxx.com/TSS/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/saw-movie-600x450.jpg

HalfAChicken.com - 9/16/14 - Carmichael Gallery

Originally published on 9/16/14 at HalfAChicken.com https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/86

Art-loving couple gives gallery spotlight to street artists

It takes a special set of eyes and hearts to recognize the beauty hidden in your own home. Such is the case with husband and wife team Seth and Elisa Carmichael, the proud progenitors of the eponymous Carmichael Gallery. Founded in 2007, the Carmichael’s lovechild of passion and commitment to art is one of LA and NYC’s best-kept local secrets, focusing on street artists who are breaking ground in painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media.

In its short seven years of life thus far, the gallery has already garnered a reputation for being intimate yet spacious, with its quaint two-room setup providing the ideal platform for receptions, exhibits, mingling, and past events have even featured DJ’s such as Sean Reveron and Ro Blvd. + RDNP.

At the Carmichael, it’s all about the unknown folks and flavors, both local and international. The gallery has played host to a wide range of diamonds in the rough, including abstract expressionist painter Maya Lujan and Latino contemporary photographers Eriberto and Estevan Oriol. Other events have showcased multiple talents from across the world, such as their September 2012 exhibit “Disambiguation,” which featured the works of New York graffiti artist Carlos Mare, Milan-born graffiti artist Rae Martini, UK graffiti artist Remi Morgan (a.k.a. “Remi/Rough”), and Barcelona-born painter and fashion designer Sergio Hidalgo (a.k.a. “Sixeart”).

Aside from the traditional form of displaying works within their humble space, on occasion the exhibits can even go beyond the gallery’s walls. For example, one of the gallery’s resident LA artists, the whimsically-named Bumblebee Loves You, has been known to display murals and pop-up exhibits on the walls of buildings in Venice Beach.

The Carmichael Gallery has locations in Los Angeles and New York. If you’re in the either area, you owe it to yourself to check out the local talent on display at the gallery’s next exhibition. Because just like Seth and Elisa, you never know what you’ll find if you take a look around.

Sources:

http://www.carmichaelgallery.com/

http://carmichaelgallery.com/shows/july182009.html

http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1378852689&archive&start_from&ucat=32

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2012/09/06/carmichael-gallery-presents-dismbiguation-a-group-exhibition-culver-city-ca/#.U7rmXtJDvp8

https://www.facebook.com/carmichaelgallery/

https://www.facebook.com/events/351492261611382/?ref=22

I am now published on Half A Chicken!

I'm very happy to announce that my articles are starting to get published on Half a Chicken.com, a newly-launched artist union website! You can check it out here: https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/articles