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Cross-posted from the AGCC Blog.

View the majesty of Edith Abeyta’s Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, a multi-artist, unicorn themed, collaboration/installation that was initially installed in Edith’s studio earlier this year, and which gallery assistant Michele Hubacek helped me knock out quick, as Edith is on her way to Thailand, where I will be joining her shortly, to install a show that we’re in.

I am perpetually moved by Edith’s manipulation of retail space and concepts as installation art. I have this fantasy where she gets a museum show, in their gift shop. There’s something crafty and slighly evil about Edith’s approrpiation of mundane/profane space for her art needs. Objects in the shoppe range from candy cigarettes and other bulk snacks to multiples by Edith Abeyta, Matty M. Cipov, Kissing Candy, Merry-Beth Noble, Camilla Stacey and Sublime Stitching. The Sweet Shoppe’s logo was designed by Jason Lucas.

You can get a head start on enjoying the Sweet Shoppe’s delights with this downloadable Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe Activity Statement. Or you can wait until Sunday and get your sugar rush on, at the opening of New In Town? Studio Artists 2007-2008.

Technorati Tags: Edith Abeyta, Matty M. Cipov, Kissing Candy, Merry-Beth Noble, Camilla Stacey, Sublime Stitching, Jason Lucas, installation, installation art, art, art exhibition, shoppe, Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, unicorn, pink, candy, Angels Gate Cultural Center, AGCC, Gallery A

There’s a staggering amount of must see and do stuff happening this weekend. Here’s some of it.

Thursday, June 5

Prison to a Slave @ AndrewShire. Works by Derric Eady, Eric Medine, Suzanne Oshinshky and Nam June Paik. I’ve shown Eric Medine on a number of occasions, and he gives great proposal, usually in the form of .pdf based diagrams like the one above. Reception is from 6 - 9 PM.

Friday, June 6

Spirit of the Horse @ Palos Verdes Art Center. Juried by yours truly, this exhibition benefits the Portuguese Bend Pony Club. I love horses and horse culture, so this was a fun project to work on and an opportunity to help a local group that puts youth and horses together. There’s an invitational portion of this exhibition, curated by Scott Canty and Peggy Zask, as well. Reception is 5-8 PM.

Kara Walker, My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love Closing Party @ The Hammer. Get down to the DJ as your slightly buzzed ass listens for awkward/racially questionable combinations of tracks and visual elements while enjoying Walker’s silhouette-based explorations of America’s racial subconscious. From 7-11 PM.

Batters/ Kroll/ Weegee: From the Collection of Eric Kroll @ Anna Kustera Gallery. Okay, so this is taking place in New York, but I’d murder to see the Elmer Batters work in this show. Elmer Batters was a South Bay-based fetish photographer who’s work I developed a fascination with while investigating the curation of a show about the darker, sleazier side of the port town I live in. Reception is 6-8 PM.

Saturday, June 7

Underground Forces @ MOCA. Presented by Joe Rees of Target Video, a two hour program of vintage punk video, in conjunction with California Video. This is kind of a can’t miss event if you’re into punk history. Apparently Henry Rollins designed a “special guest music set”, probably the most aggressive, veiny forehead extravaganza ever. Music and Exhibition Highlight Tours from 7-9 PM, Screening Starts at 9PM. $10 or free for MOCA members - at the Geffen Contemporary.

First | Last @ Winstead Adams Projects. Apparently the first and last exhibition to be held at 436 S. Main, before it becomes Raw Materials, an art and architectural materials supply store. Featuring work by Matthew Bryant, Jessica Curtaz, Brian W. Evans, McLean Fahnestock, C. Finley, Jeff Foye, Jocelyn Foye, Adam Mars, Kyle Riedel, Noah Thomas and John Weston. Curated by James Adams. Reception is 6-9 PM.

Tomoko Sawada, Bride @ RoseGallery. Tomoko Sawada is a “multiple, costumed self portraitist.” This series has her costumed as brides. I love self portrait work in general, and Sawada’s work is in that category of multiple self portrait that reminds me of the possibly fictional work Read Us the Names of the Book of the Dead, briefly mentioned in William Gibson’s book Count Zero. Reception is 5-7 PM.

Technorati Tags: art, contemporary art, LA art, Eric Kroll, Elmer Batters, Weegee, Kara Walker, Palos Verdes Art Center, Hammer Museum, Anna Kustera Gallery, MOCA, Target Video, Joe Rees, AndrewShire, Derric Eady, Eric Medine, Suzanne Oshinshky, Nam June Paik, Winstead Adams Projects, Matthew Bryant, Jessica Curtaz, Brian W. Evans, McLean Fahnestock, C. Finley, Jeff Foye, Jocelyn Foye, Adam Mars, Kyle Riedel, Noah Thomas, John Weston, Tomoko Sawada, RoseGallery

I’m in the middle of finals at school. I’m busy. But there’s stuff going on, cause the world doesn’t stop for me.

Saturday, May 31

We Want a New Object @ Chinatown. CalArts MFA students have taken over various Chinatown galleries, for an off-site MFA exhibition. Most of the artist featured in the Center’s current show, Salty Dog Bites the Hand, will be participating. Good stuff coming out of CalArts these days, definitely worth checking out. This project was curated by Christine Y. Kim and Malik Gaines.

Participating artists include: Ian Arenas. Allie Bogle, Michael Buitron, Mike Chang, Louisa Conrad, Mariechen Danz, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Bart Folkerts, Lindsay Foster, Nate Garcia, Liz Glynn, Sayre Gomez, Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg, Nicholas Grider, Betsy Hunt, Kichul Kim, Sidonie Loiseleux, Justin Long, Suzanne Mejean, Alex Olson, Stephanie Owens, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Nate Page, Daniel Pineda, Nikki Pressley, Chris Revelle, Guan Rong, Alejandro Sanchez, Megan Sant, Astri Swendsrud, Kara Tanaka, Miller Updegraff, Carlin Wing, and Aaron Wrinkle.

Participating galleries include: Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Black Dragon Society, David Salow Gallery, Fifth Floor Gallery, Kontainer , Peres Projects and Telic Arts Exchange. It’s 7-10 PM. There’s also a closing party on the 7th, from 8pm - 2am.

Jennifer Steinkamp, It’s a Nice Day For a White Wedding @ ACME. Jennifer beat out my candidate, Joe Sola, for US representation at the upcoming Cairo Biennal, but being beaten by one of your artistic idols ain’t bad, any day of the week, especially since I love her work so damn much. Every time I encounter her work, whether it’s at a major solo show at the San Jose Art Museum or her tiny, attentively installed piece for the California Video exhibition, I am moved, calmed and fully engaged. Reception is 6-8 PM.

ARTWALK Culver City. If you love Culver City, and you love it’s crop of galleries, then this is your happy day. 12 - 6 PM.

Sunday, June 1

Venture Brothers Season 3 Premiere (promo video at top!) @ Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. Yes, Venture Brothers is so good that you should stay inside all day like I will and watch all of the first two seasons. When Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop were henchmen for the Phantom during his coup attempt during the Monarch’s wedding and they were stopped by David Bowie, I officially became Jackson Publick and Doc Hammers’ bitch. Check your local listing, etc…

Technorati Tags: Venture Brothers, Jennifer Steinkamp, Culver City, ACME, LA art, art, openings, Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Black Dragon Society, David Salow Gallery, Fifth Floor Gallery, Kontainer , Peres Projects, Telic Arts Exchange, Ian Arenas. Allie Bogle, Michael Buitron, Mike Chang, Louisa Conrad, Mariechen Danz, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Bart Folkerts, Lindsay Foster, Nate Garcia, Liz Glynn, Sayre Gomez, Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg, Nicholas Grider, Betsy Hunt, Kichul Kim, Sidonie Loiseleux, Justin Long, Suzanne Mejean, Alex Olson, Stephanie Owens, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Nate Page, Daniel Pineda, Nikki Pressley, Chris Revelle, Guan Rong, Alejandro Sanchez, Megan Sant, Astri Swendsrud, Kara Tanaka, Miller Updegraff, Carlin Wing, Aaron Wrinkle

In which C-Monster declares New York’s 303 Gallery to win the Douchebag of the Year award, triggering an interesting discussion amongst bloggers with a little spice of accusations of misogyny in the comments for your trollish pleasure. Find out why in the post.

Technorati Tags: douchebag, 303 gallery, C-Monster

Takashi Murakami’s show, Davey Jones’ Tear, opened yesterday at Blum and Poe. Giant Robot’s Eric Nakamura has the story and the Flickr Set. According to Eric’s post, it sounds like everything is already sold, so if you want some Murakami on your wall, it’s Santee Alley time. Thanks, Eric, for making sure to take pictures of the chow.

Technorati Tags: Takashi Murakami, Murakami, Blum and Poe, Davey Jones’ Tear, Eric Nakamura, art, Japanese art, superflat

You know, the gallery all caught up in the middle of the recent raids of multiple Southern California institutions, due alleged smuggling and a long history of arranging possibly fraudulent tax deductions related to donations to various institutions.

Got this in my inbox this morning. Looks like they’re closing shop and liquidating.

Technorati Tags: art, Silk Roads, art crime, fraud, smuggling, liquidation, raid, crime

I’m cooking over at Angels Gate, and cross posting, for sharing’s sake.

Right now feels like the calm before the storm. That is, the calm before the end of the week, when everything in both galleries has to be just right, and we’re all ready to go for Open Studios. Here’s a little of what’s going on in Gallery A.

Above - Louisa Conrad’s projection for her wall drawing.

Above - the wall drawing in progress.

Above - Heather Rasmussen installing, with the help of a friend. That’s a scale model of the old Maersk pier (Maersk moved all of its operations out to the new artificial island of pier 400 a few years back), complete with hundreds of scale origami shipping containers. I’ve wanted to get this installation/sculpture into my gallery for some time now, and I’m glad that this exhibition has finally made it possible.

Technorati Tags: Louisa Conrad, Heather Rasmussen, Gallery A, art gallery, installation, installation art, drawing, wall drawing, projection, contemporary art, eye, pier, origami, folded paper, papercraft, paper, CalArts, student work, Salty Dog Bites the Hand

I was in between meetings yesterday, downtown, and managed to sneak into Sam Lee Gallery to check out the Macha Suzuki show. Also in the back, I got a peek at Christine Nguyen’s work in the project space. There are more photos on the gallery’s site, too. It’s a beautiful body of work, go see it before it closes on May 10. Here are the pics.

Above - Walk, the titular piece.

Above - Minor Threat. This piece functions to me, as a pun on Cai Guo-Qiang’s work. It’s hard for me to see it any other way. It’s much larger than I expected in person, too.

Above - untitled.

Above - If It Even Matters - Lure me in with my dual fetishes for string and antlers, Macha…

And in the project space…

Above - One of the four squirrel drawings by Macha on display. at only $500, they’re a steal for those of us without the dough or the space to buy one of Macha’s larger works.

Above - Christine Nguyen, A Birdhouse That Dreams of Being a Tree, 2005. When Christine started making the transition to doing more drawings back in graduate school, I was worried that her magic wouldn’t translate, and then her drawings on layered mylar made me love her work even more.

Technorati Tags: Sam Lee, Sam Lee Gallery, Macha Suzuki, Walk, Christine Nguyen, art, art gallery, contemporary art, sculpture, drawing

“Our society now values a Warhol for three times as much money as a great Rembrandt,” he thunders, referring to the latest auction reports. “That tells me that we’re fucked. It’s as if people would rather fuck than make love.”

Interesting read by James Panero in New York Magazine on the fall of NY art dealer Larry Salander, with the best art market quote I’ve read in a long while.

Technorati Tags: Larry Salander, New York Magazine, art market, old masters, James Panero, art