Featuring Benjamin King

Benjamin King is a Brooklyn-based painter that merges themes of abstract expression and landscape into volatile paintings. King transforms paint into crust-like, earthy surfaces and atmosphere that push against each other, blurring the distinction between surface and illusion. Currently, King is participating in a group show at ACME in Los Angeles titled Seasonal Pictures.

Vulcan, 2009, acrylic and enamel on canvas, 77 x 84 in

Purple Dune, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 27.25 x 34.5 in

TBT, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 60"

Untitled, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24 in

River, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 in,

Greenpoint, Brooklyn September 2009 106 Green: "Whitey On the Moon"

Check out this show at 106 Green titled Whitey On the Moon curated by Kanishka Raja. For more info go to the 106 Green website.

Participating artists include:

Anonymous, Paolo Arao, Per Billgren, Robert Bordo, Tom Burckhardt, Tim Davis, R.M. Fischer, Yamini Nayar, Sheila Pepe, Shawn Thorton and James J. Williams III.

One Year of KCLOG

KCLOG began last September as a collaborative project to post shows going on in New York City and Los Angeles. KCLOG is now a hub of artist features, current shows and focused on artist run and independent initiatives. There are a number of great artist and independent events happening right now in New York that have been covered in this blog including HKJB, Daily Operation and 106 Green. This is happening in LA as well and this post is for them. Here are three artist run spaces in LA doing exciting things.

Monte Vista is an artists run space in Highland Park.

Their about statement reads: Monte Vista is a new artist run space in Highland Park that will host art exhibitions, conversations, events and performances. There is no "manifesto" as this space will be self-determining, but our general aims are to bring a platform for art and conversation to Los Angeles that sidesteps the influence of the commercial market. We wish to facilitate the contribution of works of art that come from non-traditional sources, and support artworks that contribute to non-traditional dialogues.

The most recent show is titled: Untill we come to One That Reminds Us and includes artists Kristina Faragher, Curt LeMieux, Amy Green, and Christine Frerichs.

Below are images of show.




Summercamp Project Project is no stranger to KCLOG. Check out the last post here. For their latest show titled Go Big or Go Home the Summercamp crew organized an outdoor show of large scale work. Check it out the website. Artists include: Kristi Lippire, Richard Haley, Lorraine Cleary Dale, Nicole Antebi, Josh Callaghan, Will Long and Jason Manley.

Below are a few images from Go Big or Go Home.







WPA is an artists collective located in Chinatown. The participating artists are: Bart Exposito, Andrew Hahn, David Hughes, Charles Irvin, Pamela Jorden, Michael Minelli, Rachael Neubauer, John Pearson, Terri Phillips, Fil Ruting, Henry Taylor, Ryan Tomcho and Tyler Vlahovich.

Their about statement reads:

WPA is an art space organized by artists

It is a straightforward and simple project that will provide opportunities for curated group shows, solo exhibitions, performances, screenings plus any other ideas that come to mind.

We have no single declaration of intent except to make possible an ambitious array of exhibits and activities by pooling our resources and taking advantage of this moment in Los Angeles. As a group we facilitate the individual.

WPA is a multi-purpose acronym; it can stand for anything you like, but it does intentionally recall the Works Progress Administration, Roosevelt’s New Deal relief agency that highlighted the arts and employed artists as artists during The Great Depression.

The current show titled presents the work of Michael Minelli.

Featuring: Jayson Keeling

Jayson Keeling is a Long Island City-based artist who works in painting, installation, video and photography. Keeling's interdisciplinary practice captures pure moments of the human condition to create a richly textured body of work that explores power, exploitation and social hierarchy within culture.

Jah Nun Dead God Is Alive, 2007
taxidermy ram goat, television antennae, human hair, chain, rope, glitter,
debris and debris, boom box, fur, wire and bubble wrap, 108" x 84"

I Am You and You Are Me and Together We Are Slowly Becoming Dust, 2009
glitter and debris on canvas, 48" x 36"

"My ambition is to undermine both the objectivity that individuals bring to the art experience along with the creation of heightened states of self-awareness. Central to my practice is the production of experiences that are activated by my primary artistic tool, light; I scavenge through remnants of salvaged cultural iconography, language and mythology to create hybrid signifiers based on divergent cultural constructs. They transform temporal experiences into singular moments of revelation and enlightenment."

How Sweet The Sound (detail), 2008
site specific installation
mirrors, broken bottles, latex, chair and clip on lights and glitter, 108" x 84"

X, 2009
single channel video with sound, dimensions variable

Nuclear Family and Bad Rap, 2009
Nuclear Family, glitter and debris on canvas, 48" x 36"
Bad Rap, glitter and debris on mirror, 72" x 12"

Untitled (Portrait of Prince Rogers Nelson), 2008
glitter and debris on canvas, 72" x 48"

Like a Woodpecker with a Headache or a Nightingale With a Toothache, 2009
single channel video with sound, dimensions variable

New Graffiti Old Revolutions, 2008
Chromogenic Color C-print, 40" x 30"

Past exhibitions include shows at The Queens Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem and he is a recent participant in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace Residency. His first solo exhibition in NYC, Behind The Green Door @ Henry Street Settlement, is on view until Oct. 24.

Tribeca September 2009 Daily Operation: "I Wanna Be Somewhere"

Jon Lutz is at it again with another Daily Operation project titled I Wanna Be Somewhere. The show was up the night of September 16. This time around, Jon invited artists to make a piece specific to the show. Below is the press release.

For "I WANNA BE SOMEWHERE," each artist has created their own version of a diorama using the title as a jumping off point. To varying degrees, the artists attempted to marry the diorama format with their way of working. Beyond a size constraint, there were no rules about how traditional the works end up or the supports, materials, shapes, etc. used.

Participating artists include:

JD Walsh, Meridith Pingree, Saira McLaren, Liz-N-Val, Elisa Lendvay, Denise Kupferschmidt, Mike Hein, Rachel Hayes, Sue Havens, Jesse Hamerman, Jaime Gecker, William Downs, Ned Colclough, Martha Clippinger, Kris Chatterson, Sherri Caudell Brennan, Patrick Brennan, Elizabeth Blomster, Gina Beavers and Inna Babaeva.

For more info on the show check out Daily Operation and Jon's blog The Old Gold.