Meeting of Styles: LA!!

The Crewest Man ·



So we are helping to organize a historic event. 100+ artists unite to paint huge graff mural in the L.A. River!

Artists from Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area, Arizona, Sweden, Germany, (and who knows where else!)
will be painting at the "Meeting of Styles:LA" event.

The Official MOS:LA Kickoff party and Blackbook Session will be held at the gallery on Friday, Sept.21st from 6-10pm.

Live painting by:Puppet(Sweden)

Music by: Myk Mansun (L.A.), Mascaria (L.A.),
DMNOLOGY(Chi-Town)

For more details please visit:
www.MOS-LA.com

The "Sonic Entrance" Exhibition @ Meltdown!

The Crewest Man ·




Crewest Artist, Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, curates a unique show that pushes the boundaries of music and art.

Here's the full info:
THE SONIC ENTRANCE ART EXHIBITION

The SonicEntrance is an art exhibition of P-Funk, Hip Hop, Jazz and
Techno artworks. Each artist in this exhibition creates music-inspired
artwork - creating artwork for record covers, tour posters, concert
projections, live painting and music videos. From P-Funk music
innovator George Clinton to Techno visualist/writer Gustavo Alberto
Garcia Vaca, from Hip Hop designer Brent Rollins to art
director/designer Hideki Nakajima who works with Academy Award-winning
composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and more; The SonicEntrance art exhibition
is a unique collection of music-inspired artworks. The art exhibition
includes one-of-a-kind paintings, original sketches, digital prints,
graffiti paintings and limited-edition prints.


EXHIBITION DATES:
September 13 through September 30, 2007

ARTISTS:
George Clinton (funk music innovator/artist: Parliament-Funkadelic)
Overton Loyd (artist: Parliament-Funkadelic)
Hideki Nakajima (art director/designer: code/Ryuichi
Sakamoto/stop-rokkasho.org)
Man One (graffiti artist: Crewest)
Kiyoshi Takami (designer: View From Above)
Ritzy Periwinkle (photographer/designer)
Sage Cole (artist)
Kofie One (graffiti artist: Draftsmen)
Marka 27 (graffiti artist: Minigods toys)
Brent Rollins (designer: ego trip)
Ishiura (designer: TGB design.)
B+ (photographer/filmmaker: mochilla, keepintime, brasilintime)
Hilda Garcia (visual artist)
Naheed Choudhry (photographer: naheedence)
Keith Tamashiro (designer: Soap Design)
Diana McClure (photographer)
Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca (artist/writer: chamanvision, Axis, Los
Hermanos, Deep Space)


LOCATION: Melt Gallery at Meltdown Comics
7522 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90046
phone: 323.851.7223
hours: 11 am to 10 pm everyday
www.meltcomics.com


SPECIAL EVENTS SCHEDULE:

Opening Night Party: Thursday September 13 from 6pm to 10pm
with DJs spinning Hip Hop, Funk, Techno and Latin grooves

Party and Book Signing: Saturday September 15 from 6pm to 10pm
featuring:
- The Multiple Entrance book signing by Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca
(The Multiple Entrance is a graphic novel collection of classic science
fiction stories remixed by Gustavo, featuring original artwork and
stories)
- with chamanvision sound system DJs spinning Jazz, Dub, Cumbia,
Techno and Funk classics
- Also, receive free artwork with every Melt Gallery purchase!

Party and Book Signing: Saturday September 22 from 6pm to 10pm
featuring:
- The Multiple Entrance book signing by Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca
- with chamanvision sound system DJs spinning Jazz, Dub, Cumbia,
Techno and Funk classics
- Also, receive free artwork with every Melt Gallery purchase!

Closing Night Party and Book Signing: Sunday September 30 from 6pm to
10pm
featuring:
- Yo! What Happened to Peace group art exhibition book signing by
various artists
- Live Music and Live Painting by Unification Theory music/art band

The SonicEntrance art exhibition is presented by Melt Gallery and
curated by chamanvision, celebrating the release of The Multiple
Entrance graphic novel/art book by Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca. There
will be special events throughout the duration of the art exhibition
featuring surprise guests and live music.

step through the funk door

LA Goldrush Wall in EastLos...

The Crewest Man ·

Unfortunately theres always cars parked in front of the wall, but you get the picture. Big ups to Raptuz for putting this together and flying out 22 crazy Italians to LA, Natoe (cbs) for connecting the dots and hooking us up with this opportunity, Laura and Jia for driving these fools all over town! A good time had by all. Remember, their art is still on display, and for sale, for another week at Crewest! Its a dope show, so peep it! Click on the image to view more photos of the week's events on our Flickr page...Also check out www.la-goldrush.com

Unification Theory

The Crewest Man ·

During our successful "Yo! What Happened to Peace?" book signing last Saturday, we also produced a special Unification Theory performance.

Unification Theory is a band composed of musicians, visual artists, DJ's and spoken word poets. Each member of the group is well-known in his respective medium. The concept of Unification Theory is street futurism: visualizing the possibilities of the future through the prisms of Graffiti, Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Digital/Video Artwork, Techno, Funk and Jazz. The unification of these diverse creative minds builds new visual and sonic structures. This innovative collaboration of live music, DJ mixing, digital/video artwork projections and live painting is a new form of performance.








MUSIC GENRE: Jazz-Funk-Techno-Hip Hop-Electronic Music

BAND MEMBERS:

1. Overton Loyd: P-Funk painting

2. Man One: Graffiti/aerosol painting

3. Harleigh Cole: Afro-Cuban/Latin Jazz/Funk keyboards/percussion

4. Nomadico: Techno/Hip Hop/Jazz DJ and producer

5. Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca: digital projections/spoken word/sound textures

6. Dj Joyfanatic: Hip Hop/Jazz/Funk DJ

+ special invited guests

Find out when the next performance will be..

Click here to Unification Theory's Myspace page

Happy Bday to us!

The Crewest Man ·

This month we turn 5 Years old and we're celebrating!

In the past 5 years we've seen alot of things happen: galleries come and go, shops open and close, writers start and stop, homies celebrated and mourned, wars starting and unfortunately still going on....Yet some how we've not only been able to keep our doors open, but expand and grow to a new Downtown location which is thriving and flourishing.

We thank all of you for all your continued support and helping our dream of supporting artists and expanding L.A. graff and urban art throughout the globe.

Join us every weekend in May as we throw a little sum' sum' to be festive about.

The Graffiti Project-Osgemeos, Nina, and Nunca

The Crewest Man ·

They're at it again!

Our crazy Brasilero friends OsGemeos (Octavio and Gustavo),
Nina, and Nunca...but this time they're painting a Scottish Castle.

Yeah, we said castle... as in Braveheart or whatever.


This sounds like its gonna be another globally impactful production for all of us
aficionados to enjoy!

For more on the actual project click on the image link below:
The Graffiti Project

By the way,
we still have some of those dope little
"Graffite" books which includes some exclusive pencil sketches by these crazy Brazilians, order directly from here, only 10 bucks..
Crewest.com (in the books section)


Another Herspective Exhibit

The Crewest Man ·


Toofly in the house..
Originally uploaded by The Crewest Man.
This is the second time we do an all female exhibit. And for the second time it is very successful! We were able to wrangle some of today's top female playas into one venue. Artists like: Lady Pink , Toofly, Myla, Sear, EGR, Sherm, Neila, Julie Koh, Emi, Claudia Galvan, Ritzy Periwinkle, Luna One, Alonys•Art and Petal.

You still have a few days to view it and attend our closing reception on Saturday April 28, from 7-10pm.

Hit us up if you'd like to purchase some of this dope art!


Neila's always taking orders on her boomboxes, so don't sleep!


Check out more flix from this show here:
Another Herspective on Flickr

Canceptual [v.2]

The Crewest Man ·

Check out flix from our newest exhibit, running through April 1st. Over 150 entries from all over the world. If you're gonna be in L.A., it's a must see show! All the artwork is very affordable and many of the pieces have already sold.

Just click on the photo to the right and it'll take you to our Flickr page where you can view over 50 images of the show.

If you see something you like, hit us up, it might still be available!

Contact us at:
info@crewest.com










Crewest in the L.A. Times!

The Crewest Man ·

"Off the streets, into the gallery"

By Alex Chun, Special to The Times

Street art in Los Angeles has become as ubiquitous as bleach-blond hair and personalized license plates, so it's no surprise it has infiltrated art galleries as well.

"A lot of galleries used to be scared to put in street artists — they thought people coming in would tag up the outside of their galleries and cause chaos," says Freddi "Freddi C" Cerasoli, proprietor of the Lab 101 Gallery in Culver City. "Then people like me began to put these artists in nice-looking galleries and proved that's not true, and in the last three years I've begun to see high-end galleries start to show these same artists."

These days, L.A.-area galleries such as Crewest, Thinkspace Gallery, Gallery 1988, Lab 101, BLK/MRKT Gallery and the Corey Helford Gallery are featuring notable street artists such as Shepard Fairey, Buff Monster, Greg Simkins, Asylm and Kofie.

"My generation grew up with culture jamming and MTV, and this is what we relate to," says Cerasoli, 37. "Rather than wanting a Warhol, they want to hang an icon from their own era."

Street art encompasses spray-painted graffiti, stencil graffiti, sticker art, posters and even performance art in public spaces. Though it's illegal in many cases, purveyors of the form are quick to distinguish it from tagging and other gang-related activities.

"In contrast to gang graffiti, artistic graffiti has nothing to do with territory, threats or violence," says Crewest owner Alex "Man One" Poli. "Artistic graffiti is all about expression."

A respected graffiti artist in his own right, Poli moved his 5-year-old gallery from Alhambra to a bigger location in downtown L.A. last March and says his new gallery has been well received by the artistic community and is part of Gallery Row and the Downtown Art Walk.

"The new location brings people into the gallery who normally wouldn't think twice about a gallery featuring graffiti art," he says. "The art's really powerful and bold, and it really captures people's attention once they see it, and when they learn it's done with a spray-paint can, it really blows their mind."

For the artists, showing in galleries affords them the opportunity to flex their creative muscles.

For example, at a show a year and half ago, Buff Monster, who is best known for his silk-screen posters often featuring a character sprouting breast-like ears, built a fountain in the middle of a pool composed of six breasts rendered in 3-D.

"When you're driving on the street at 60 miles per hour, you have to be able to read what I say in a split second, and it doesn't show all my visual vocabulary," says the 27-year-old Hollywood artist, who opens a solo show at Gallery 1988 on Feb. 1. "The galleries offer a nice opportunity to create something really ambitious that you couldn't do on the streets."

weekend@latimes.com

*

Current and upcoming shows

"BMG Artists' Annual" (current group show includes street turned studio artist Jeff Soto), BLK/MRKT Gallery, 6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Ends Feb. 17. (310) 837-1989, www.blkmrktgallery.com.

"Buff Monster: One in the Pink," Gallery 1988, 7020 Melrose Ave., L.A. Opening reception, 7 to 10 p.m. Feb. 1; regular hours, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Ends March 1. (323) 937-7088, www.nineteeneightyeight.com.

"007" (group show that includes street artist Asylm), Crewest Gallery, 110 Winston St., L.A. Opening reception, 5-9 p.m. Feb. 3; regular hours, noon-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; noon-8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; noon-6 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 24. (213) 627-8272, www.crewest.com.

"The Hunted" (solo show on Blaine Fontana, a street turned studio artist), the Lab 101 Gallery, 8530-B Washington Blvd., Culver City. Opening reception 7-10 p.m. Feb. 3; regular hours, 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-4:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 21. (310) 558-0911; www.thelab101.com.

"Charity by Numbers" (viewing of items for an online charity auction includes works by artists Shepard Fairey, Greg Simkins, Jeff Soto, Buff Monster, Sam Flores), Corey Helford Gallery, 8522 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Opening reception, 10 p.m.-midnight Feb. 10; regular hours, noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Ends Feb. 17. (310) 287-2340, www.coreyhelfordgallery.com.

Lowrider Arte Features Man One

The Crewest Man ·


Crewest's very own, Man One, is featured this month in
Lowrider Arte's 2007 kick off issue.

Aside from his "Boyz on the Hood" Eazy-E portrait on the cover of the magazine, there is a nice six page spread on some of his work and history.

This issue marks the first time a graff artist has been hand picked
as the Featured Artist.

Nice.

Peel Here: Sticker Show

The Crewest Man ·


Sticky Rick is doing it again!
The 2nd annual "Peel Here!" show
(Hey Ricky...we got your back!)



At the Ghetto Mansion
2225 South Olive Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007

Saturday, December 2, 2006
7 to 11PM only $5 and you get all this:
Art, Music, Taco Truck, Plenty to Drink, Parking &
Stickers, Stickers, STICKERS!

Featured Artists:
14Bolt, 20mg, AKO, BRANDED, Berto H, Bytedust, ConArt, C ATV,
C.Damage, DMN, Dr. Rabias, Enik, Evil Dave, EyeOne, Galo,
Ikari, Justin Kees, MAD Toy Design, ManOne, Persue, Mark Of the Beast,
Olive47, PHONETiCONTROL, Restitution Press, Robots Will Kill,
Slick, Urban Medium

Live Art by DubStar3000 & MadOne

Exclusive Stickers by SEEN, Robbie Conal, OG Abel.

First 100 Guests will receive a FREE Sticky Rick's Sticker Pack!!!

Here's a little vid from last year's show..