Appleton Coated in concert with 36 of today's great visionaries, La Luz de Jesus, Murphy Design and Neyenesch Printers presents artistic Utopia.
artistic Utopia is a limited edition daily planner, assembled to navigate, inspire and creatively motivate you throughout the year. This calendar features wonderful artist plate reproductions, artist quotes from today's best and 100 pages, spiral bound. The calendar is compact, 7 ¼" x 7 ¼" : so that it can easily travel or fit in the corner of your desk. All of this goodness for $12.00 or free with purchase of $50.00 or more.
artistic Utopia features the inspirational work of :
Bob Dob : Gary Baseman : Robert J. Bellm : Marc Burckhardt : Kevin Christy : Dave Cooper : Jeffrey Decoster : P-Jay Fidler : Matt Haber : joseph hart : Lars Henkel : Seonna Hong : Tim Hussey : Caroline Hwang : Jordin Isip : Pamela Jaeger : Laura Levine : Daniel Hyun Lim : Richard Mullins : Joel Nakamura : Christopher Silas Neal : Christian Northeast : Saelee Oh : Chris Pyle : Martha Rich : Souther Salazar : Erik Sandberg : Yuko Shimizu : Jeff Soto : Owen Smith : Matt Stallings : Gary Taxali : Mark Todd : Ryan Wallace : Esther Pearl Watson : Jonathan Weiner : Steven Weissman : curated by Mark Murphy :
Exhibition opening at La Luz de Jesus : December 10, 2004
Introduction by Billy Shire : La Luz de Jesus
forward : Billy Shire is hugely responsible for fostering a new school of art and way of thinking when it comes to the fine art scene in Los Angeles. He is tireless, promoting and discovering many of today's most influential artists.
The following is a brief introduction to the amazing world(s) of Billy Shire and La Luz de Jesus.
Mexico was the catalyst for starting La Luz de Jesus 18 years ago. Originally, the gallery featured a nuevo folk art theme, where we showcased an annual exhibition, "Day of the Dead," which took place for 10 years. Originally, the exhibition showcased Mexican artists and over time we began mixing it up with local artists. Finally, we featured all local artists emerging from Southern California.
La Luz's direction evolved quickly, I began to exhibit close friends from the local underground art community (if you could call it that in those days). We featured Gary Panter (who had 3 shows), Jim Heimann, and then around 1987 (after hounding him for some time) I persuaded Robert Williams to show at La Luz, which set the tone of the gallery for quite some time. We became thee "lowbrow art" art gallery (FYI : I hate that term), especially when used as an all encompassing umbrella for artwork shown at La Luz-R. Williams, XNO, R.K. Sloane, Coop, Pizz and maybe a few lesser artists following in their footsteps.
The original mission of La Luz de Jesus was to be an anti-gallery "mas o menos," to show art for art sake not business sake and show art that had more substance (i.e. figurative/subjective), as opposed to the "shite" that was popular at the time (conceptual/minimalism). Eventually, the gallery evolved into a gallery for highly talented visual illustrators as fine artists.
As for some of my favorite artists, Joe Coleman, who is in a league of his own, a madman and mystic. His intense, self-taught approach emotionally communicates to the viewer unlike any other painter today. { continued }
He walks the walk and talks the talk. Michael Hussar is another intense painter, his technical virtuosity is mind-boggling. Michael's work conveys amazing power and personal feeling, when he paints portraits- he seems to captures their soul.
Joe Sorren, all-round nice guy and Kareoke King, an original, great pallet and painting technique. Their paintings are completely original. The Clayton Brothers, I've been showing them together and individually for over 10 years and they just get better and better. It's highly unusual when two people collaborate in such a way that it seems like they are sharing one vision/one mind. They are all establishing their own art genre.
Currently, the art world seems the same as ever, "ART is big business controlled by a select few." Some of us work from below, down low, picking up the remaining crumbs. There seems to be rumblings from the top looking below for artistic styles that I've been championing for years. A network of new galleries and developing artists are partnering up and quickly establishing themselves. The question remains, "Is the ART business ready to accept this new model for art?"
Southern California is way ahead of the curve as far as art is concerned, has been for years. The East Coast will not acknowledge this fact, as long as major collectors and critical establishments are based out there. But fortunately for us, the culture is here, the art schools where it's happening are here and La Luz de Jesus is here. Southern California has more underground galleries than anywhere else in the country.
There are a couple of negative trends: too many galleries sharing the same artists, thus diluting the market; and too many group shows featuring big talent with many non established artists topping it off with a show book. It's important to find a niche, partner with great talent, instigate the culture that surrounds you and practice for many, many years.
Introduction by Mark Murphy
Whatever happened to the art of creative language? It seems that the industry press is happy to report that it has fallen out of fashion. Doomsday editorial from professionals that have lost touch with what really matters, "creative soul." I have to admit that I'm highly motivated by the unknowns, and inspired by the creative languages of art and experience. I love it. Don't you?
For the past 10 years, a new language has emerged and moved within view of the art loving public. What do we see? Spirited works, featuring foreign aesthetic, covering every inch of the painting's surface with technical and non-technical expertise; familiar and non-familiar worlds, images, techniques, colors and mediums. This new visual language is presented by artisans in and out of the fine art worlds, trained and untrained.
The visual narrative style, (not sure what else to call it, as many terms are not appropriate), is the result of creative articulation by visual interpretation and cultural instigation -having no fear-crossing over boundaries from one industry to the next. These artisans are risk takers that seize opportunity, alter industry parameters and reshape public perception. They're really talented too.
The authors of the visual narrative style movement have been integral in developing the "alternative/underground" art worlds original to Southern California. A unification of sport, music, film, graffiti, art school kids, citizens of the world, commercial application, editorial, film, graphics, digitally aware, experienced, novel, philosophical and so on. Their visual content communicates skillful aesthetic, while celebrating raw intuitive genius. There is no doubt that you will see this movement take shape in many different forms and on many different levels-good and bad.
Innovators such as Jeff Soto, Gary Baseman, Seonna Hong, Kevin Christy and many others have proven that visual narrative style is a creative lifestyle that many would like to share. (There are so many more important artists outside of this project...) Few can imitate. The movement is expanding-people are looking for opportunities to celebrate individualism. The authors of visual narrative continue to grow and expand outreach-permanently influencing artistic experience.
Enjoy this volume and celebrate original artwork. Kind thanks to Appleton Coated and Billy Shire. More to come.
