Ol’ Nate Frizzell has stepped it up a notch with his new solo show titled Put on a Happy Face at Cerasoli:LeBasse Gallery in Culver City. He was always good, but the new works are some next level steez. He’s definitely built up his chops since I last checked in on his work, and he’s really found an elegant way of visually describing his ideas. Those ideas alone are enough to make the show worthwhile, but Frizzell’s brushwork and composition really move them into the realm of the transcendent. I hate using that word, only it’s so appropriate here that I have to. The show opens this Saturday, November 8th, so if you’re in the LA vicinity, get your sweet ass over there and check it out. And buy me one of his paintings. I’ll totally pay you back.

Nate Frizzell: Put on a Happy Face

Man, I’m not gonna ramble on about Olly Moss’ talent; it’s clear that he’s got serious skills. His movie posters have messed me right up. So. Fucking. Good.

Olly Moss

Secret Still BFF Israel Sanchez (previously mentioned) hit me with some electronic correspondence this morning about a great event he’s a part of down in LA. It’s a combination movie screening and art auction based around 80’s kid’s movies. The event launches on November 10th with the beginning of the art auction and culminates with the end of the auction on the 15th when the crew of artists involved will be screening “The Goonies” and having a raffle. The whole event benefits Donors Choose, a charity that buys art supplies for school classrooms. The auction goes down here, and the screening is at The Rialto in South Pasadena. There’s a big list of great artists involved, and I know that you love you some Goonies, so mark your calendars and help out.

Israel’s Blog

For some reason when I first encountered Rodger Roundy’s crowded figure paintings I was reminded of a fungus. It’s a type of fungus that has thousands of seemingly unrelated stems coming up through the ground, but underneath they are all part of the same giant organism. Are the myriad schoolgirls all just tendrils of some giant, interconnected schoolgirl archetype? How the hell should I know, I didn’t paint them. But I do enjoy the hell out of them. The visual complexity and sense of drama get me interested, and combined with semi-surreal architectural forms I stay interested.

Rodger Roundy

He’s like a French graffiti style Dr. Seuss, wearing brass knuckles and smoking a blunt. I’m pretty sure that makes us blood brothers. Or at least homeboys. Is that still a word? Homeboy?

Alexone

Artist and animator Fons Scheidon’s show, Revolution Deformation, which opens November 6th at Concrete Hermit in London, is in a similar vein to recently mentioned Secret Still fav Stephen Tompkins. It takes the traditional form and structure of a cartoon character and bends and shapes it around new visual ideas while maintaining that subtle sense of hierarchical “cartoon” identity. Blah blah blah, it’s fantastic, and, regardless of my analytical diarrhea, you should spend some time seeing your own ideas reflected back at you from each piece.

p.s. If you’re in London and you take pictures of this show, and then subsequently send them to me so I can post them here, I will totally be your best friend. In a completely non-commital and hands-off way.

Fons Scheidon

Let’s keep things light this morning. Why don’t you enjoy some colorful, playful, just-plain-full illustration and type from Ana Benaroya. Lady’s got some sweet gig posters for damn sure. Break your eyes off a piece of that.

Ana Benaroya

I was just informed that Jason Sho Green, the artist who is literally responsible for my interest in art in the first place, has been royally fucked by recession. Some of his major clients for this year went out of business, taking half of his yearly income with them. So now Jason is selling off as much of his art as possible to try and make ends meet. Not only should you want to buy his art for the rewards of altruism, but also because he’s a fantastic artist, and your life will be better for having one of his works around. Trust me on this. Snatch it up now before it’s all gone. Help a brotha out.

Jason Sho Green Emergency Art Sale

His paintings for sale

Prints (for those of you scrounging change from the couch)

Nothing makes my morning more than having an artist contact me about their work, and then subsequently having that work blow my fucking mind. Such was the case with the work of Stephen Tompkins this morning. The twist is that I wrote about Tompkins a ways back when I was working for Juxtapoz.com. And yet here he was again with new work, melting my axions left and right. I would be mad about the decreased brain function if it wasn’t so worth it. Like a Merry Melodies hit and run or some boiling hell for all the forgotten toons, Tompkins’ work is just abstract enough to be visually amazing, with enough pop reference to be unsettling. He’s doing a jitterbug on that fine line between pure ideas and the visual torture of my childhood icons, and oh my God do I ever dig that.

Stephen Tompkins

When you say that you’re in love with printmaking, you’d better back that shit up with proof. And proof is in abundance on Christopher Koelle’s portfolio site. That’s not to say that there’s nothing there but printmaking projects. Far from it. But it’s the printmaking section where you can see the real love for creation shining through. Dude puts a lot of heart into that work. I really appreciate the variance of the line quality depending on the subject. It’s the little things like that that show me someone is paying attention. Not to mention that it takes a high level of talent in any medium to vary styles from piece to piece to create mood. Koelle’s got it in spades.

Christopher Kolle