Category: Artists

Ten years ago the original idea behind the a HVW8 composition/piece was to pay hommage to someone deserving in their field whether it was musically, such as Miles Davis, Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Augutus Pablo; politically, like Shirin Ebadi, Noam Chomsky, Romeo Dallaire; a tribute to other artists, like Malike Sibyde and Mies van der Rohe; or just persons deserving of being called ‘heavyweights,’ like Richard Pryor and David Suzuki. HVW8 would take the iconography and sample it like a jazz standard and freestyle around it, building something to call our own and proud to represent.

You will not see a Paris Hilton, Marilyn Manson or any of these other ‘15 minute celebrity’ portraits, but you might just see a George Carlin sometime soon.

Whether its art or music there is enough crap out there that we don’t need to contribute, let time be the judge.

Respect is paid when due

Robert Rauschenberg died May 12 at age 82.

please post this open letter as much as you can. new marketing approach from a new marketer.
I want to extend an invitation to you all to attend my opening at the HVW8 gallery on Spaulding in West hollywood here in LA on friday, May 9th. I also want to forewarn that in and of itself this is no literal art show. It is riddled with sketches, visual rants and pointless, aggressive dribble. it is unframed, unedited and purely self- indulgent. I am in all truth as you all know an Art Director/Creative Director, not an artist by any stretch, and I have never pretended to be as such and this show will fully reenforce this very reality. All of that having been said, even with lack of focus and in all seriousness a lack of actual work, it winds up ironically being the  first show which i actually show any raw emotion. It is work that wound up personal and silly and not over thought. Recently I worked for a retail machine that kept me very busy methodically and very intentionally calculating exactly what “kids” want to see and purchase. I went through a fairly emotional roller coaster there which made me realize that I wanted to go in a very different direction. Along side this work, I was also experiencing total freedom in my personal freelance work and getting paid to simply be me. The less I thought and obsessed over the work the more people responded to it. backwards George day. Now I am experiencing a very different ride in working for a pseudo ad agency trying to break out of the ad agency model. I commute for nearly 4 hours a day and in that time while riding bumpy trains, I find myself drawing for drawing’s sake. I put my laptop away and abandon fonts and grids and simply draw monsters, and ice creams and Stars of David riding skateboards. They are goofy, angry, and emotional. These are some of the treats that you will see at my show. Nothing fancy. Tape and tacks. wrinkled, non-archival, and devoid of color. Just sharing, warning, but not apologizing. I will carry all the art in a carry on bag on the plane and put it up in less than 24 hours. Please come out. One of my favorite dj’s will be there, Sureshot, an old reggae head who shares my love of early reggae soul seven inches.

nuff’said. sho’nuff. by any means necessary.

Kevin.

An amazing painter, Barkley L. Hendricks, has a show at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, don’t mind the voice over, the website and artwork look great. Have A look HERE.

Some shots from Jon at Gallery FIFTY24SF from the Installation of the HVW8 AI Greatest Hits Show last month in San Francisco.

Gene’s custom painted Sarao Jeepney for Goods of Desire/Delay No Mall in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Shots from the Site and Sound exhibition last month in Montreal, put together by Mossman and Barry Walsh, featuring artists G. Starship, DSTRBO and Roadsworthy to name a few.

Juxtapoz Magazine

Done Live in Montreal in a classic HVW8 Style.