Category: Exhibitions

‘Distillations’ by Hassan Rahim

 

Hassan_Distaillations

TBT (Distillation 2)
25 x 33″
Metallic C-Print, Archival Inkjet, and Xerox Photocopy with 6-Ply Mat
Unique
2014

 

Hassan Rahim
Distillations
May 29th – June 22nd, 2014

Distillations is a refusal. Collage overlays images to connect disparate contexts and temporal zones. People and objects are layered, decontextualized, cut, and pasted into oblivion. At some point, a lack of restraint only leaves heaps of forced narratives, absurdity, and theoretical hash.

Instead of compositing, Rahim practices a sort of anti-collage allowing images originally chosen for montage to remain separated and unviolated.  Associated images not only share a frame, but also exist in the same chronology. This contemporaneity of pictures, given the dignity of negative space, serves to concentrate a narrative. BMW rims and Air Jordans were not only collateral in the height of ‘90s street theft but were also major pawns in collector culture. Like luxury cars, his works operate on a value of period-correctness – a system of fetish and preservation. Both abstract and figurative, his work negotiates issues of nostalgia and iconicity as constructions of the personal and universal subconscious.

He asserts the material and intrinsic worth of objects in relation to the specific time and place of their production. Cultural relics like an authentic 1984 LA Olympic archery pad and a true BMW E30 windshield existed in the same decade as 1987’s violent Operation Hammer, a city initiative where the slightest suspicion of drug possession justified a fever pitch of police brutality, mass incarceration, and prejudiced racial profiling. The archery board, an artifact from the very event that gave legislative rise to Operation Hammer, has an eerie physical relationship with the cracked windshield in which it repeats the same violence of targeting, bludgeoning, and revolt that characterized the streets during the LA Riots.

Not only are these objects part of a street market economy, holistically Rahim casts them as totems of competition: basketball, cars, gangs and music. Master of None, a weighty arrangement of tiered podiums resembling the pedestals of Formula One racing, is stripped of its function and reduced to its essential minimal form. When isolated from its competitive context, one is confronted with its brute materiality and presence. It is at once purely aesthetic and a cynical expression of hierarchy, a stage without champions. Much like the ambiguity in his other pieces, the viewer is left between sculpture and commentary.

Warp Zone #5 is part of an ongoing series of photographic drawings. Symbols and icons are transformed into spiral amorphs. They appear to be mundane objects and phrases but are flattened into a galaxy of its own skewed gravity. Each component is on the cusp of recognition and suggests a relationship with its neighboring element, but ultimately concedes to the motion of its own nightmarish realm.

With Rauschenberg’s visual semantics and Man Ray’s photographic unconscious, the pieces in Distillations are faint recollections of an era floating in purgatory. Solarized prints of Dr. Dre’s monumental album The Chronic, distorted reproductions of the Nike Air Foamposites, and Northrop Grumman’s B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber are appropriated and manipulated into a spectral grammar of kink, poetry, and violence. Despite a conceptual grounding in his personal memories, Rahim suggests form, then rejects it; retains context, then negates it; collages, then throws it all into the white noise.

Hassan Rahim, b. 1987, Los Angeles, is a mixed media artist and art director living in Philadelphia. This is his second solo exhibition at HVW8 Art + Design Gallery; he has previously exhibited in Milan and Amsterdam.

Hassan Rahim – Distillations

 

Hassan-Rahim-Distillations-Final

Hassan Rahim
Distillations
May 29th – June 22nd, 2014

Opening Thursday, May 29th, 7 – 10pm

Please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

In his second solo exhibition Distillations, Hassan Rahim applies his visual dialogue to deeper negotiate iconicity and nostalgia as constructions of the personal and universal subconscious. Using episodes from his past as a conceptual framework, futuristic fighter planes and vignettes from Los Angeles’s seedy history are re-contextualized in a spectral grammar of poetry and violence.

With Rauschenberg’s collage semantics, Stella’s defiance of the canvas, and Ruscha’s typographical sensibilities, Rahim’s obsessions are lacquered under layers of worship, kink, machinery, and analog static.

Hassan Rahim, b. 1987, Los Angeles, is an artist and art director. His work, reminiscent of vague childhood memories and adolescent fantasies, utilizes photography, collage and mixed media to create strong contextual pieces which are both appealing and alarming to the audience. This is his second solo exhibition at HVW8 Art + Design Gallery; he has previously exhibited in Milan and Amsterdam.

Please email info@hvw8.com for inquiries.

Janette Beckman – Rebel Cultures. Opens April 17th.

The Police London 1978
The Police, London 1978

HM Gang East LA 1983
HM Gang, East LA 1983

Run DMC Hollis Queens 1984
Run DMC, Hollis Queens 1984

Janette Beckman

Rebel Cultures:
Punks, Rap and Gangs

Opening Thursday, April 17th, 2014, 7 – 10pm
Please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

In the summer of 1982, Janette Beckman was introduced to members of the East LA gang El Hoyo Maravilla.  She proceeded to document this culture much as she had with British punks and the emerging New York hip-hop scene.  HVW8 presents her photographs of these seemingly disparate tribes bound by a common rebel spirit.

Janette Beckman vividly remembers that summer. “I was spending the summer in LA with a friend who managed a punk band…for me that meant going out to clubs at night to take photos, neon signs, palm trees, 1950′s bars and cars, Venice beach and much more.

One day I met a writer who was working on a story about the East LA gang scene. I asked him to introduce me to the El Hoyo Maravilla gang. We drove out one hot summer day to a large dusty park in East LA to meet some members of the HM gang.

I had been documenting the London punk scene since 1976 and brought with me a box of 8”X10” prints of the British skinheads, punks, ska and rockabilly kids to show them. I explained that these were the ‘gangs’ in the UK and they agreed to let me take portraits of them to show people in London.  I spent that summer photographing the gang with my Hasselblad camera, driving back and forth from Hollywood to East LA in my Rent-A-Wreck V8 Ford LTD.

The East LA area was poor, hot and arid, and there was the constant sound of LAPD helicopters buzzing overhead. The gang members introduced me to their families, showed me the barrio and tried to explain how it was living ‘la vida loca’.

I was the first British person they had ever met and we were curious about each other.”

In 2011, Dashwood Books published a collection of Janette’s photos of the HM gang.  One of the three girls Janette had photographed leaning against a car in the park contacted her after seeing the book.

Nearly 30 years after that original photo was taken, Janette met the girls again to see where their lives had taken them.  “We met in Boyle Heights at their sister Arlene’s house and they took me to the Home Girl Café for lunch. The three women had amazing tales to tell of their lives.  They had lost husbands to gang violence. But these three amazing women had survived and thrived, they were mothers, career women and still the best of friends. They told me that most of the Hoyo Maravilla guys that I had photographed back in the day were either in jail or had passed away. We sat in the cafe and told stories. They tried to date the exact year I had met them: ‘Was the car we were standing in front of gold or blue?’ they asked, because one of their friends had been shot in the car and it had to be repainted after that because of the blood stains – this was how they would date the photos.”

This exhibition features not only photographs of the HM gang back in the day and the Rivera Bad Girls today, but also various iconic photographs documenting the formative years of the punk and hip-hop scenes including Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer, Debbie Harry, Slick Rick, Keith Haring, and Run DMC to name a few.

BIOGRAPHY

‘Londoner Janette Beckman began her career at the dawn of punk rock working for The Face and Melody Maker. She shot bands from The Clash to The Specials as well as 3 Police album covers. Her powerful portraits celebrating this music and street style are collected in ‘Made in the UK: The Music of Attitude, 1977-1982‘, PowerHouse Books 2005.

Moving to New York in 1982, she was drawn to the underground Hip Hop scene. Her photographs of pioneers Afrika Bambaata, Run DMC, Salt’ n ‘Pepa and Grandmaster Flash and 1980′s style are collected in ‘The Breaks, Stylin and Profilin 1982-1990‘, PowerHouse Books 2007.

Since moving to New York she has shot everyone from entertainers to politicians – Clients include: Esquire, Rolling Stone, People, Interview, London Sunday Times Magazine, Observer Magazine, Doc Marten, Converse, Schott, Casio, Warner Brothers Music, Universal Music, etc.

Her photographs have recently been exhibited at: Paul Smith London, Morrison Hotel Gallery NYC, Collette Paris, Isetan Tokyo, Kong Gallery Shanghai, Rockarchive and Proud Gallery London.

Jean André Murals at HVW8

Jean_Andre_Front

Jean_Andre_Mural_HVW8

It’s Paris, California … new murals by Jean André.

Jean André’s ‘gauloise’ opens this Friday, March 14th, 7 – 10pm. Exhibition runs through April 13th.

please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

email info@hvw8.com for art inquiries.

jean-andre-de-tremontels-talkie-walkie-HVW8-2

Jean Andre Opens this Friday

frenchtreats

Jean André’s ‘gauloise’ opens this Friday, 7 – 10pm.

please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

email info@hvw8 for art inquiries.

Jean André (b. 1986) describes his drawings and paintings as “gentleman art” focused and inspired by the beauty of women.  His work as a graphic designer in Montmartre for Ed Banger is just one outlet, while his other work, including a recent show at Colette, channels themes of the female form in charming illustrations and paintings.  At once minimalist and realistic, he tries to explore all the opportunities the medium offers him.  His major influences include Tom Wesselmann, Matisse, Richard Kern, Serge Gainsbourg and adventure magazines from the 50’s. It’s no secret that he is fond of gambling at Canadian casinos online and plans to create new films about this business.

Gauloise is his first solo show in the States and conjures myriad sentiments: as a brand of cigarettes linked to influential French figures as well as an historical phrase describing women in what is now modern day France. Gauloise is also a modern exploration of female portraits and pin-ups and features various paintings and drawings created in Los Angeles with a Français perspective.

 

HVW8 Gallery at ART BASEL Miami

Miami-Invite-x640

adidas originals and HVW8 Gallery present:

Bits and Pieces

Thurs. Dec 5th, 10 – 2AM.

featuring art installations by
Kevin Lyons (Brooklyn)
Jean André (Paris)
Erin D. Garcia (LA)
Jay West (Harlem)

music by:
Dam-Funk (LA)

Hosted by Peas and Carrots (LA)
with DJ DZA (Miami) and Them Jeans (LA)

The Garret
697 North Miami Avenue
Downtown Miami

RSVP required:
rsvp@hvw8.com

Sorry For Not Showing Art

atiba flyer final

Atiba Jefferson
Sorry For Not Showing Art
November 22nd – December 15th , 2013
Recent Works

Show opening Friday, November 22nd, 7 – 10pm.

Please RSVP: sorryfornotshowingART@hvw8.com

Music by
the Gaslamp Killer,
Steve Ree,
the Blackouts.

New Neons by Alessandro Moroder, Mural Study by Erin D. Garcia

Moroder_Neon

“MY WAR”
BLUE NEON ON PLEXIGLASS, 2013

New Neons by Alessandro Moroder
Outdoor Mural by Erin D. Garcia

Opening August 23rd, 8 – 10 pm
RSVP@hvw8.com
Music by Prince Language

NEW NEONS

Alessandro Moroder’s work examines the masculine psyche through the notion of the spectacle by exploring it within various lenses, languages, and time periods.  In New Neons, Moroder explores the idea of masculinity and memory through text, light and space.  The attraction of working with neon came from a custom sign his father built in the 80’s and was then hung and lit in their apartment. From an early age, Moroder saw the same blue wave image daily and was amazed not only by the relationship that the sign had with the room, but also how light and space played an equal role in the work – and in his memory.  This show, consisting of custom neon signs investigates the role of notable text and typography, but by also constructing a mirrored triangle sculpture in the center of the gallery space, creates an alternate conversation among the three signs, all different in color, text, and language.

installation_shot_new_new_neons

Garcia

Mural Study by Erin Garcia

“I just started using planes of color to define shapes and elements. To do this I’ve been layering fluorescent sheets of paper to create shapes and arrangements that I’ve previously been working with. This mural will be my first large work using the ideas created from this process.”

Erin Garcia is a visual artist based in Los Angeles.  Originally from the Deep South, he and his work have both taken a long migratory path with many twists and turns along the way.  Garcia’s current work is an exploration of where the human capacity for abstraction intersects or conflicts with the sensory desire for specificity.  Each one of his drawings or paintings is part of a process of distillation, and there is a distinct feeling when taken together as a series that they are driving ever closer to a revelatory moment.  The process of the work is exceedingly present, the pieces are inextricable from the practice of their generation.

 

JJJJound – Correspondence Opens this Friday

JJJJound
Correspondence

Opening Friday June 7th, 7 – 10pm.

rsvp@hvw8.com
Exhibition runs June 7th – July 7th.
Supported by adidas originals

PRESS RELEASE :

JJJJound is a wordless blog by Justin R. Saunders. Originally a mood board shared with friends, it has since become a global mainstay and daily web visit for designers, tastemakers and fans alike.

One of those friends is Claudio Marzano, whose creative partnership with Saunders dates back to 1993; twenty years over which their obsessive consumption of visual culture has shifted from print to screen, in step with the rise of the Internet.

Countless emails containing nothing more than images taken from the world wide web were sent between them over that period.

CORRESPONDENCE is an exhibition of recent emails, reproduced as 4′ x 6′ oil paintings, by commercial artists offering “competitive labor costs” from the Wushipu Oil Painting Village in Xiamen, China.

Justin R. Saunders grew up in Lahr, Germany, before moving back to Montreal in time for some high school shenanigans. Enjoying the finer things in life, a fervid aesthete, Saunders created the JJJJound photo blog in 2006.

JJJJound.com

Drinks courtesy of

Enjoy The One & Only Newcastle Brown Ale Responsibly.
(C)2013 Newcastle Importers, New York, NY. www.newcastlebrown.com

Milan and Amsterdam Opening Night and Installation Photos

Home and Away at Galleria Patricia Armocida Milan.

Francisca and Alessandro Moroder in Milan.

Lisa Leone

HVW8 Gallery Home and Away touring crew.

Home and Away, Amsterdam at Andenken Gallery

Hassan Rahim

A few photos from the Home and Away Exhibitions in Milan (Galleria Patricia Armocida) and Amsterdam (Andenken Gallery).

Thanks to Alessandro Moroder, Hassan Rahim and Lisa Leone for the artwork and Galleria Patricia Armocida (Milan) and Andenken Gallery (Amsterdam). Special thanks to adidas originals for the support.

A Home and Away tour travelogue can be found on Complex Art and Design.

More Photos below.

The Air Above This Ground

 

Hassan Rahim 
b. 1987, Los Angeles

 

Hassan Rahim is an artist and art director living and working in Los Angeles. His work, reminiscent of vague childhood memories and adolescent fantasies, utilizes photography, collage and mixed media to create strong contextual pieces which are both appealing and alarming to the audience.

The artist is best characterized by a description of one of his works: Don King’s face looms large, fixed in an impish smirk across from a then-naïve-but-very-dangerous Mike Tyson. Between them is a Lamborghini Countach.  A marble backdrop could be a galaxy or an ocean. This particular piece is both exceptional and typical of Rahim’s work.  His usual themes—competition, excellence, and the decadence that come with them are all present, but in this work you also find a keen intuition of the antagonism that pervades the lives of the icons in play in the collage.  The curious detail here is that there is a fight going on, not between fighters but rather the real fight: between fighter and promoter.

Rahim’s knack is to contextualize culture in this way. In the artist’s world about seven percent of Michael Jordan’s significance was on-court.  Here he is treated as an event; as the kind of icon that changes the way we do icons in the first place.  Throughout the work there is a similar dialogue.  Rahim interrogates ‘the icon’ and ‘nostalgia’ as phenomena.  The investigation is very much alive, never slips into academic moralizing.  Here riches and competitive dominance are flattered, but their respective uglier sides are also sorely present. When contemplating any of these collages one has the impression of a child at a dinner party attended by sports luminaries who has just heard a dirty joke: you can’t quite put your finger on the vulgarity, but you know that something has happened.

Conversant with pre-existing works–Rahim’s “The Big Three” owes as much to Wallace Berman’s “Untitled” (hand holding a cassette) as it does to Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, and Scottie Pippen—his pieces build a bridge from art-historical zones to realms of culture that are usually entirely claimed by advertising.  There is a reclamation of imagery happening, the sports Hero comes back home to art. One is reminded of classical sculptures of discuss throwers, or of the fact that Nike was originally the Greek Goddess of Victory.

Hassan Rahims works are not terse.  They are simple, and deep.  Members of his generation will undoubtedly recognize his voice as their own.

Text by James Jolliff.
Music By Bobby Evans.

Hassan Rahim
The Air Above This Ground

January 18—February 22
Opening Friday January 18 2013, 7—10PM

HVW8 Art & Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave
Los Angeles 90036
323 655 4898

DUST LA ROCK & CODY HUDSON: “A LOVELY SORT OF DEATH”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DUST LA ROCK & CODY HUDSON:
“A LOVELY SORT OF DEATH”
Presented by HVW8 Art + Design Gallery
November 16th-December 15th

rsvp@emgpr.com
Music by Jokers On The Scene

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 16th, 2012) – On Friday, November 16th, 2012, HVW8 Gallery (661 N. Spaulding Ave. Los Angeles CA 90036) will present A Lovely Sort of Death, the debut dual exhibition of Joshua Prince, a.k.a. Dust La Rock; and Cody Hudson, a.k.a. Struggle Inc.   This exhibition series focuses on exploring the balance of life and death in our daily lives influenced by drug use (the rise of euphoria as well as the downward spiral) with the intent of coming into contact with a greater spiritual or cosmic order and much like an alchemist, dissolving away all but the very gold of truth. A joint mixed media show, A Lovely Sort of Death consists of works on paper, sculpture, and more.

Joshua Prince (born December 9, 1976 in Newport Beach, California), professionally known as Dust La Rock, is a New York based artist and designer. He is co-founder of and creative director for Fool’s Gold Records, serves as art director for A-Trak, and has his hand in a number of low-brow and high-profile projects at any given time.  He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. www.dustlarock.com

Cody Hudson is a Chicago based artist, also known for his graphic design contributions under the name Struggle Inc. His graphic work and paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe and Japan including the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), New Image Art (LA),The Lazy Dog (Paris), & Andrew Rafacz (Chicago). Cody’s work has been featured in numerous magazines and publications including idN, Elephant, Arkitip, Anthem and Juxtapoz. www.struggleinc.com

HVW8 Art + Design Gallery was founded in 2006 with a focus on supporting fine art & avant-garde graphic design. It soon became one of the premier underground galleries in Los Angeles and over the past 6 years has exhibited emerging and established artists from around the world. HVW8 has also hosted numerous musical performances and special events, continuing to cement its reputation under gallery curator Tyler Gibney as an exhibition space for artists to showcase their varied creative expression. Past exhibitors include Parra, Geoff McFetridge, Kevin Lyons, Anthony Lister, Lance Mountain, Lisa Leone, Craig Costello (aka Krink) and more.

Opening Reception: Friday, November 16th 6:00–9:00pm
661 N. Spaulding Ave. Los Angeles CA 90036
Open Tuesday through Sunday 1:00–6:00pm
323.655.4898

 

Media Inquires Contact:
Alanna Navitski/ Kat Vasiliou
Evolutionary Media Group
Phone: 323-658-8700
Email: Alanna@emgpr.com / Kat@emgpr.com

Kind Regrets – New Works by Parra, Opening Sept. 29th

Kind Regrets – New Works by Parra
Opening Reception Sept. 29th, 7 – 10 pm

rsvp: Kind_Regrets@hvw8.com

Parra is known to lovers of his work for the themes and motifs which have become unmistakable and distinctive trademarks of his style. Curved 2 dimensional modern post – pop  images, highly saturated colors, vibrant typographic hand-drawn letters and worlds inhabited by hybrid, bizarre, surreal characters. Men with bird heads, fleshy and voluptuous women with round sensual bodies, mixed with texts and themes that span from sarcastic and introspective to ironic and bold, all the way to nonsensical. Esteemed and popular in the independent scene in the beginning, he quickly became a recognized, creative, and eclectic artist worldwide. Established brands have recruited Parra to customize limited edition products, his hands have illustrated ad campaigns and his works have been shown in various solo exhibitions around the globe. His last show was in the SFMOMA, his first in a U.S. museum.

 

Exhibition running through Nov. 11th, 2012.
HVW8 Art + Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave, Los Angeles, Ca.

PARRA b.1976

Riverdance, 2012
acrylic on canvas
100 x 140 cm (39.37 x 55.12 in)
part of Re:Define charity auction exhibition

 

rizzo, 2012
pen on paper
22.86 x 30.48 cm (9 x 12 in)

www.hvw8.com
Facebook
Twitter

 

NEW EXCHANGE – Collaborative Works from Mtendere Mandowa ‘Teebs’ & Charles Munka

 

NEW EXCHANGE
Collaborative Works from Mtendere Mandowa ‘Teebs’ & Charles Munka

Opening reception Friday, June 29, 2012 7-10pm
please RSVP : newexchange@hvw8.com

June 29th – August 1st, 2012

HVW8 Art + Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave., Los Angeles, CA

New Exchange is part of an ongoing visual dialogue between Charles Munka and Mtendere Mandowa ‘Teebs’.

Charles Munka and Mtendere Mandowa ‘Teebs’ came in contact through the Los Angeles music scene.  A mutual admiration developed leading to a show in Kanazawa, Japan, this also being the first time they met in person.  After the success of the Japanese exhibition, the two regrouped again in Hong Kong, Munka’s current place of residency, for the Platform 78 exhibition. This return to Los Angeles continues the visual conversation between the two artists, creating a new series of works exclusive to the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery.

A true global artist, French raised, Hong Kong based Charles Munka’s work straddles genres. Post graffiti into collage, his multi-influenced culture clash style is complementary to his upbringing and current place of residence. Asian characters mixed with French text, references to computer games and city maps with Charles’ signature hand styles are completely new yet still familiar to his ‘urban’ roots.  Following in the heritage of Matisse’s cut and paste and Basquiat’s hand, Munka respects the past and transforms it into a worldly future.

Born in New York to Malawi and Barbados origins, Mtendere (pronounced “ten-de-ra”) (Chichewa for “Peace”) Mandowa, is an electronic musician and painter who bounced around the East Coast before finally planting his feet in the Southern California suburb of Chino Hills.  Already successful in music with Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder and ‘My Hollow Drum’ Collectives, Teebs’ painting is similar to his music production; collaging and illustrating images to create meditative and minimalist soundscapes on canvas.

 

Made possible through gracious support by adidas

Beverages courtesy of Red Bull