ArtistRun TV Episode 5 ‘As We Are’

HVW8 ArtistRun TV Episode 5 “As We Are”

“As We Are” is a group exhibition curated by Mtendere Mandowa at HVW8 Gallery Los Angeles featuring artists Misa Chhan, Kishi Yuma, Jeannie Kwon, Leland Jackson and Mtendere Mandowa. Live painting by Mtendere Mandowa, artist interviews, and music by Teebs and Ahnnu (Brainfeeder). From the livestream of the exhibition opening on January 30, 2021. ArtistRun TV (ARTV) is an ongoing series about artists and programmed by artists.

As We Are – Group Exhibition

HVW8 Gallery presents a group show curated by Mtendere Mandowa (Teebs) – As We Are –  a title both permanent and impermanent.  It evokes nature and complements the soothing combination of the pieces exhibited.  The works use different mediums such as natural grown and dyed prints and cloth, abstract woodblock paintings, ceramic vessels and audio visual works, all of which resonate with the values of meditation in movement.  The artists and their work showcase meaningful reminders of self-care practices in motion, and a connection to one another as people in places.  All works were created or completed in 2020 during the ongoing pandemic.

Artist Bios 

Melissa “Misa” Chhan*

Misa is an artist and natural dyer who lives and works in Los Angeles.  She works across natural dyes, textiles, printmaking, and artists books. Her background in Book Arts / Papermaking / Natural Fibers lead her to explore natural dyes as a medium to stay engaged with and learn from the natural world.  The mindset of domination over nature creates a scenario where we feel detached from nature as opposed to understanding that we are fundamentally dependent on it.  Her goal is to bring pure joy through making work with nature and her surroundings.  She spends her time gardening, practicing how to coax color from plants, and researching natural dyes and minerals and how to integrate them in her daily life.

B.A., Book Arts at University of California, Santa Barbara. 2013

https://www.misa.studio/

Kishi Yuma (b. 1993 in Tochigi, Japan)

Since graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Electrical Optics in 2019, he has been active at the base in Tokyo.  He mainly produces works that consider “love” as energy that transcends time and space by looking at “ghosts” in parallel universes using Deep Learning.  His works have been used by NIKE and VOGUE, and he is active in many fields.

https://obake2ai.com/

Jeannie Kwon (b. 1986)

Los Angeles based artist now working/living in Brooklyn NY.  She is a 1st generation Korean-American with a background in the interior design industry. A self-trained potter, Jeannie produces functional works of art that explore the relationships between design, environment, materials, and space with influence from her Korean background and history in pottery. The works shown in As We Are are meditative pieces in a focused form made in Brooklyn in late 2020.

Instagram @jeanniekwonstudio

Leland Jackson (b. 1988)

A Los Angeles based mixed media artist who produces music under the alias Ahnnu.  At a young age, cartooning and graffiti built a background of drawing and painting in Jackson’s life.  As a self-taught artist his work comes from the non-formal, influenced by the experimental practices of musique concrete, abstract expressionism, art brut and hip hop. His approach to image making blends an automatic style of mark making and gestural line work, sometimes alongside collage techniques. A central theme linking all of Jackson’s work is one of human nature , exploring the psychological and mythical worlds of the self.  His musical work is made using a computer, manipulating, blending and assembling samples, recorded audio and electronic sounds.  Ahnnu’s ‘World Music’ and ‘Perception’ was released on Leaving Records, with ‘Perception’ gaining notoriety in Rolling Stone’s top avant-garde albums of 2015.  His other work under Ahnnu, ‘Battered Sphinx’ and ‘Special Forces’ was released on the NNA Tapes label. 

Y2525 is a frame animated music video from Ahnnu’s album ‘Pattern Play’. The video is synchronized to the rhythmic and tonal character of the track. The sounds are represented by a stripped down visual language of lines, circles and squares plotted briefly, at times looping and at others accommodating single occurrences in the composition of the music, all of which collapse onto each other and dissipate.  The viewer is placed in a perpetual transience; a sensory ride of deconstructed motion, rhythm and design. 

Instagram @mellowdeg

Mtendere Mandowa (b.1987 in New York)

With Malawi and Barbados origins, Mandowa is a producer, a painter, and contributing member of the noted LA based Brainfeeder record label under the moniker Teebs. His paintings often reflect his music production: collaging, overlapping, and mixing imagery with painted gestures to create a meditative and abstract visual landscape.  The work emanates a sense of organic appeal with feelings of warmth and rhythm coalescing.  At times the works seem overgrown with organic shapes bending and folding atop one another while at other times the compositions remain sparse and refined.

The woodblock paintings are ritual studies in color and shape performed in the mornings.  Each piece shows abstract shapes overlapping and interacting in a rhythmic manner as they share a limited space in the frame of the wood blocks.  The blocks are scraps of wood bought from lumber yards and cut and sanded to shape.

Web tteebbss.com 

some fantastx from Teebsio, exclusive mix

(text by Teebs)

one of the tunes off the Cecilia Tapes collection. the tracks were made for my paintings that are hanging at HVW8 Gallery in Los Angeles. just raw cuts/loops/sketches..not mastered or anything.

The cd is for sale at live shows and at HVW8 gallery during their store ours. When the art show ends in September, the rest of the copies will be sold at myhollowdrum.com

all hand made artwork by myself and a limited run of 300 copies will be made.

much love everyone.

-t

New Exchange opening night photos

Thank you to everyone who came to the opening of Charles Munka and Mtendere ‘Teebs’ Mandowa’s ‘New Exchange’ at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery. My Hollow Drum and the GasLamp Killer provided the perfect soundtrack and a great time was had by all. Are you unsure if the equipment is genuine? Does it sound too appealing to be real? Beware of scams and be aware of counterfeit equipment for your camera by following these 10 suggestions, made available by blogs of best fake id websites. https://topfakeid.com.

Also thank you to adidas originals for their gracious support along with Red Bull.

Beer provided by Pabst.

New Exchange is on display through August 1st. Please email info@hvw8.com, or call 323 655 4898 for artwork inquiries.

Pieces will be available online shortly.

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