Save the Date: Urban Playground at The Gabba Gallery
“Urban Playground,” opening on Saturday August 23rd at The Gabba Gallery in Los Angeles brings the urban environment into their almost 2000 sq. ft. gallery.
The Gabba Gallery:
The playful excitement of children playing tag, a pick-up game of basketball, happy dogs, dandelions, metallic buildings, graffiti covered walls, boom boxes on full blast and skateboarders zooming by is the feeling this exhibitions contains.
Jason Ostro, curator for the show further continues: “We are bringing the outside in, going in through the outdoor, making The Gabba Gallery an Urban Playground!”
All the artists included in Urban Playground are part of the street art phenomenon sweeping the nation and world in recent years.
The artists of Urban Playground are: Max Neutra Jules Muck, Angelina Christina, Rene Gagnon, Teacher, Moncho1929, CANTSTOPGOODBOY, Michael Christy, Andrea LaHue , Clinton Bopp, Anyes Galleani, Jon Measures, Thrashbird, Septerhed, George Rivera , SELF UNO, MD MN, Jennifer Korsen, Jaime Becker, Phobik, Cody Bayne, Bleep Bloop, Mary Hanson, Toshee, Patrick Haemmerlein, Christopher James, WRDSMTH, Phil Santos, and Shawn Waco.
Here’s background on some of artist:
After spending five years developing his distinctive style while painting across Los Angeles and abroad, Max Neutra has made a name for himself as one today’s premier contemporary artists. He has risen to the international arena through sponsored tours across Europe and India, and has recently been awarded the first Guerilla Arts Foundation grant. Following his second consecutive sold out exhibition at C.A.V.E. Gallery on Abbott Kinney in Los Angeles, he continues to develop his art and explore new ways to bring his visions to the public. Riding the line between mayhem and control, Max creates images that are both chaotic and deliberate, each canvas an arena where chance and skill come together in a colorful fusion of iconic imagery. He has become known as an artist that thrives in a state continuous growth and experimentation, often employing new materials and technology. Utilizing his distinctive gonzo style, he explores the fading line between man and machine, the mysteries and methods of human communication, and the beauty and wonder of the natural world. www.maxneutra.com
Fine artist, street artist, photographer and producer: Angelina Christina’s unique talent lies within every image she constructs, in every single stroke of her brush, in every color she mixes, in every mystical story behind her work. Her education varies from a BFA in Art in from UCLA to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Art Center College of Design. Most recently, Angelina completed several paintings and window dressings exclusively for Christian Louboutin at Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills (the paintings have now become part of Neiman Marcus’ permanent collection). In September of 2011 she created the cover art for Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s latest album, “Area 52”. Angelina has also appeared as herself in several documentaries, films and most recently the music video for Van Hunt’s latest single, “Eyes Like Pearls,” which debuted in December on Rolling Stone.
Angelina is a process-oriented artist and her objective is to find the temporal and raw moments that define a lifetime and then cram all the details and nuances into one image. When she isn’t bound by professional commitments or finishing a painting in her studio you can find her wheat-pasting her drawings to the beautifully weathered and sun-stained city walls.
Jules Muck started doing graffiti in Europe and great Britain almost twenty years ago. Muck began bombing in New York in the late ’90s where she was discovered by Lady Pink who took her on as an apprentice for the next four years. At age 20 she was the first female graffiti artist invited to paint “The Wall Of Fame” at 106th and Park ave in Harlem. Under her tag name Muck she has shown at Tokyo Big Site, the Bronx Museum of Art, the Weisman Museum in Minneapolis and the Fuse Gallery in New York. She has been published in Ganz’s Graffiti Women, Cey Adam’s Definitions and both of the Murrays books Burning New York and Broken Windows. Since moving to LA almost 4 years ago and adding her first name Jules to the equation, Jules Muck has shown at The Pacific Design Center and Rivera Gallery in Hollywood. Her murals are prominent all over the Venice Beach area, where she lives and has her studio. Her works include a mural on Gelina restaurant featured in Food & Wine magazine and the Main St Lindsay Lohan portrait that received a large amount of press including a spotlight on Access Hollywood and an article in Newsweek’s The Daily Beast. Muck is currently exhibiting new works at Lab Art Gallery in Hollywood. This summer along with exhibiting at the Laughing Goat in Boulder, Jules Muck is showing in Pasadena California and at Phantom
Gallery in St. Louis.
A Native of Kinderhook, NY, Patrick Haemmerlein is a full-time artist living in Los Angeles. Reflecting on issues of the day, Patrick’s work explores themes of nature vs. industry and how they can co-exist or clash. Creating only from photographs he takes, Patrick layers Los Angeles imagery on found wood & recycled book pages and then applies watercolors to bring the artwork to life. For the past 9 years, Patrick gained great exposure showing his work through the underground art scene in Los Angeles. Now his artwork is represented in galleries across the world.
Anyes Galleani is an Italian-born, Los Angeles-based, visual artist who uses photo montage and collage to create unique images and mixed media art. Since the 90’s, Anyes’ evocative work has been complementing homes, offices and public venues and has been featured in a variety of magazines and exhibits. Born and raised on the Italian Riviera, Anyes came to California in the 80’s to study film and photography and soon established herself as a photographer/art director for fashion and celebrity shoots. In the 90’s, Anyes started working with photo montage, opening the door to an array of new opportunities, from gallery shows to design and video projects. Eventually, video became her medium of choice and for several years she focused on creating artistic and commercial videos. Anyes rekindled her passion for photography in 2007 and began printing her work on metal, however, over the years, she kept looking for a more organic way to present her images, one that would transform each one of them into an unique art piece. Finally, in 2011, she started working with mixed media, incorporating silk and parchment prints of her photo montages into her paintings, receiving a welcome response from collectors, interior designers and corporate buyers.
Originally born and raised in New York City, Moncho1929’s known for his iconic animal-inspired street art. The colors used are loosely based on various African flag colors and military fatigues. The sense of urgency on the animals combined with the suspension of the colors are meant to in a sense halt time for a glimpse at a fleeting moment of fear, frustration, escape and freedom. While beautiful, they also have strong social commentary on survival, preservation and awareness. Moncho1929 has had work appear on various television programs including NBC’s “The Voice”, shows on FX and an upcoming streetart based television show. Also a recent campaign for Uber, an upcoming project with the World Wildlife Foundation and has work in galleries in Los Angeles, Boston, New York and London. All works are done without a stencil and by hand on canvas and wall (murals)
Urban Playground opens on August 23, 2014 and will be on view through September 20, with a reception for the artist on Saturday, August 23, 7 – 11 p.m.
Facebook invite here.