Show up at the Whitney

My Cerberus piece is on display at the Whitney, its in a group show that will be up until February 17th. Here is their little blurb for the show on their site:

Two Years
on view October 17, 2007 - February 17, 2008

Acquisitions for the permanent collection are at the heart of the Museum's mission to present the work of American artists in the contexts of the present and the past, and in anticipation of the future. Two Years brings on view important gifts and purchases from 2006 and 2007.

I always wondered if the Whitney fucked up, assuming I was American, but I'm sure they do their research and it turns out there is another Canadian in the show as well. I'm going to be in NYC at the end of January, and I'm pretty excited to check out the show...

You can check out the Whitney's website here, and my piece got mentioned in a review, here.

Also, Andrew Wilson started a blog as well, and it is WAY better than mine...

trip

I just finished my new Road of Knives page...


Shawn gave these little mole guys some pretty sexy underwear...

babelfish

I love babelfish. I went to the Tokyo galleries website, and translated the little blurb they have beside my name. It came out saying this:

The Canadian edition mania artist who loves ジャパニメーション. The ancient abvssal fish and the birds and beasts the fine hand drawing of motif become popularity, expand the fan to with North America, Europe and Asia.

Thats what I do with my time when I can't sleep...

open studio + tokyo

A couple things going on... If you are in Toronto on Thursday, I'll be working with a technician to produce some screen prints during the Open Studio open house (in the 401 Richmond building). I'm not sure exactly what is going on, but from 6 - 9 theres a silent auction, selling off some of the Open Studio members' prints, and I think the technician and I will be making some of my screen prints on the spot... I'm not much of a pro at screen printing, so we'll see how they turn out. I guess thats why I'm working with a technician...

If you're not familiar with Open Studio, go to their website. I'm not TOO sure what goes on in there, its a massive room filled with every printmaking device I knew existed, and they have memebers, and they make prints...

I'm not too sure what I'll be printing, I was thinking one of these two images that I drew last week:



The second one is a small pen and ink version of the crocodile image from my show in September, the first one is a iguana finch of some sort... the originals are both draw on the same page, and make up a larger composition... man, I just typed so much boring stuff in a row..

I typed that stuff this morning. Now it's night. I met the technician today and he seems like a really nice guy, he and Jill, the woman that asked me to participate helped me out a lot with preparing my image today... Working with nice people is pretty great...

Here's the flyer for the night..


OKok, Tokyo. I'm in a group sow in Tokyo on December 2nd. Tomolennon, a Tokyo born artist living here in Toronto is putting on a group show of Toronto artists in a gallery in Tokyo that he co-directs. The gallery is located within a bath house, which I think is pretty awesome. I went to he website, and its a bunch of Japanese text I can't read, and photos of people getting massages.

And like the people at Open House, Tomolennon seems like a really great guy, he was really courteous and patient when we met...

So yes, I'm excited, this is my first time showing in Tokyo, I get to show with a bunch of artists that I have a lot of respect for, some really strong Toronto talent. I won't post my work on here again, I sent a set of the grid prints that I've already posted on the blog twice, so you can scroll down and see them if you are interested...

ok, here is the link to the space: tokyoganbanyoku

And here is the press release:

Art x Life gallery, Tokyo Japan is pleased to announce "Toronto Underground" An art exhibition of Toronto's most promising emerging artists.
If you know of someone who might be interested in this information, please pass this note on to them.


Art x Life gallery in Tokyo presents
Special exhibition
Toronto Underground
Selection of Toronto's most promising emerging artists

-tomolennon
-Fiona Smyth
-Kirsten Johnson
-Christopher Hutsul
-Nicholas Di Genova
-Harvey Chan
-Gregory John Hern


Art x Life gallery will present an exhibition introducing, for the first time in Japan, 7 of Toronto's most promising emerging artists at a crucial time in their career.

Toronto is the largest financial, cultural and entertainment centre in Canada, named by UNESCO as the world's most multicultural city, but the city's native culture is still unknown. Diversity of race, religion and lifestyle help define and set Toronto apart from other world cities. Toronto is considered one of the world's most diverse cities wherein over 100 languages are spoken. The nature of Toronto's multiculturalism is reflected in its wonderful mosaic of distinctive neighborhoods, a global village of Mixed EWorld Heritage.

Now, for the first time, Japanese can experience the rich cultural diversity of Toronto through contemporary art. The exhibition includes work by tomolennon, a Japanese-born artist well known for his large-scale figurative portrait series called Sleeping Beauty, innovative in its approach of combining art and fashion. With more than 21 years of experience, Fiona Smyth is a leading representative of Canada's contemporary art scene. She was born in Montreal and moved to Toronto in the late 70's and became an all-round artist, making paintings, illustrations, murals and comics. Kirsten Johnson is a Toronto based visual artist whose work appears in private and public collections all over North America, Europe and Australia. Her work often involves a fusing of her visual work with her strong background in performance. Christopher Hutsul is a British Columbia native artist, writer, and emerging film director. His humorous but "cutting-edge" quality of drawings appears everywhere around the city from local galleries to newspapers and magazines. Nicholas Di Genova is a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is known for his illustrations of flora and fauna that　will populate this planet millions of years after the Apocalypse. Harvey Chan is a Hong Kong native. After graduating from Ontario College of Art and Design, Harvey pursued his career as an illustrator. He has illustrated many children's books and has been short-listed for the Governor General's Award twice in his prestigious career. Gregory John Hern is a young Toronto born photographer, just graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is best known for his large domestic tableaux using himself as the family archetypes.


Toronto Underground
Curated by Cojac, Centre of Japanese Arts and Culture
Guest curator Rafi Ghanaghounian

toronto underground

Exhibition date: December 2nd, 2007 to January 31st, 2008

ART x Life GALLERY
Tokyo Japan
Sponsored by TOKYOGANBANYOKU


Address: Pearl Center 2F, 1-36-4 Sanko bldg., Asagaya Minami, Suginami-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Hours: AM10:00~PM10:00
TEL: 03-3311-8211
Website: http://www.tokyoganbanyoku.jp/
Media contact: (Tokyo) Saeko Ando shop@tokyoganbanyoku.jp
Media contact: (Toronto) Studio 2/artic info@tomolennon.com


[Art x Life gallery]
Located in the Tokyoganbanyoku, the largest, exclusive and luxury SPA center of Japan, Art x Life gallery is the newest concept contemporary art gallery offers programmes of changing exhibitions and supporting events to increase interest, understanding and involvement in contemporary art.
Art x Life gallery adds the exciting works of contemporary artists to Tokyo's thriving cultural scene.

[COJAC, Centre of Japanese Arts and Culture]
Centre of Japanese Arts and Culture (COJAC) formed in 2005 dedicated to generating new bonds of understanding of Japan and the Japanese through art and cultural programs. COJAC contributes to local communities culturally and socially by supporting artists who introduce and share Japanese culture with local communities, and by creating a place for artistic activities through the organizing of exhibits, educational programs, and providing networking services. This contribution helps to foster a mutual understanding of one's own culture while it also promotes the creation of culturally active communities.
It is our intention to support various Japanese and non-Japanese artists whose work relates to Japanese culture by affording the artists the opportunities to exhibit or perform their artistic activities.

old road of knives...

I was just scanning previous entries, and for some reason the road of knives page I did previous to this one is not showing up... Uh, maybe it is just my computer, but I'm going to post it again anyway...



Also, in case you miss the link on the right, you can see all the action here.

new road of knives...

I just finished my new road of knives page... We are trying to put more emphasis on setting, so I drew Zak's Medusa lady leaving her house...

I can't draw people.

everything's coming up nick...

A while back I was contacted by Belio Magazine out of Spain. They asked if I would be interested in putting a book together with them. I said shit yes, I sent them tons of images, they put a ton of work into editing and compiling the book, and now its coming out very soon.

I'm not sure how much it will cost, exactly when it will be released, or where it will be available. I do know that it will be 192 pages, full colour, and 14 cm x 15 cm.

It is part of their Die Young Book Collection, and you can see other books in the series here.

thank god for graval

Its been a good couple of weeks. I did two artist talks and they both went well I think... Man, I get so nervous for those things, like 'on-the-verge-of-throwing-up" type of nervous, but once I get up there its not so bad... One of the talks was for Ed Pien's class at OCAD, he is one of my favourite artists, you can look at his stuff here

There's a bunch of other links to his work on that page as well...

I've been spending a lot of time getting the new studio in working condition, the walls and floor are looking good now, and I have most of my stuff moved in...

Hmmm...earlier today I finished my new page for the Road of Knives: Uh, click on it, it looks better big...



I went to Canzine and TIAF a couple of weekends ago...Maybe I just don't like zines and art, cause neither of the fairs really did much for me... except I met a couple of gallerists from Marseille, they seem like nice and honest dudes and I'm going to be sending them some work for a couple of upcoming art fairs:

Dukan & Hourdequin

Uhh... I thought I had more to write than this... I'm going to save what I have and finish tomorrow...

OK, its tomorrow now, I remembered something that I forgot to include last night, I have a profile in this months Juxtapoz, thats exciting. Well, for me anyway...



The issue is so-so... I'm not that big on Shepard Fairey but Saelee Oh has a feature in this issue as well, I think she's pretty fantastic...

Ok, last couple of things. Andrew and I moved the rest of the stuff out of my old studio...




We thought it would be awesome to throw my roll of bubble wrap off the 8th floor fire escape. I got this photo of Andrew up there but you can't really see him. Then I didn't get any photos of it coming down, but it wasn't very awesome anyway, it just landed neatly beside andrews car. It was a really big letdown...



Now I'm pretty much set up in the new space, it feels good to have a place to work again...






Then andrew dressed up as a ghost and we drove around in his car...

TIAF this weekend

The Toronto International Art Fair is this weekend, I'm showing some work with LE. Gallery in booth 922. The fair is at the Convention Centre and runs until Monday, if you are in the area you should check it out. I'm going to go take in some art on Sunday I think...

http://www.tiafair.com/

The Road of Knives with Zak Smith and Shawn Cheng is starting up again... I finished my page tonight, um.... go easy on me, I'm not fantastic at drawing comics. Thats an understatement, I actually suck at drawing comics, but theres only one way to improve I guess...

The link on the side of this page won't take you to the road anymore, we have revamped the old material, cut more than half of it out, and are rebuilding it in pieces... Once we have the new stuff compiled I'll toss a link to it...



Here are a couple of drawings...





If I take good photos on sunday I'll post them here.

new studio new studio new studio

I'm pretty excited this week cause I got a new studio... Andrew and my buddy Daniel and I are sharing it, it's big and cheap and has a shower and kitchen...I've been working on it all week, getting the walls fixed and the floor painted and the kitchen operational, its a lot of work. Here are some shots of how the space looked when we got it:








When we are done fixing it up, hopefully it will be a lot less gross... The good news about the space is that it is right across the street from a meat packing plant, and no one wants to live across the street from a meat packing plant, so I doubt we'll get booted out so they can tear it down and build condos (which is why I'm leaving my old space). The bad news is that its across the street from a meat packing plant. It doesn't exactly smeel like meat and it doesn't exactly smell like shit, but it smells like something in between the two... Like someone shit his pants and died and was found 3 weeks later... But at least it won't get replaced with condos...



While I was working on my show this summer, I would occasionally see an albino squirell while biking home through the park at 6 am... I saw it the other day and stalked it to get a photograph...He's a sly little fucker, this is as close as I could get...



This week I also finished my work for the Toronto International Art Fair. I'm showing some black and while pen and ink stuff this year, here are some scans:





Man, I have to stop drawing birds... I think my next kick will be Botony...or Entomology... I haven't really decided yet...

What else what else. The Road of Knives is starting up again, Zak, Shawn and I are going to be working hard all year to finish the comic, and I believe we'll be releasing it next year at Fredericks and Freiser in NYC during Zak's solo show.... I'll post my pages as I draw them... I'm working on a page right now, well, making changes to an old page actually, we are re-vamping it a tad...

Show flicks and the hidden basement

Rose sent me some flicks from the opening...here we go. They are mostly crowd shots or shots of me, and I don't think anyone wants to see too many photos of me...






This is me looking really surprised at something... The girl in the back is Patti, one of my best buds... She works across the street from my studio and always brings me coffee or gatorade or company...




This is my friend Rose who took all of the photos, except this one I guess... No, wait, I think I borrowed her camera and took them myself... I can't remember. Oh, Rose and her friend Steph run a company together, you should go to the website and buy things... www.p0isson.com Oh, I see that they have a blog now too...

http://p0isson.blogspot.com/

I'm not good with computers and I don't know how to make hyperlinks...



Hmmm...what happened this week? Oh, Nicolina worked her first shift as a paid studio assistant, except I didn't have any cash to pay her, but I'm good for it...or rather I hope to shit I'll be good for it within the next couple of weeks... uh, sorry Nicolina, you are important to me...

Look how happy she looks:



Then Nicolina cleaned my studio and found a bloody tooth on the floor. My first reaction was to check my mouth, but it was all good. Then I thought maybe it was Andrews from when he got hit by that car, but I saw the teeth he lost and neither looked like this... So Nicolina found a bloody tooth on the floor, and we have no idea where it came from...



A couple of friends from across the hall came over and said they found a hidden basement in the building. This was very exciting news, I've been in the building for about 3 years in total, and I never heard anything about a hidden basement... So we explored it:








So after all that walking we found an old office with rotten cans of coke in the fridge. And there was a desk and in the desk we found 2 big boxes of condoms, and an unopened bottle of chocolate body...stuff. I don't know what its called, that stuff that people put on each other and have sex with it... Chocolate body paste? Lotion?



Beside the desk there was a little hobbit sized door that lead to a scary dark corridor with ladders to climb:







I also drew a bunch, But I haven't finished any of the drawings yet, I have a few on the go at once, getting some small paper drawings ready for the Toronto Internation Art Fair, which is in late October I think...

Oh, I sent 5 pieces to that Strange Brew show in Seatlle that I posted the flyer for. Two of the pieces I sent were small watercolours, 4" x 6"... Its the first time I've really used watercolours, uh, I'm not brilliant, but I wanted to post them in here for some variation... The scans look pretty fucked up, this was from before we calibrated my scanner... They are brother and sister Coral Gnomes...



Ok, thats all I got for now...