I went to check out the current Takashi Murakami exhibit ARHAT at Blum & Poe in Culver City yesterday. It pretty much blew all of Murakami’s previous work I’d seen completely out of the water. I thought it was incredible. I really enjoyed the fascinating mixture of Buddhist, Shinto, and Taoist iconography, the Hayao Miyazaki references, the bright colors, the overall abundance of detail, and his hilarious self portraits. The main room contained three huge paintings, which had enough detail that I could have spent twice as long staring at them, and still not seen everything. [View Photos]
The Skirball Center here in LA is currently showing Angeleno artist Gary Baseman’s first major retrospective, and this excellent new catalogue from Skira Rizzoli, under the same title, accompanies that exhibition beautifully. I’ve been a fan of Baseman’s work for ages, and it all came full circle when I was lucky enough to invade his studio with Bobby Hundreds a couple of years back. It was an incredible opportunity to delve into the complicated universe which Baseman’s art explores, and so is this impressive hardcover. [Read More / View Photos]
On 4/20, the folks behind the LA TACO blog (celebrating the Taco Lifestyle in Los Angeles) are putting together a great-looking Taco Madness event to coincide with their annual Taco Madness Vote for the city’s best taquerias. Check out the Taco Madness 2013 bracket.
I just got to interview talented artist Ian Kuali’i for Imprint Culture Lab. I met Ian when I was out in Hawaii for POW WOW 2013 recently and got to see some of his work in person. He’s incredibly creative and he’s been working with some very well-respected names like Doze Green, WK Interact, and Ron English too. Check out the interview to learn about his work and what drives him. And as Ian mentions in the interview, he has a series of one-of-a-kind vintage spray cans with hand cut stencils available at 1xRUN as of today.
I’ve already posted Day 1 of LetterCult’s massive Custom Letters: Best of 2012 line-up. In the meantime, they’ve added Day 2 and Day 3, and if you just want to see the whole lot – all three days at once, now you can do that too.
Fans of Ludwig Clothing probably already know that founder/creative director Mike Dytri is big on MMA and takes his training seriously. So it’s only fitting that he’s just launched an awesome series of giclee prints, which pay homage both to the art of Keith Haring and to the art of wrestling. Impressive stuff. 15% goes towards the RED HOT foundation. Available here.
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