Pop Surrealist David Stoupakis who is featured in Gestalten’s recent release The Upset: Young Contemporary Art has a talent for transforming the supernatural and macabre into dramatic narratives. A delicate balance of childhood innocence and haunting imagery, this series of oil-on-panel paintings and graphite drawings recounts grim fairytales of the decadent and demure.

Marking a new direction for the artist, Stoupakis employs a brighter color palette than before and will unveil his largest piece to date for the exhibition. The reception for These Predicaments takes place on Saturday, December 13, and the evening will include music scored by composer Geoff Gersh. Open to the public, the exhibition will be on view until December 31, 2008.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Born in Brighton, Massachusetts in 1974, David Stoupakis was diagnosed with a learning disability and encouraged to develop his artistic side as a child. The subject of many teacher-parent meetings, his “gloomy” drawings would later become his signature style of painting. Stoupakis’ images have appeared as cover art for the bands Korn and Haloburn and have been featured in numerous publications including Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose and Devolution as well as books such as Gothic Art Now and The Upset. Galleries throughout the world have featured his work, including Strychnin Gallery in Berlin, Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome, and StolenSpace Gallery in London. Stoupakis currently lives and works in Queens, New York with his girlfriend and muse Aprella. For more information about the artist, please visit: www.davidstoupakis.com.

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KISS CONSULTATION - oil on canvas 36in x 48in

If your a fan of Ron English’s work, you will be pleased to know his latest work is on show now at the Shooting Gallery SF. Ron is the master of “popaganda”, known for his satirical interpretations of commercial iconography. For his latest show “The Secret History of Kiss”, Ron creates Bouguereau styled paintings with traditional regal and religious subject matter that have Kiss themes to them all. It really doesn’t matter if your a fan of kiss or not, as each one of the oil paintings on show is a masterpiece. The colors, presentation and the way he handles paint is not only inspiring but awe inducing. See more…

Saturn: The bringer of old age/ The brat with promise, 2007-2008, acrylic on black silk velvet with motor, 40 x 40 inches

If your a fan of Thomas Woodruff’s paintings, then you’ll be pleased to know about his latest works, entitled: “Solar System (The Turning Heads),”on show at NYC’s P.P.O.W. Gallery on October 10th - 15th Nov. This new series is a dazzling parade of super magical otherworldliness to celebrate a fanciful universe of weird beauty with an incredibly unique touch, using richly layered paint and subdued colors. Woodruff’s a master of hybridizing vocabularies from the past and present, referencing sideshow banners, Pompeian wall frescoes, Baroque religious paintings, theatrical posters, and Victorian penmanship charts to create new planetary oddities with a twist - every painting from this series is meant to be flipped, thereby revealing an inverse meaning.

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“This show will include a handful of my ‘drawings’ on paper and wood, and will feature 24 talented artist’s work (curated by myself!).This is my first time putting together a show, so its all very new to me, but i am sure this will be quite amazing for all of us, and hope everyone will enjoy these artist’s work, both familiar and new” - Audrey Kawasaki

Audrey Kawasaki has pulled together some very interesting friends to curate her very first exhibition. Entitled: “The Drawing Room,” and consists of Stella Im Hultberg, Amy Sol, Kukula, Brandi Milne, Brian Viveros, Catherine Brooks, Mari Inukai, Nomi Chi, Lauren Albert, Jessica McCourt, Julia Sonmi Heglund, Eveline Tarunadjaja, Meg Hunt, Irana Douer, Catherine Campbell, Lilly Piri, Amy Earles, Eric Thomas Bostrom, Joao Ruas, Laura Laine, Jason Levesque aka Stuntkid, Fumi Nakamura, Travis Louie, and Liza Corbett. This eclectic showcase will surely be a huge hit when it opens at the Thinkspace Gallery on Friday, November 7, 2008.

Take an in-depth sneak preview of the many artists that will be featured on Audrey’s live journal.

“Who observes Victor Castillo’s subject matter, which is so wisely done maybe remember an incomplete symphonic poem, or could believe that his Art exceeds the imagination. His figurative and abstract language is an expression of private rituals that are celebrating his life stages by a variety of symbols – messages that recreate the tiny frame of his canvas. His iconography and the symbolism are related to two strongly categories of representation: the art and the time. He award a particular poetical sense to his pictures where many elements join together: plastic and conceptual, traditional, contemporary local and universal Art. All is important in Victor Castillo’s work.”

Extract of a critique written by Norma Aranivar F. Published for the magazine (IBEROAMERICANA) of LATIN AMERICAN Cultural Association. Miami 2000.

Spanish / Chilean artist Victor Castillo’s first solo show in the USA opens this evening at Seattle’s Roq La Rue Gallery. Castillo’s series, titled “When the Heavens Open,” are dramatic paintings of children in dark situations where toys are weapons and the fun is frightening if not brutally violent. Sharing the gallery with Castillo is Seattle artist Brian Despain who introduces more mechanical protagonists from his “100 Robots” series.

Castillo/Despain preview, Roq La Rue exhibition page

Un mundo feliz, Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2006
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La Mine, 2002. Chromogenic c-print, available in 16 x 16″, 24 x 24″, and 32 x 32″, Limited edition

Paris-Brest, 2004, Chromogenic c-print mounted on plexiglass, 32 x 32 inches x 2 (diptych)

This is the first major solo United States exhibition of works by the Paris-based artists, Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida, featuring a selection of works from the MINIMIAM series of diptych photographs created between 2002-2008.

The husband and wife team present a manufactured micro universe, part Toy Story, part Candy Land, populated with diminutive humanoid characters engaged in a range of ordinary and extraordinary activities. Since the project inception in 2002, the series has grown to over 60 images. more…