Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Refuge, an exhibition of new paintings in watercolor by the Canadian artist Tristram Lansdowne. This is Lansdowne’s first solo show with the gallery.

Lansdowne’s paintings of architectural ruins focus on themes of permanence, decay, and function inherent in constructed environments. Depicted with the delicacy of Roman frescoes after millennia of wear, these palimpsests carry traces of past lives, such as weathered billboards, chipped paint, graffiti, political campaign posters, or electrical wiring. The lightness of Lansdowne’s watercolors imbues these glimpses into the ravages of time with a gentle patina. Yet there’s ambiguity in his approach. An idealistic view of the past is juxtaposed with the emotional vacancy of urban decay, a circumspect view of human progress in which outmoded architectural ideas mix with discarded pieces of the landscape.

In this new suite of fifteen medium- to large-sized works on paper, Lansdowne depicts decrepit houses, buildings, and barns atop subterranean layers of disparate, sometimes unrelated material and mysterious cavities. These incongruous structures include Sub Comfort, a rickety house with TV and mattress in the basement. In The Bilder, a majestic old barn sits atop the skeletal frame of a wooden galleon. Brush Park situates a boarded-up and crumbling brick edifice above a subterranean cave with access to a body of water. Painted in cross-section like natural history specimens—each building and its lower regions isolated against a pristine field of white paper these structures have the feel of old teeth, worn down with the rotting network of root, gum, and bone exposed.
Their clinical beauty and uncanny combinations make their poignancy not only palatable but also strangely beguiling.

Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present From Kojiki to Modern Heroism, a two-person exhibition of new paintings by the New York-based Japanese artists Tat Ito and Hiro Kurata. This is Ito and Kurata’s first solo show with the gallery.

As invoked by the exhibition’s title, the two artists draw from Japan’s earliest narratives to layer their thoroughly contemporary painting with a rich lexicon of visual and historical motifs. Tat Ito has created a unique pictorial style that combines high-color, graphic abstraction with echoes of Edo-era history painting. In his acrylic-on-canvas works, finely rendered scenes of court life, village squares, and columns of military figures are depicted from an elevated, detached perspective. Yet, jostling the picture plane forward and back are flat, decorative passages of Day-Glo grids, camouflage, and other graphic patterns. In the panoramic painting Kagutsuchi (“fire god” in ancient Japanese mythology), columns of orange-suited figures dodge explosions and atmospheric clouds of polka-dotted, Yayoi Kusama-style smoke. The artist describes this approach as “a metaphor for Japanese contemporary art and culture upon which the Western viewpoint is floating,” if not entirely mixing.

By contrast, Hiro Kurata presents an uncanny integration of East and West in his faux-naif, acrylic-on-panel paintings, whose prosaic subjects and settings carry allegorical undertones. In Greek Myth 09, a baseball player and a samurai-like figure go head to head with bat and sword. In the painting Death Match and a Novelist, sumo wrestlers on a seaside boardwalk are backdrop/muse for a seated writer/harlequin in the foreground. There is a distinct and breathtaking meld of art-historical influences in Kurata’s highly evolved style, from the contemporary New Leipzig School to Hokusai woodcuts.

Gallery Opening, Saturday, February 13th, from 6 – 9pm. Exhibition runs through March

Joshua Liner Gallery
548 West 28th Street
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001

Tomorrow, Ken Keirns will be releasing a limited edition print from one of his recent shows at Gallery 1988.  Entitled ‘Band-Aid’, the print is 12×16, printed on Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art Paper, in a limited edition of 50 prints.  Gallery 1988 San Francisco will be taking orders for the print tomorrow, Tuesday, February 9th.  Please contact them  at (415) 409-1376 or email them at gallery1988sf@gmail.com to purchase the print.

Martin Wittfooth’s ” Tempest ” explores the theme of storm in both its physical form as well as its allegorical implications. Wittfooth’s latest body of work is a visceral response to the anxiety of our era: uneasy forecasts, both of an increasingly menacing climate as well as unpredictable social upheaval. The hysterical and aggressive, often hypocritical nature of religion. violence and intolerance, and corruption are also themes explored in this series. The show will consist of of a large-scale installation, sculptures, oil paintings executed on linen, canvas, and panel, and a series of graphite studies. Framed Artist Proofs of select Limited Edition prints will also be included.

Painter and sculptor Chris Ryniak’s first west coast solo show and new body of work, ” The Burgeoning , ” is a collection of paintings and hand-painted resin cast sculptures. Ryniak has been acknowledged internationally as a “creature creator,” but a deeper look at these beings shows the tumultuous world in which they are forced to struggle to survive. While the creatures that inhabit Ryniak’s world are unfamiliar, they serve as an embodiment of the natural world that human beings have grown to all but ignore.

” The Burgeoning ” further explores the theme of the neverending cycle of life in the natural world, the flawless system of checks and balances that flourishes without human meddling. Through color and an ordered chaos of mark-making, this world is brought to life in this new series of paintings and sculptures.

Opening Reception, Saturday February 13 from 8 – 11:30 pm. Exhibition runs through March 6th.

CoproNason Gallery
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave , Unit T5,
Santa Monica , CA 90404
Ph: 310/829-2156

A selection of events for the weekend:

Closing:

• This is the last weekend for the group show at the Joshua Liner Gallery and the Robert Hardgrave solo show.
• Tonight is the last night of the ‘A Cry for Help’ show at Thinkspace, they are planning a party for the closing, details here.

Current:

• Francesco LoCastro has a very unique vision and intriguing art design.  Check out his current show at pinkghost.

Opening:

• Tonight, New Moon 2010 @ myplasticheartNYC, from 6 – 9pm
• Saturday, February 6th, ‘Uber Cute’ @ Rivet Art, from 7 – 10pm
• Saturday, February 6th, ‘The Local Haunt’ @ Alcove Gallery, from 7pm – 12am
• Saturday, February 6th, Fred Harper and Nick Baxter @ Last Rites, from 7 – 11pm

Those of you in the South are in for a treat this weekend.  Opening this Saturday at The Alcove Contemporary Art Gallery is a three person group show entitled ‘The Local Haunt’.  Featuring artists Brian Colin, John Fesken and Gus Fink.  It looks to be a spooky and creepy  event.  Brian Colin will be releasing a limited run of “Vulturite” toys at the show.   Produced in a limited quantity of 10, they were cast in pourable plastic from a mold created using the original sculpt.

Opening Saturday February 6th from 7pm – 12am.

The Alcove
Contemporary Art Gallery
2852 East College Ave
Decatur, GA 30030

In a few hours, Shawnimals will be releasing his next Ninja of the Month plush, in the form the the Yeti Ninja!

“We are super excited for the release of the second of 12 all-new Ninjas made for Ninja of the Month! The Yeti Ninja is a force to be reckoned with, and yet is terribly lonely. He wouldn’t admit that of course. He needs to keep his monster cred in mind after all.

From the tag:
This lonely, misunderstood beast of a Ninja lives in the snowiest, most remote parts of the Feroshi Mountains, without a soul nearby. Except for his BFF snowman pal named Rawr. That he made. With his own paws. It’s a little creepy, sure, but mostly sad.

Motto:
“Rawr… rawr, rawr… RAWR!”

When you order this product you get…

• A handmade 7″ × 7″ plush Ninja limited to 100 pcs.
• Signed and numbered fancy hang tag
• Fun accessories – His snowman sidekick named Rawr
• A character sticker
• A character button

You can purchase more Ninja of the Month merchandise like stickers, buttons, a poster and more, including a full SUBSCRIPTION, right over here.”

Meet artist Brandt Peters as he signs and celebrates the release of his sinister 6.5-inch Dead Bunny!

Limited to 200 worldwide, Dead Bunny is ringmaster of the twisted carnival that has mysteriously appeared in your town. This creature has no soul but he’ll gladly take yours.

Tonight, February 3, 6-8pm Kidrobot MIA, 638 Collins Ave
Thursday, February 4, 6-8pm Kidrobot NY, 118 Prince St

Uber Cute group exhibition will feature wooden sculptures, plush work, customized toys and illustration by Daniel Elson, Okkle, Heidi Kenney (My Paper Crane), and Bukubuku.

Anyone with questions or interests in this show may contact laura@rivetgallery.com

Opening reception is Saturday, February 6 from 7 – 10pm and the exhibit will be on display until February 28.

Rivet
1200 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43201
614-294-8697