Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Cute and Creepy Conundrum

The Mysterious MacSorro!

MacSorro, a.k.a. Jorge Macswiney, has been a favourite of mine at The Hive for awhile now. He was, at one time, a resident at the gallery but still remains a frequent contributor to our monthly shows. Every piece he creates is painfully detailed and curious. His trademark animal-masked characters are often accompanied by strange companions that one could only imagine existing in dreams or some sort of parallel universe. It's hard to believe that such a talented artist, who paints out his imagination and on to canvas in vivid color, could have no proper artistic training. According to his blog, it was his friends who nagged at him to start showing his artwork in galleries. Thank goodness that Mac agreed! His pieces are delightfully unique! You won't see anything like them anywhere else!
This month we are featuring MacSorro as our Tall Wall Artist. As you can imagine, his show has been anticipated for quite a bit and his featured wall piece is a real eye-catcher. I can give you a special sneak peek but not the whole shebang! This piece is composed of two scantily clad damsels masked as chicks. A seemingly peaceful scene is twisted and turned sideways as a pet cow rests quietly outside its barn house and a monkey leads a conga line of battered plastic duckies at the ladies' knees. From the panicked positions of the masked women and a beaten down dart board in the back round, this may turn into more of a target practice. You'll have to come down on Saturday to find out!

For more on MacSorro please visit his myspace or site!
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/Macsorro
site: http://www.macsorro.com/index.html


The Lovely Loretta!

The cute ones are always dangerous! That just goes to show in a lot of Loretta Gonzalez's pieces. Loretta's work is heavily influenced by the lowbrow art movement that emerged in the 1970's. This movement's origins were in punk, the hot-rod street culture and other subcultures. It's not a surprise that Loretta's work is a mix of cute and dangerous. A sublime paradox! Little girls and axes, nursery room horrors and mangled teddy bears are definitely my cup of tea.
According to Loretta's blog, her latest series is called "Dead Teddy". Most of the pictures were inspired by her daughters face and the idea that, "my teddy bear was not able to keep me safe and secure" (when she was a child).
This month's show features two pieces by Loretta. One entitled "I gave you my heart" and another called "Control Freak". I'll let you decide which is which.


For more on Loretta and her work you can visit her blog:
http://www.lorettagonzalez.com/

Thursday, April 15, 2010

MAYhem SHOW!



Come one, come all to MAYhem at The Hive!
OPENING SHOW: MAY 1, 2010
(show will run from may 1-may 29, 2010)
Where you ask?
729 South Spring street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
And when will you be expected?
8pm-12:30am
How about funds?
$8 at the door
ONLY $5 if you wear black & yellow!!!
BUZZZZZ

Here's a peek at the Featured Artist lineup list:

Featured Artist 1: Brandon Sopinsky
Featured Artist 2: Vincent Seritella

Tall Wall Artist: Macsorro
Small Wall Artist: Bleys Lieuallen

Installation Artist: L.D. Grant

Over 70 group show artists including:
Dave Macdowell / JoKa / Hiedi Calvert / Racecar 13 / Andrew Long / Faith Cavendish / Van Saro / Alex Freeman / Nicolette Spear / Sandra Fremgen / Paul Torres / Skyler Gonzalez / Nicole Bruckman /
Janelle McKain / Sara Hasse / Christopher Umana / Jessica Ward / Apricot Mantle / Brian Smith / Mary Spring / Snow Mack / Brian Robertson / Daisuke Okamoto / Kenji Tanaka / Cynthia Rogers / L.Croskey /
Bridget Mroczkowski / Sara Winkle / John Dang / Henry Cram / Holly Wood / Crystal Sylver / Robin Cohen / Jose Lopes / Karen Kang / Wellington Rawls / Erick Rodriguez / Pukac / Charles Swenson /
Jeff Christenson / Kim Zsebe / Craig Cartwright / Steve Korkis / Sam Graham / Carol Powell / Alina Chau / Janet Kim / Max Grundy / Andrew Long / Alex Ruiz / Billy Dyson / Patrick Mizumoto / Joseph Larkin /
Scott Aicher

26 resident artists including:
Sensei / Nathan Cartwright / Mary Spring / Greg Gould / Walt Hall / Sarah Winkle / John Dang / Douglas Alvarez / Jinx / DC / Michelle Bellasis /
/ Feminine Oddities / Shrine / Sonik / Ichae Ackso / Leyla Akdogan / Stephan Canthal / Paul Torres / Laura Diamond / Mike Street
/ The Little Red Writer / Randy Kono / Sara Hedstrom / Alex Schaefer / Macsorro / Patrick Haemmerlein / Alan DeForest / Bethany Pratt
/ Wasmi / Radhika Hersey / Amanda Sage / Romina Gonzales / Yuki Miyazaki / Sophia Gasparian / Ink Pen Mutations Press / Doug Meyer /
Liane Shih / Annie Terrazzo / Glenn Fox

PERFORMANCES BY:
8:00-8:50 Kristopher Escajeda [www.myspace.com/kristopherescajeda]
9:00-9:50 Michael Sean [Facebook.com/MichaelSeanOneal]
10:00-10:50 Megan Jade
11:00-11:50 Myk Mansun [www.myspace.com/mykmansun]
12:00-12:40 Inconsiderate Orca [www.myspace.com/inconsiderateorca]

8:00-8:50 Amanda Michele (Soundcloud.com/AmandaMichelleDJ)
9:00-9:50 Charles Fox (http://charlie.la )
10:00-10:50 Mara Fluff (WaxDj.com/TheFluff)
11:00-11:50 Richard Agopian (http://alteregoevents.net)

FABRIC ENVIRONMENTS/ INSTALLATION by: Sonik - http://www.transmorphic.net

NEON INSTALLATION BY: Teeem- teemster@gmail.com

Stay tuned!