GelaSkins | What's the Skinny?

BLU my mind, Again...

Once again BLU has killed it with his latest stop-motion video. This particular wall animation took several months to paint, shoot and edit and leaves no doubt in my mind that this guy is a frickin genius.

"Short back and sides, and a glass of Pinot please!"

All you Growth fans in the Bay Area should be happy to hear that Lawrence Yang with be heading up a solo show of his very own opening on May 16th. the jam will be going down at "MR." which according to the poster is a barbershop and wine bar. Crazy! Finally, a place I can get loaded annnnnnnnnd get a trim - although maybe they should provide some kind of fast food lidded cup so the hair doesn't get in your wine. Yeah, now that's classy!

With $3 Red Stripes and vino, there's no good excuse I can think of to miss this - unless of course you're here in Canada celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday for the long weekend, then you're paying an obscene amount for gas, but hey, who isn't these days.

Mr. Yang was kind enough to send over some sneak peeks at what we'll be seeing at the upcoming show... check it!

Nice Cans...revealed!

As predicted the Cans Festival went off this weekend like gangbusters as what will undoubtedly go down the greatest collection of stenciled street art ever assembled. While the great Banksy got a lion's share of the press, there are some incredible pieces by the rest of the field of artists, not to mention all the awesome art as part of the 'free for all' - where anyone form the public could come and paint as well. Romanyg's flickr site has a pant load wicked pictures you can find here for the known artists and here for the rest.

Banksy...

Bandit...

DOLK...

Ron English...

Fark FK and SNUB...

Blek Le Rat...

Canned goodness *UPDATED*

So much great stuff going on in the world today, where to begin...

Steven Daily, the southern Californian  artist, dropped a line this week saying thanks to all those that supported Gag Me With A Toon and he was so inspired by all the love you folks threw out their way, that he just waltzed right out and threw down some wicked graf. He was kind enough to send a few shots along to show all of you.

 

The Bay area's MARS-1 has a great new print being offered  up by the Jonathan LeVine Gallery called Aerodynamics for Psychonauts. This baby is limited to 50 and can be purchased for $350 directly from the gallery.

Shepard Fairey has released a new poster in support of the new movie BOMB IT featuring the GIANT himself along with a slew of others on the history of global graffiti and street art. Pretty sweet if you ask me, but I'm a little pissed they haven't announced a Toronto screening date.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

* UPDATE -  Stay tuned in the coming weeks for an announcement for the Toronto screening of BOMB IT :) 

In the meantime, check out the trailer...

 

Annnnd our man behind the Bookshelf, Colin Thompson, is up for an award Down Under. The Children's Book Council of Australia  has put Colin's book Dust on a short list for Best Picture Book Of the Year. Well done Colin and good luck!

Ketner Does the 'Springs...

Our main man from the Chicagoland area, Jeremiah Ketner, had a solo show open this past weekend in the delightful dessert oasis known as Palm Springs, California. The M Modern gallery is playing host to "Another Tomorrow" over the next few weeks so please be sure to head on over if you're in the Palm Springs area.  In the meantime, Jeremiah was kind enough to send over some great pics of the work he's exhibiting - stunning as always!

In other news, both Alex Noriega and Jaime Zollars among others are taking part in a show called Menace and Charm: the Nostagia of Childhood starting this Saturday the 26th at Black Maria Gallery.

Make sure you check to see What the Skinny is on Friday as I'll be giving away some of our new PSP and DS Lite skins!

Singapore Sling

So a little while ago we agreed to curate a children's art competition for iShop in Singapore in hopes of stirring the creative juices in kids all across the tiny island. There were two categories for the competition, divided into age groups: Primary School and Secondary School. The winners from both categories will take home an iPod Classic, a Wacom tablet and 5 custom-made GelaSkins bearing their art -  pretty sweet if you ask me! I'd kill to get my work on a GelaSkin! I'm kidding, I wouldn't really kill someone.

Anyway, after 72 hours of grueling deliberation, many RedBulls and a greasy pizza or eight, myself and the panel of adjudicators have come to the Kurt Russell (that's an Executive Decision to the lay folk). So without further ado here are the winners...

In the Primary category:

1st Place: Lim Hong Jun (5R) - This artist has great potential and shows a good understanding of a specific animation style and has confidence in their abilities.

2nd Place: Regina Pang - We liked the central character and the font chosen for this piece - well placed.

3rd Prize: Nur Haziqah - Excellent use of colour in this work. Keep it up!

In the Secondary category:

1st Place: Byran MSHS - This piece stood out for a few reasons; the understanding of movement of the human form, decent grasp of perspective and overall composition. An excellent effort!

2nd Place: An Octopus reaching for the Sky by Jane Marsha - The impressionistic nature, a good palate of colours used and the texture in this work is what really draws the observer in.

3rd Place: ZHSS Loke Jun Jie - We really enjoyed the whole range of characters and plethora of emotions they're portraying in this one. It's a very colourful and fun piece -  Good job!

Good luck to you, artists of the FUTURE!

"Stop whistling man, you're out of tune!"

In what has become a weekly ritual, we dropped two VERY awesome pieces into our already sick line up (no, I don't mind saying so myself) by Washington state artist Brian Despain.  The two works, "The Stranger"  and "The Exchange"  are only 2 examples of his realistic portrayals of creatures and robots personified. Check out his site here  for more visual treats.

The one that is Obey  recently squared off against WK Interact  in a paint/stencil/awesome-off. These two street art heavyweights videotaped the art battle for prosperity, and thanks to the miracle of the modern intertron we're able to watch these goliath's settle the score from the comforts our cardboard box office.

Stella im Hultberg  has just released a new set of prints with sexy sexy results. I kinda feel a little guilty looking at her stuff at work, except that it's my job, so my shame is negated. Hooray!

Step 1...

GelaSkin alumnus Jeremiah Ketner has rendered his own version of Klimt's "The Kiss" with awesome results.

How cool would it be if the all GelaSkins artists did a rendition of another GelaSkins artist's work??!!  - This cool. If you think it's a good idea, leave a comment, maybe we can start some sort of grassroots coup :)

Thinkspace Gallery has just announced a show coming this June with one of our faves, Amy Sol... and in more recent Thinkspace news Brandt Peters and the lovely Kathie Olivas have a show there starting the 11th and running until May 2nd.

And for sheer randomness, the New Kids on The Block announced that they're playing on The Today Show on Friday. Ooooooo I wonder if they'll be able to rekindle the old magic? Will Joey still be able to hit those high notes? Will Danny be able to hit the low ones? I'm sure they just take it step by step and see how it goes... ouch, that hurt.

   

 

What 'Choo up to?

"Amaranthine"

"Land of Dreams" creator Amy Sol released a couple new sweet prints last week. The Apple and the String and Amaranthine are both limited to an edition of 50 and can be purchased for $150 each.  I'm sure these will not last long so hurry on over to Amy's website here to grab one.

Long time GelaSkin collaborator WKY has a cool new resin figure featuring his latest character the Monstre De Marais in various versions. The "MDM" as we'll call him, is hand poured and hand cast from resin and you can pick him up in a Rainbow Candyman or Jurassic Park version.

 

Via Vinyl Pulse.

Last Rites Gallery has a show debuting April 5th called "Transgression" featuring recent GelaSkin artist Travis Louie amongst a slew of others including heavyweight macabre don, H.R. Giger. Awesome.

"Amaranthine"

"Land of Dreams" creator Amy Sol released a couple new sweet prints last week. The Apple and the String and Amaranthine are both limited to an edition of 50 and can be purchased for $150 each.  I'm sure these will not last long so hurry on over to Amy's website here to grab one.

Long time GelaSkin collaborator WKY has a cool new resin figure featuring his latest character the Monstre De Marais in various versions. The "MDM" as we'll call him, is hand poured and hand cast from resin and you can pick him up in a Rainbow Candyman or Jurassic Park version.

 

Via Vinyl Pulse.

Last Rites Gallery has a show debuting April 5th called "Transgression" featuring recent GelaSkin artist Travis Louie amongst a slew of others including heavyweight macabre don, H.R. Giger. Awesome.