London Miles Gallery is one of the UK’s leading contemporary art galleries. Specializing in surrealist, pop, lowbrow and illustration, the gallery prides itself on unearthing and nurturing new emerging talent. London Miles, in the city’s arts rich West London, has been open since April 2009 and staging impressive solo and group shows since their inception, including July’s Thinkspace curated “The Next Generation” exhibit that featured a veritable who’s who of contemporary art.

Opening this Friday, September 10th, London Miles has put together yet another compelling group show, this time focused on artists from their homeland. “Made in Britain” will feature work from some of the UK’s hottest young talents. Each artist has created a 24″x24″ piece in their own style reflecting on something uniquely British. Artists were encouraged to draw upon “a British tradition, iconic figure or historical memory of theirs.” London Miles has done a good job with their roster, including an interesting blend of styles and techniques. Featured artists include realist figurative painter Paul Sontag, street artists Inkie and Ink Fetish, and mixed media artists like Ben Jensen and Maddy Sargent.

Opening reception will be held at London Miles’ Westbourne Studios location from 7-11 PM. While there be sure to check out their concurrently opening exhibition “Visual Splendor” a solo show from UK pattern artist David Marsh aka Mesh 137, whose vibrant street art led him indoors to a growing gallery career.

London Miles Gallery
Westbourne Studios. 242 Acklam road.
Unit 303. London. W10 5JJ
info@londonmiles.com
phone: (44) 020 3170 8618

Opening this week at Together Gallery in the Alberta Arts District of Portland, OR is a collaborative group show entitled “Elemental.” The show features about 50 new works by artists Yellena James, Jill Bliss, Betsy Walton and Aaron and Ayumi Piland (APAK). The pieces in the show are not individually created, but rather each piece is worked on by all or most of the artists in various ways, creating a beautiful harmony out of the combined skills of a small group of complimentary but divergent talents. All Portland-based artists who are immensely successful in their own individual careers, the group obviously worked well together, and the result is a visual portal into a fantastical landscape of color, line and imagination. Of the images in this post the image on the left of both pairs is a collaborative work while the images on the right represent the individual styles of Yellena James, Jill Bliss and Betsy Walton respectively (Sorry APAK! I’m addicted to symmetry!).

Yellena James, originally from Sarajevo, is an illustrator with an unforgettable style. Her pen and ink illustrations have a delicately beautiful organic quality. Mostly done on a small scale, the level of detail in her work is almost unbelievable, particularly when seen in person. Her work creates tiny environments that the viewer is invited into, and rarely wants to leave. Originally hailing from California, Jill Bliss makes art and useful objects from a variety of materials. Creating work that range from tender, nature-inspired illustration to jewelry, note cards and terrariums, the multi-talented artist has an impressive CV of exhibitions. Her fine art style is hallmarked by the use of a muted palette and a graceful, stippled technique. Kansas native Betsy Walton has an easily recognizable painting style informed by folk art, geometric abstraction and Byzantine icon paintings. She has widely shown her intricate, imaginative paintings in galleries across the nation, while simultaneously maintaining a successful commercial illustration career (in fact all of the artists in the show have an impressive list of commercial clients). Aaron and Ayumi Piland, collectively known as APAK, are a husband and wife illustration team who create adorable illustrations together. Accustomed to working collaboratively, Aaron and Ayumi’s style of populating surreal environments with benevolent beings, is a perfect clean up batter for the illustration team that was formed for this show.

An experiment in artistic communication this show is not to be missed. Opening reception will be held at Together Gallery Thursday July 29th, from 6 until late, as part of the Alberta Arts District Last Thursday art walk. See you there!

One need only scan the daily newspaper to see images of grotesque atrocities and violence on a grand scale. It might seem logical that as an audience we would be over saturated with these types of images. Yet many of us are still morbidly attracted to images of suffering, particularly those that implicate us in the scenario, forcing a sense of responsibility and interaction. On a superficial level it feeds the part of our brain that has been overexercised by the proliferation of crime shows on television, sensationalistic journalism and an FCC that would show a million virgins graphically decapitated before it would show a single one of their breasts. In other words, the blood thirsty side. But on a deeper level it is a sensory way for us to experience the kind of chaos, fear and hopelessness that millions of other people live on a day to day basis, albeit at a safe distance. It is a way for us to feel connected to the whole of humanity in a society where these kinds of realities are generally far enough away as to seem dream-like. While many contemporary artists make a practice of creating images that address these harsher truths, few artists do so with the style, ingenuity and dark humor that Jason Hernandez achieves. His historicizing paintings and drawings manage to be in your face without causing the viewer to look away, and as a result a message can be transmitted that is not always easily digestible.

Jason Hernandez was born in Lakewood, California in 1983. He attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he got a BFA in illustration. Since graduating Hernandez has combined his knowledge of line, form and space with a fascination with Medieval art and Flemish painting of the 14th and 15th century. The result is a contemporary mash up of old school techniques with imagery pulled from the right-now. Hernandez works in multiple types of media. He does intricate drawings on paper, mostly executed in black, white and red. These images have less complicated compositions than his large scale paintings, but lack none of the bite or Baroque detail. Often incorporating religious and eschatological themes into his work, Hernandez plants these non-secular elements in a seemingly godless American landscape, all with his signature sense of wit. In I Will Either Find a Way or Make My Own a lank haired Jesus stands, skateboard in hand and donning an I Heart L.A. shirt, flipping a peace sign to awe-struck security guards who grovel at his feet. In Brother Memo’s Brief Moment a distinctly Medieval monk paints a panel of a rocket ship launching into space, while listening to an iPod, drinking a bottle of moonshine and sitting next to a copy of “A Brief History of Time,” a reference to the artist’s interest in cosmology.

Hernandez’s paintings, when viewed from a distance, could easily be mistaken for works of a long ago century. Not only does he expound on antiquated themes of heaven and hell, the nature of the soul, and the pursuit of moral righteousness (see The Quest for Control), Hernandez employs techniques straight from the Middle Ages. One of these techniques is gold leafing, which the artist describes as “a grueling process,” due to the delicate nature of the material. He often carves his wood panels into Gothic shapes, and assembles multi-panel works. His triptych The 7 Sins has all the horrific beauty of Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights but combines it with a dark sense of humor. He skillfully interprets the biblical notions of sin in a modern fashion, highlighting variations on the themes that we ourselves (or at least our neighbors) are likely guilty of. Hernandez’s skill is evident and has earned him a growing reputation. He had his first solo show at Black Maria gallery last month, an event that will surely drawn more attention to this deserving artist. Watch for more big things to come from this California-based illustrator.

The french rococo pattern inspired backgrounds might make you think of renaissance aritsts ; In fact, Kehinde Wiley paints like a renaissance artist while also referencing the poses of characters painted by the old masters. Like the old masters paintings, Kehinde Wiley’s subjects are radiating with power, spirituality, and elegance in the larger than life paintings.

However, unlike the old masters, Kehinde is working in a contemporary world that is run by hip hop culture and its imagery. Kehinde’s work shows the urban black male as the protagonist in our culture. An unsung hero that is now given the same heroic portraiture seen in many art history text books. Kehinde explains why he paints this demographic, “often times when i go to museums around the world, most of the pictures on the wall don’t look like me.”

His models are found in the streets of neighborhoods like Harlem, where he currently resides, or South Los Angeles, where he is from. After finding a model, they are brought to his studio where they are shown a selection of art history books and are asked to choose a painting that speaks to them. A painting that they would like to resemble them. Kehinde then gets to work on immortalizing his model on the canvas. His paintings tackle the issues of race, religion, sexuality head on – no holds barred.

Kehinde Wiley received his MFA from Yale University in 2001. His work has shown at Deitch Projects and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. To see more of Kehinde Wiley’s work please go to his website at www.kehindewiley.com

A friend recently forwarded Mike Mitchells work to me. Mike Mitchell who studied Illustration at the American Academy of Arts in Chicago, is a very skilled artist and illustrator who infuses his pieces with humor and satire. He describes his work as “cute and creepy, pop culture influenced and thought provoking”

His own rendition of the Super Nintendo Super Mario World character shows exactly that. Mike, who has always hated the Yoshi design, but appreciated him as a gameplay element, decided to make his own version of the characters. Mario became a more gritty character. Yoshi became more intimidating and has some cool new Nike kicks to boot.

There is still more behind his concepts. The lighting on his characters bring them into the realm of reality. His backgrounds are often rich textures or intricate patterns. You can see more of mike’s work at his website www.sirmikeofmitchell.com or by clicking here.Also, Mike sells prints and t shirts of his work on his etsy shop here.