Urban art is often seen as something that is quickly executed before the artists vanishes back into the night and the piece is discovered the following morning. Jorge Rodriguez Gerada is a pioneer of both urban art and culture jamming. His approach, however, is many things but swift. Jorge Rodriguez Gerada investigates, researches and delivers with precision, a process that can often time last several weeks. His larger than life charcoal portraits explore the issues of identity. As a Cuban-American living in Barcelona, Spain, he does not fit into any of the groups that society tends to dichotomize immigrants into. Jorge questions issues of his own identity and uses that investigation as a catalyst for creating masterpieces.

The use of charcoal as a material is a strategic choice. Jorge wants the portrait to fade away with rain and wind. Like memories of people tend to fade, so do his images. The images he draws are not celebrities. Not in the original meaning of the word, anyway. He seeks to give people in the community their “Warhol 15 minutes of fame.” In that respect, the people he paints are local celebrities -- they are people who tell an interesting story of the development and circumstances in that particular community.

Despite its technical prowess, the actual drawing is not the artwork. Instead, the art is found in the entire process: searching for the model, planning, executing, responding to mother nature. His pieces are striking from the moment they are done until they are just ghosts looking over the city.

One artist that has consistently caught my attention is Monica Canilao, a young Oakland based artist who studied Illustration at California College of Arts and Crafts.

Monica’s art work is incredibly nostalgic of childhood fantasies. She has had a packed year since her Feral show in which she collaborated with Swoon. This coming year is looking equally as exciting for Monica. In February she has a show at Galeria de la Raza, an art gallery whose mission is to “foster public awareness and appreciation of Chicano/Latino art and Culture. Galeria de la Raza is located on 24th Street in the Mission District in San Francisco, CA.

At the end of the month her work will be featured at “Art of This Gallery” in Minneapolis, Minnesota along with the Hardland/Heartland collective. I am very excited about this combination of “scavenger artists.” Artist who make art from found and recycled objects.

You can see more of her work at www.monicacanilao.com

Unfortunately, I missed Miami art basel last week. However, I got news of a great Date Farmers opening at New Image Art recently.

The Date Farmers are a small collective with the work of Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez. Both Lerma and Ramirez question politics, race, and social issues in their art. Being from a Mexican American background, their art shows a duality of cultures which includes folkloric elements stemming from indigenous people to modern Californian sub cultures.

My favorite aspect of the Date Farmer’s art is their incessant use of familiar pop iconography. Native Americans in front of Coca Cola signage, and Mickey Mouse in front of the world ‘puto’ (man whore in spanish) are just some of the radical images that the Date Farmers produce.

Some of the images from their “Tell Them Willy Boy was Here” show below.

Many of the artist that have been the focus of our blog have been west coast artists. Lately, my interest has found a shift towards artists, galleries and collectives in the east coast. With the current Miami Art Basel event and some really exciting shows in New York, I decided to visit and write about some of my favorite New York artists and galleries.

A current visit to Stephen Haller Gallery in the Chelsea District proved to be a visually exiting environment where Japanese/American artist Nobu Fukui explores shapes and colors dancing in a graphically interesting, yet gridded composition. His pieces can, at once, be considered pop art as well as something different – a radical expression of childhood dreams. Fukui’s pieces pay homage to traditional Japanese Anime art as well as comic book heroes and heroines from traditionally american series.

His mixed media on canvas pieces incorporate comic book cut outs as well as small plastic balls protruding from the canvas; These balls bring the round shapes out into the third dimension and allow viewers to make a spatial connection to the works.