EVENT: "Swimmin In The Playground" Group Show Opening -Curated by SWIM TEAM-

FIFTY24SF Gallery is pleased to present ‘Swimmin’ In The Playground,’ the latest group exhibition from SWIM Team curated by its youthful duo, Yarrow Slaps and Auguste Somers. After two highly successful and critically acclaimed shows at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles, SWIM Team backstrokes into the Bay Area with an opening reception at FIFTY24SF GALLERY on Saturday, May 21st from 7 - 10pm in San Francisco’s Lower Haight. The exhibition features an unique array of dynamic and captivating artwork that, as the curators declare, "will make you excited for art again." The featured artists were chosen from a range of criteria prioritizing artist locality, subject matter and resonance within the collective subconscious of the group as a whole.

The show features an assortment of 24 Bay Area artists, six select LA-based artists and six SWIM Team all-stars from various locations to round things out. The group operates within a wide-range of mediums, techniques and career levels. From Tracey Snelling’s scale model neighborhoods to Matt Gonzales’ assembled collages. Justin Hager, Yarrow Slaps and Michelle Guintu’s often humorous interpretations of pop culture to Jason Jägel's mixed media paintings created from C-prints raided from his photographer wife’s studio trash bin.  Kristen Liu-Wong’s otherworldly erotic neon-pastel clad illustrations will certainly pique some eyebrows as will Sean Newport’s mesmerizing geometric wood assemblages. There are so many spectacular artists and so much great work to share with you, we barely know where to start. Guess you're going to have to come check it out for yourself.

Featured Artists:

Alex Hartong

Angela Dalinger

Anne Regan

Ace West

Auguste Somers

Billy Kheel

Chad Hasegawa

Don't Fret

Dave Schubert

Dustin Fosnot

Ferris Plock

Frohawk TwoFeathers

Jason Jägel

Jonathan Mannion

Justin Hager

Kristen Liu-Wong

Lucila Orengo

Marc Etherington

Marie Englesvold

Matt Gonzalez

Meegan Barnes

Michelle Guintu

Monica Canilao

Monica Kimgarza

Muzae Sesay

Nathan McKee

Nome Edonna

Rabbit Garcia

Rich Fonseca

Rich Jacobs

Rye Purvis

Sean Newport

Telopa Treloky

Tracey Snelling

Xara Thustra

Yarrow Slaps

Brazilian Duo, Bicicleta Sem Freio's First US Solo Show at Fifty24SF Gallery, San Francisco

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Fifty24SF Gallery in association with Upper Playground and JUSTKIDS is proud to present “This Is Not A Poster” by Brazilian duo, Bicicleta Sem Freio, opening May 1st 2015.  The exhibition at Fifty24SF Gallery in San Francisco will be their first solo show in the United States.

Recognized worldwide for their expressive line work and warm, vibrant color schemes, the multi talented Brazilian illustrators and muralists, Douglas de Castro and Renato Perreira will showcase original work inspired by their love of Poster Art.

Over the past decade, Bicicleta Sem Freio has been pursued to realize posters for Vampire Weekend, Jurassic 5, Kings of Leon and Beck among many others, and have produced custom work for some of the best musical talents in the industry.  In continuation of their creative output inspired by music, the artists aim to playfully pay visual homage to the Art of music posters by presenting a body of work for fictitious bands and themes.

“The essential idea is that we love posters and we past almost 10 years doing it for local bands and festivals and we wanted to do a show with fake posters with no info, the letterings are only ornamental and don’t mean anything” -BSF

Bicicleta Sem Freio’s signature style, which draws references from their roots in music, Brazilian culture, their love for 80s and pop culture iconography, have been emerging on large-scale public installations all over the world, including one of the largest artist mural in Downtown, Los Angeles just painted last year.

In conjunction to their first ever show in the United States, a second mural is planned for Bicicleta Sem Freio in San Francisco, with more information to be announced soon via Upper Playground.

Exhibition: May 1st – June 15th, 2015

Opening: May 1st, 2015 – 7pm, Artists in Attendance

Fifty24SF Gallery
218 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94117

For art inquires please contact: gallery@fifty24SF.com

For upcoming details about the show please follow: @fifty24SFgallery, @justkidsofficial, @upperplayground, @bicicletasemfreio

OPENING NIGHT PHOTOS FROM SAM FLORES "LION AND THE LAMB"

Ericailcane Day 1 @ Fifty24SF Gallery

FIFTY24SF Gallery presents 'We Were Living in the Woods' new work by Erica il Cane

FIFTY24SF Gallery, in association with Upper Playground, is pleased to present a solo

exhibition by Italian street muralist and fine artist, Erica il Cane, entitled, We Were Living

in the Woods. The exhibition will be the second solo show that Erica has held in the United

States.

As a major contributor to an increasingly progressive and elaborate street art and mural

movement occurring in Europe over the past 5 years, Erica il Cane (translating to “Eric

the Dog”) gained international recognition for his anthropomorphic building-sized animal

murals throughout Italy and the continent. With fellow contemporaries Blu, Sam3, Escif,

and San, Erica’s large-scale murals have been viewed as fine art done within the public’s

view. We Were Living in the Woods will feature works on paper and on-site installations.

Born and studied in Bologna, Italy, Erica’s evolution to gallery work has seen depictions of

animals in unique, human situations rendered in Victorian-like style illustrations, etchings,

and short animated films. The art is often described as imagery from a dark fairy tale,

in which animals are shown within the darkness of human nature, focusing on themes

of alienation, satire, existentialism. Both gallery and mural work has also been hailed as

influential works advocating vegetarianism and animal rights.

Erica il Cane has shown throughout Europe, including Lazarides Gallery, Banksy’s Santa’s

Ghetto, the Fame Festival, and gallery shows in Milan, Rome, London, and Barcelona. He has

also shown in Los Angeles and Chicago.

We Were Living in the Woods

will run from November 11th – December 30th, with an

opening reception on Thursday, November 11th, from 7:30PM – 10:00PM.

STANLEY DONWOOD AT FIFTY24SF GALLERY NEXT WEEK

It’s almost upon us, and the excitement is brewing here for Stanley Donwood’s first ever US based show – and it’s happening in San Francisco.  The opening reception is going to occur on Thursday, September 2nd at 7:30pm, and after seeing some of the work in person, it’s going to be pretty epic.  Here’s the information about the show below, see you there:

Fifty24SF Gallery presents “Over Normal”- a solo exhibition by Stanley Donwood and his first ever showing in the United States.

When thinking of iconic imagery in music from the last 20 years, Stanley Donwood’s work with Radiohead invariably comes to mind – and for good reason.  Where Radiohead’s music stretched the auditory horizons and painted musical sceneries of mans place in the modern world, Donwood’s imagery and packaging forced us to face the gravity of the music from the minute the album hit our hands; and by creating cryptic, academic and (at times) dystopian layouts, the albums themselves became as striking and relevant as the music they contained.

Although Stanley Donwood generally avoids the grandeur of media and would prefer to be undersold, to speak only in terms of his work with Radiohead would be a disservice. From his exhibitions of intricate etchings at Lazarides Gallery in London, to the vibrant works that made up his show at Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona, Donwood’s gallery work has consistently mixed personal and political emotions with modesty and humor.

For “Over Normal”, the catalyst for the large works featured in the show is in Los Angeles, where Stanley began to notice (with equal parts amazement and distress) that the advertisements bombarding him on the multilane highways were made of seven basic colors, immediately grabbing viewers’ attention in a primal way.  More recently, Stanley noticed a parallel between the use of those colors and an influx of spam emails that promised everything from more fruitful sex lives, to cheap foreclosed properties at the expense of someone else’s misery. The word’s that were used in the emails were formatted in the same fundamental way as color in the advertisement’s had been used: to grab unconscious attention and tell a story without the viewer knowing it.  Marrying the immediate words used in these emails with the attractive and distressing colors of the advertisements, Stanley has produced a line of seven vibrant, original pieces for this exhibition.

Stanley has also produced a 12 page newspaper to accompany the show, this explains how he came about putting together a neuron firing sound installation in an artificial neural network which is also featured in the show and is entitled ‘The Overnormaliser’.

“Over Normal” will run from September 2nd – October 27th with an opening reception occurring on September 2nd from 7:30PM – 10:00PM at FIFTY24SF Gallery

YOU CAN'T WIN: PEZ + JOSH BLANK OPENING NIGHT PHOTOS

Lucy McLauchlan's "Together" Opens at Lazarides Gallery Friday

Lucy McLauchlan at Lazarides Gallery

A little about Sfaustina

Sfaustina is in the gallery right now, he also runs Bloodwars, and is the artistic director for Coppola and Zoetrope Magazine, he may also be a street artist.

Amanda Lopez CaliLove at Free Gold Watch

Photo from The Flop Box

CaliLOVE: Behind The Photo Shoot from Amanda Martinez on Vimeo.

Erica il Cane Coming November to FIFTY24SF Gallery

Checkout their work at "Breakin' the Wall":

Dem/Ericailcane/Jiem/Vova Vorotniov / Breaking the Wall/ Outofsth.org from Zbiok on Vimeo.

The artists invited to participate in “Breakin’ the Wall” are prominent representatives world urban art: Mudwig (Bristol), Dem (Milan), Fefe Telavera (San Paulo/Madrid), Vova Vorotniov (Kiev), Escif (Valencia), Erica Il Cane (Bologna), Jiem (Lille), SickBoy (London) and Zosen (Barcelona). Their murals will reflect on the identity and existence of the post-1989 generation, as well as the celebrated anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even though there was no concrete structure to pull down in Wrocław’s history, it is clear that there will be lots of walls to get rid of in the future. Just as the Berliners struggle with the demons of their history, the residents of Wrocław, marked with their own tempestuous past, will have to face problems to solve as well. World War Two and the post-war times had a powerful impact on the mentality of its citizens. What was – and still is – the city we live in? For young people, Wrocław is a blank sheet – they see the burden of its history as a challenge rather than a liability. If our life is conditioned by the past of the place we live in, then it’s the capital of Lower Silesia that appears to be a perfect place for such a confrontation.

Curators: Joanna Stembalska and Sławek ZBK Czajkowski

Porous Walker at FIFTY24SF - The Opening Night Photos

jeremy fish portrait

photos courtesy of Meighan O'Toole

more at My Love For You

The real opening night interview with FIFTY24SF Gallery resident artist, Mr Porous Walker

THE CITRUS REPORT INTERVIEW

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR COMING OUT TONIGHT!

Greg "Craola" Simkins: Inside the Outside at Joshua Liner Gallery

Greg "Craola" Simkins' Inside the Outside opens at Joshua Liner Gallery this Saturday.

Hush at Fifty24SF Gallery

"VEILED BEAUTY" Veiled Beauty is a solo exhibition by Hush, a graphic designer and illustrator from the U.K. Hush is an urban artist who worked in Hong Kong for a number of years as a graphic designer/illustrator before returning to the UK. His popularity is soaring, with sell out shows in London and Los Angeles, along with high profile street pieces, sold out print runs and collaborations. Influenced by various facets of modern culture, he is inspired by graphic-novels, animation, graphic-design, graffiti art, urban art and contemporary painting. He’s known for his portrayal of female Manga characters juxtaposed with his mixed media layering techniques utilizing screen print, spray paint and multi-levels of paper. The confluence of East meets West, destruction meets construction, and classic versus contemporary style, all leave the viewer feeling the same conflicts and energy that his work embodies.Hush has worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and art director in London, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Hong Kong where he worked for a few of the largest toy companies in the world. His work has been featured in numerous selected exhibitions in London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

Greg "Craola" Simkins

“Seeing Things” Simkins began drawing at an early age and started doing graffiti under name Craola. Graffiti art became his impetus for creating and gave him the confidence to paint large works. In addition, it taught him perspective, color theory and further developed artistic skills, which later translated into his work with acrylics. His outlandish dreamt of characters are part of a fantasy sideshow, inspired by elements from pop culture, the old masters, nature, carnival kitsch and most importantly, a warped imagination. It is the careful weaving of these elements that makes Greg Simkins a sought after surrealist painter today.

Simkins’ work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions and has successfully sold out five solo exhibitions. His art is seen in a wide variety of industries from clothing to video games and has also come to life in the form of toys. His client/collaboration list includes Disney, Mattel, Upper Playground, Juxtapoz, To Die For, Vans, Converse, AFI, Saosin, Gym Class Heroes, Pennywise, STRANGEco, Ningyoushi, Kid Robot, Zero Friends, Epitaph, Dark Horse, Iron Fist and Pulse International.