Stanley Donwood Opening Night Photos

photography by Patrick Kawahara

Stanley Donwood - OVERNORMAL @ FIFTY24SF VIDEO UP NOW

via Upper Playground

THE OVER NORMAL NEWSPAPER, BY STANLEY DONWOOD

If you are going to be headed to the Over Normal exhibit in San Francisco, starring Stanley Donwood and a sound installation by Donwood and John Matthias, then you are going to get the physical copy of the Over Normal Newspaper, a nice newsprint pamphlet made in conjunction with the FIFTY24SF show.

But if you happen to live in, let us say, Plymouth, England, then you need to go to SlowlyDownward.com and download the PDF so you can experience it like us who sit in the gallery.

The preparation of Stanley Donwood's "Over Normal" exhibition at FIFTY24SF Gallery

All images will be available in the "Over Normal" newspaper, to be given at the FIFTY24SF Gallery from September 2nd through October 27th, 2010. All images provided by Stanley Donwood, exhibiting artist.

“YOU CAN’T WIN” SAN FRANCISCO TO PORTLAND – DAY 3-4

A new update from PEZ and Joshua Blank on their route to their FIFTY24PDX show on September 2nd via Upper Playground:

After we arrived in Eugene the first place for food we found was called Big Apple supper market in this photo you could see our bikes parked outside. We feasted on 2 dollar sandwiches which where huge, I had pastrami and Pez had turkey and provolone. We met another back packer who told us that we should find a place to stay on couchsurfing.com. However, we decided to start heading north of the city to find a place to camp. With out a map we were spun around and met a nice couple that gave us directions to a campsite and a route with which to begin out journey.

The place we camped was filled with scary looking biker couples and people in RV’s. We set up our small one-person tent and where the only cyclists at that site. Our tent was missing some essential parts but we improvised with branches torn from trees and twigs found on the ground. It was hot, even at night and sleep was less then replenishing. We woke late in the day around 10 and it was already getting hot. We posted some records, and explored the wooded area.

This is Steven Nicolas. He has the worst case of a rare disease, in which his body is filled with lethal neuro toxins. He had lived in San Francisco briefly but could die from touching just about anything. He really likes rock music and claims to have a computer file of it that you could spend your whole life listening to and never hear anything. We tried to give him a zine but he refused to touch it.

We began our journey North in the scorching heat.

The first town we arrived in was called Harrisburg, small towns in the middle of what seemed to be know where. This tattoo “No Worries” belonged to our friend the Phil the Leprechaun. He offered for us to come eat at his house but instead brought us to Harrisburg Skate Park.

Yeeeeeeeee, Skate or Die

This is what the other people in Harrisburg do for fun.

We took 99E north many miles in the scorching heat until we found this nice little bridge to rest under. There is a record there; if you find it and bring it to our show, we will give you a hug.

Our Next rest was in Halsey, because it was just too hot to ride. They are where some hicks dressed all in digital Camo, and milkshakes. There was no bike lane at this point and many trucks on the road. Therefore, we decided to detour east toward I,5.

The heat was killing us, literally, before I,5 we found a nice little creek covered in trees and stopped there for a few hours while the heat dissipated. While there, a biker couple appeared in yellow raft. They where searching for precious stones and petrified wood in the bottom of the lake. They hung out with us for a while and taught us about the stones they where searching for. They also gave us instructions on the best way to get to our next destination, Albany. Reminder there are records in this creek get hugs.

As we arrived in the southern end of Albany we stopped at a friendly truck stop dinner. Tired from riding in the heat and with night on the horizon, we started planning a place to camp. These fantastic hick truckers told us that we should ask a church if we could camp on their property.

This is the church that we stayed at, I walked in and asked the priest if we could stay in our lawn and him and his army of nuns said that they would have no problem with it. We slept as the sun was still going down. In the middle of the night, I awoke to two wild dogs sniffing around us. I yelled and shined my Cell phone light at them and they ran. It was very magical, they where like ghosts in the night.

We awoke as the sun was coming up, and rode in the cool morning light 29 miles to Salem, mostly on the highway. Today the weather is 20% cooler. It was hectic riding on the highway but we where determined to cover some ground. We arrived in south Salem at 10 AM.

Our breakfast at Mc Donald’s consisted of bacon egg and cheese Mc Griddle’s, three hash browns, coffee and coke. This place was a meeting place for old folks who where offended by the way we smelled. This was not your ordinary Mickey Deez.

Salem is weird.

To be continued………

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

Planes, Trains and Bicycles- YOU CAN'T WIN Tour

Last night, on a platform in Emeryville, California, Upper Playground said goodbye to PEZ and Joshua Blank as they embarked on a train and bicycle trip to Portland, Oregon, ending in a new “You Can’t Win” show at FIFTY24PDX Gallery opening September 2nd. So the show is going on a tour, with the FIFTY24SF Gallery in SF show coming down tomorrow.

PEZ and Josh are on the train now headed to the south or Oregon, and then on their bikes for the rest of the excursion. (They fly home, hence the “Planes” reference in the title).

If you live in Oregon and want to say hi, get on the side of the road and wave as they bike by… don’t scare them, they are on a mission. Or maybe just said a hello via Facebook?

Stay tuned to UpperPlayground.com for daily updates from the PEZ and Joshua Blank “You Can’t Win” SF to PDX tour…

Stanley Donwood Show on Pitchfork

Getting excited for the Stanley Donwood Exhibition September 2nd. Pitchfork has a nice mention of the show here

Sunday Adventures in San Francisco

Photos by Joshua Blank

Baker Beach

The End of the World

7Eleven Hot Dog outside of Mollusk surf shop

Gordo Burrito

The Outer Richmond

The Citrus Report Office

Jason Jaworski

Jason Jaworski, Pez, Amanda, Charlotte, Andrew, Andrew's friend from NYC and Evan

Matt Gonzalez, Evan Pricco, Jason Jaworski

Photos from The Lost Ones Opening at FIFTY24MX Gallery

Photos courtesy of TheCityLovesYou.com

THE LOST ONES – FIFTY24 MEXICO GALLERY – FEATURING THE DATE FARMERS, SHEPARD FAIREY, RETNA AND MORE

Right now in Mexico City, something big is brewing.  Big.  Marsea Goldberg from New Image Art in Los Angeles is visiting Mexico City as the guest curator for “The Lost Ones” collective show in FIFTY24MX Gallery.  Marsea has been the catalyst behind the launching some of our favorite careers, and for “The Lost Ones” has gathered works by Tim Biskup, Gary Baseman, Shepard Fairey,  Matt Furie, Richard Colman, Date Farmers, Neckface, Kime Buzelli, Judith Supine, Retna, Cleon Peterson, Herbert Baglione and Miss Bug to be a part of it.

The opening reception will occur on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 6:00PM and will run until October 16th.

The Citrus Report Open Office Installation

The Citrus Report

The Citrus Report Office Opening Tomorrow

Today, it takes a machine of one to facilitate information. One man/woman. A computer. A hero. A complete disregard to time and tradition. A indifference to accuracy. A celebration and performance of individual glory. Our evolution has depended on it.

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

YOU CAN'T WIN: PEZ and Joshua Blank Video Preview

Opening this Friday at FIFTY24SF . . .

Pez & Joshua Blank, the set-up

See the rest of the Pez and Joshua Blank shots at The Citrus Report... show opens next Friday, August 6.

Photos from last Friday night's "Henceforth and Whatnot" film night @ FIFTY24SF

We had the closing party for Porous Walker's group show and the film showings of “Henceforth and Whatnot” with Jim Dirschberger & Rinee Shah, who are right up there, looking good, last Friday night. We got our camera all unloaded and loaded up here this morning...

Jay Howell has worked with both Jim and Rinee, and his work was on the wall to prove it...

Rinee's music video that she directed...

People

More people

This dude was fresh... drinking beer out of a flask...

Writer/poet Jeff Rix, artist in the Porous Walker group show/poet Kristin Farr, and beer flask drinker guy.

Plock baby.

IMG_6000

Kelly Tunstall and said baby.

Ferris Plock had a video with Jim and Rinee on rotation all night. He made this face every time he watched his short film.

Kristin Farr, who writes for Juxtapoz, Evan Pricco, who manages Juxtapoz, share a moment and discuss what we can only assume was contemporary eyewear.

Thank you to everyone who came out.

Past Exhibiting Artist, RETNA one day installation unveiling tonight

For Rivera & Rivera's last exhibition in that space, they are unveiling Retna's new floor-to-ceiling piece

via Upper Playground

Alex Pardee at Comic Con 2010

Alex Pardee gives us a full update on his blog about Comic Con and his art/design work on the movie Sucker Punch but here are some of his pics from the event.

Signing some Sucker Punch posters at the Zerofriends Booth.

Shirt-hugs.

From left to right: Jaime Chung, Emily Browning, Me, Vanessa Hudgens, Carla Gugino, Jena Malone & Zack Snyder.

and the Sucker Punch Trailer