The “Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International” exhibit in Pittsburgh includes SF local, Barry McGee. McGee’s installation garnered praise from New York Times writer Roberta Smith who describes the work as “vibrant” in a recent article. That praise is notable since she seems to be sour about most of the other work in the show.

I also stumbled upon a batch of photos of the installation (in progress & complete) uploaded by the museum. Be sure to check out the full set here.

“Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International” continues through Jan. 11 at the Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh.

via: The World’s Best Ever
photos via flickr: ci08lifeonmars

Alex Kopps (aka Christopher Ruess) will be releasing a surf film in the Fall of 2008. Check out the trailer at the site.

Check out some of Alex’s artwork from his show at New Image Art Gallery from Nov 2007.

• Displacement: A Film by Alex Kopps

The Laguna Beach Art Museum will be hosting an exhibition entitled ‘In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor‘ from June 22 - Oct 5, 2008.

In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor is an exhibition that presents the work of 150 artists and posits that there has been a huge, but unacknowledged art movement taking place in this country for the last 40 years. Since 1994, this ground swelling of lowbrow, surrealistic, pop, figurative, narrative work has coalesced and found a voice in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine published in San Francisco.

The show is curated by Meg Linton. Mark Murphy has been chosen to design and produce the full-color catalogue along with Ginko Press featuring essays created by by the curator and Laguna Art Museum director Bolton Colburn.

Artists include: Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Tiffany Bozic, Dalek, Ron English, Neck Face, Shepard Fairey, Phil Frost, Os Gemeos, Doze Green, Jim Houser, Matt Leines, Barry McGee, Takashi Murakami, Mark Ryden, Andrew Schoultz, Joe Sorren, Jeff Soto, Swoon.

This show is going to be epic.

Tiffany Bozic has a solo show entitled “Bedtime Stories” which opens in L.A. at Kinsey/Desforges on Sat, May 24 with a reception from 6-9pm, and continuing through June 21.

From the press release … “A careful observer of the natural world, Tiffany Bozic’s ability to capture and translate the graceful, complex and organic order of her surroundings—at times allegorically—remains one of the most salient aspects of her work. “Bedtime Stories represents a celebration of life’s hardships and achievements,” Bozic says. “I am fascinated with the beautiful intricacies and evolution of life [and] I have always been drawn towards finding some kind of common thread or language that binds us to and separates us from nature and each other.””

I’ve gotten a sneak peek of some of the paintings in the show, and the work is amazing … lots of bird paintings. Not to be missed.

my love for you is a stampede of horses has a nice interview with Tiffany.

One of my favorite artists, Josh Keyes, has just posted a sneak peek of some of the paintings for his forthcoming show at Joshua Liner Gallery in New York which opens on June 21.

Take a peek here.

Congrats to local uber art site fecalface.com for landing on the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle’s entertainment section this past Sunday.

In the feature story, Fecal Face’s founder John Trippe recounts how the site spawned from a homemade black-and-white zine of the same name that he started in 1998.

In separate articles Trippe name checks 5 top artists (Tiffany Bozic, Alexis Mackenzie, Andrew Schoultz, Monica Canilao, Tara Foley) and 5 top galleries (Adobe Book Backroom Gallery, The Luggage Store, Needles and Pens, Jack Hanley, Fifty24SF).

• Fecal Face Dot Gallery Thrives in S.F.
• Fecal Face Founder picks top 5 artists
• Fecal Face names top 5 galleries
• Videos: The Fecal Founder, The Fecal Pals, Fecal Art Show

Park Life, a retail and gallery space located in the Inner Richmond, will be unveiling a new sign above their store on Fri, May 9. The sign is a collaboration between local San Francisco artists Andrew Schoultz and Jason Jagel.

The sign took a little bit more time to complete than expected due to red tape, bad  weather and broken bones, but the end result looks pretty spectacular.

The April issue of ArtForum has an article about Barry McGee, which notes how his body of work infiltrates both the street and the auction houses. The article recounts the numerous thefts that have occurred to Barry’s work from public commissions to museum installations, the early eBay sales which surpassed dealer prices, and how sales of his work through multiple channels defies the traditional art market:

Just as his works course through networks of display and exchange that circumvent normal transactions, the artist begins with a near-Cagean openness. He maintains his more illicit engagements while working informally with a group of dealers (rather than with just one or two), as well as with nonprofit and public spaces, seeming to appreciate the risk that the work can end up on eBay, in an abandoned building, or at Art Basel. As McGee says, “I like that something could potentially sell anywhere, at any given place. For better or worse, I used to like that chaotic nature of it, too. Someone could buy it from me, or on a street corner, or from Jeffrey [Deitch], or someone else.” That kind of expansive traffic “challenges the order of the art market,” says Deitch.

Jonathan Levine Gallery has a new Doze Green print available at their online store.

‘Taking Liberty’ is available for $200. It is a signed and numbered edition of 150, giclee printed on Vellum Bristol paper. The paper size is 22 x 29.25 inches and the image size is 20 x 27 inches.